PhD.

Santiago de Orduña

Universidad Anahuac

Partial Exam

Answer the questions here and return it to me as a word document and save it with your name and
the words“examen parcial” before October 11th.

Some answers may be short but if you elaborate them is better. You can add images or graphics to
your answers. Some of the questions you may find them in internet. Others you will just find them in
the lectures or where exposed in class.

The objective of the exam is for you to learn, not to have a note, so, if you copy is worse than having a
wrong answer and you will fail the exam. Don´t do that to yourself.

Next class, Thursday 13, we will review the answers and may ask you some verbal questions
randomly.

If you have any doubt, you can contact me any by Whatsapp at any time.

1. Quickly describe, in general terms, how and when humans went from Africa to America?

The first humans appeared in Rwanda, Africa, between 200 and 130,000 years ago. These early
peoples were hunters and nomads. During the Stone Age, they crossed an ice-free corridor
through Siberia and western Alaska. This led them to migrate between the Americas, following
their prey and source, first settling in what is now the central region of the United States.

2. What are the Neolithic Revolutions and where they happened around the world?

The Neolithic Revolution took place around 10,000 BC. Due to the sedentary lifestyle of people.
Thus, the first human settlements were established and the first civilizations (Sumerians,
Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chinese and Indians) emerged. All this is the result of
agriculture and livestock. This resulted in a surplus of food and raw materials, which led to trade
and exchange between civilizations. It also leads to population growth and specialization and
division of labor. Some of the world's earliest Neolithic revolutions took place in Central
America, the Andes, Mesopotamia, China, and India.

3. What characterizes all Neolithic Societies in general?

a. Food. Agriculture and livestock and the domestication of plants emerged.
b. Religion. These societies are more consistent with the belief that the world is a sum of
wills, that God is believed to be immanent and that God exists in nature itself.
c. Social. Socially, they are organized to function in communities and societies as a
complex of various interrelated activities for the functioning of society.
 d. Work. Before this point, most people got their food from hunting and gathering, but in
the Neolithic Age, people worked in agriculture, growing crops and domesticating
animals.

4. Where did Neolithic Revolutions happen in the Americas, and which cultures underwent it first?
a. South America. In South America, stable societies like the Incas developed the first
agricultural transformation. Potatoes are harvested in the highlands of Chile. The same
process is happening with cotton and quinoa in Peru.
b. Mesoamerica. The Olmecs appeared in Central America, domesticating the turkey and
cultivating cocoa, paprika, cotton beans, broad beans, corn and tomatoes. Later, the
Mayan, Toltec and Aztec cultures introduced the same mechanisms of cultivation and
domestication.

5. Why do you think Neolithic societies built similar pyramidal structures although they didn´t have
contact with each other.1 Because they try to copy the archetype of the mountain, because in
most civilizations the height and presence of the mountain is geographically and topographically
closer to heaven and created by the gods.

6. Describe what are the main cultural institutions created by the Olmecs and adopted by all other
Mesoamerican nations.
a. Agriculture. They settled in fertile areas near the Gulf of Mexico and grew corn and
beans.
b. Temporality-Calendar. They established the first mesoamerican calendar of 260 days
and a civil calendar de 360 days. It has a time measure system consisting 52 years.
c. Religion. They have two deities that represent a combination of masculine and feminine
qualities and natural elements.
d. Society. Olmec society was built on political concentration based on religion and
heritage. Society is stratified with divine power and nobility, as well as commoners.
e. Architecture. The architecture and construction of the city is based on pyramidal
structures and symmetrical planning. There are also tall structures, etc. The best
examples are San Lorenzo, Tres Zapotes and La Venta.
f. War. The Olmecs waged war to expand trade and obtain resources, primarily using
obsidian weapons and other artifacts at San Lorenzo.
g. Games. They played the ball game with a rubber wall.

7. Why Ritual Sacrifice was so important for the natives of Mesoamerica?

Because it is used and interpreted to pay a debt, because they believe that sacrifices can restore
harmony between man and the universe.

8. What is the meaning of the world “Altepetl” for a town or nation and how were they organized
spatially in general terms.

1
Remember that a platform is an image of the cosmos as conceptualized by the Mesoamerican people, so, each
platform is itself a copy or an image of the cosmos.
 The world that altepetl means comes from everything "water" and tepetl "mountain". It is
inextricably linked to the mountain's ability to absorb clouds and promote rain and moisture. It
consists of cosmological principles. In the center is the ceremonial area formed by the "temple"
or teocalli. It also has a wall that represents the limits of the universe. It also has other auxiliary
buildings for the management of the cult.
9. Which is the typical spatial organization of a Mesoamerican Ritual Precinct.
As said before it was configured by cosmological principles. In the center it was the ritual
precinct formed by a “temple” or teocalli. It also had a surrounding wall representing the limits
of the cosmos. It also had other supporting buildings for the administration of the cults.
The ritual precinct has a division called calpolli that were the social cells around the precinct. It
also contained the calpolco that referred as the ritual precincts of each calpolli that was smaller
to the central ritual precinct. The calpolli was organized around the calpolco (temple and
surrounding wall).

10. What is the significance of a platform or “momoxtli” for the Mesoamerican architecture. 2
momoxtli is a representation of the creative center of the universe, a play on words between life
and death. It is the platform, the representative power of the mountain, which rises and rises in
the universe as an altar for the worship of God. It also makes any structure divine.

11. Remember that a platform is an image of the cosmos as conceptualized by the Mesoamerican
people, so, each platform is itself a copy or an image of the cosmos.

12. Describe how Jhon Utzon reinterpreted a Mesoamerican platform for his project of the Opera of
Sydney. Jhon Utzon reinterprets the Mesoamerican platform, especially from Monte Albán. For
this archaeological site in Oaxaca, the truncated mountain created a separation called a
platform, prompting its appearance because it could have been floating, Utzon said. In modern
terms, Utzon said, Europe's buildings and squares differ from cars because there is no practical
sense of car height. Learning from the Mesoamerican platform would separate the Sydney
Opera House's vehicular and pedestrian flow lines, he said, as the two flow lines are
independent of each other.

2
Remember that a platform is an image of the cosmos as conceptualized by the Mesoamerican people, so, each
platform is itself a copy or an image of the cosmos.