Indigenous Americas, 1000 BCE–1980 CE
What this domain tests
Mesoamerican, Andean, North American, and later Indigenous traditions. Concepts: cosmology and calendrics, axis mundi, sacred geography, urban planning aligned to celestial events, reciprocity and tribute, textile as record, effigy and transformation, and revival/self-determination in modern Indigenous art. Know markers: Olmec colossal heads and were-jaguar; Maya stelae, ballgame, and corbeled vault; Teotihuacan's grid and Pyramids of the Sun and Moon; Aztec Templo Mayor and tlachtli; Inka ashlar masonry, quipu, and terracing; North American mound builders, Southwest pottery, Northwest Coast totemic traditions; modern painters who assert Indigenous identity.
Traps
- Maya vs. Aztec: both Mesoamerican but distinct in time, script, and imperial structure. Don't collapse them.
- Inka quipu is a record-keeping system of knotted cords - not decorative and not a written script in the alphabetic sense.
- Mesoamerican pyramids are stepped platforms for temples, not Egyptian-style smooth-sided tombs.
- Avoid "primitive" framing; use specific function and cosmology.
Rule of thumb
Ask how the object aligns with or enacts cosmology - calendar, cardinal directions, ancestors, or landscape. Alignment is meaning.
Worked example
A stepped platform with a temple on top, aligned to solstice sunrise, is a cosmological and civic center, not a tomb. Function follows ritual and astronomy.