Film Culture Project

The material incorporated in this section is listed with student projects because, although it specifically applies to Mesoamerican empires, it can be adopted and revised for almost any culture/civilization.

The Rise of Mesoamerican Empires:

Teaching about the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas involves making decisions about how best to demonstrate to the students how these well-developed civilizations became as advanced as they did despite the overwhelming environmental obstacles they faced and how their decisions either helped or hindered their survival.

Many teachers turn to videos when it comes to teaching about Mesoamerican civilizations because some very good video sets exist that show the richness and complexity of the pre-Columbian cultures.

Once a teacher has found a good video and then decides to show it, is it best to have the students just watch the video, take notes during the video, or plan on a quiz on the video after it is over? One technique that students seem to like and which leads them to really focus on the film is to go over printed questions before the film and then ask the students to look carefully for evidence during the film so the questions can be answered correctly afterward. Two examples are provided below which serve to encourage both comprehension and post-film discussion as well as to provide a study sheet for later review. The film questions were written to accompany the series Lost Civilizations (Time-Life series, 1995).

The Maya

Maya Timeline
1000 BC	300 BC-AD 250	AD 250-600	AD 600-900	AD 900	AD 900-1500
Rise of Mayan villages	Rise of trading centers	Early classic period	Peak of Mayan cities	Mayan cities deserted	Post Classic Period

Film Questions:

• Where was the Mayan Civilization located in the Americas?

• Describe geographic features of the land of the Mayas.

• What were four characteristics of Mayan cities such as Tikal and Chichen Itza?

• How did the Maya make their living? What crops did they grow?

• Why did scientists believe that Mayans were astronomers? How accurate were the Mayan astronomical calculations?

• What did the Mayans believe about the blood of kings?

• What things caused the Mayas to lose faith in their king's blood power?

• New discoveries often cause historians to change previous interpretations. Evaluate the revisions to Mayan history:

  • Old view?

  • New view?

  • Evidence for new view?

Be sure you know about:

• The Mayan ruins of the Guatemalan jungle

• The Mayan legacies in math, astronomy, and architecture

• Why the Mayans may have abandoned their cities

• The importance of recent scholarship in decoding the Mayan hieroglyphs

The Inca

Inca Timeline
1000 BC	AD 100	AD 500	AD 650-800	AD 1200s	AD 1470	AD 1531
Rise of Moche in North	Rise of Nazca in South	Height of Moche and Nazca	Decline of Moche and  Nazca	Rise of Inca	Height of Inca Empire	Pizarro conquers Inca people following capture of Atahualpa

Film Questions:

• Where are the Andes Mountains located?

• What two important civilizations preceded the rise of the Inca?

• What were the most important features of the Moche? The Nazca?

• The Andean environment included the steep Andeas Mountains, the dry Atacama Desert, and the dense western edge of the Amazon rainforest. How did the people adapt to this harsh and diverse environment?

  • human physical adaptation?

  • adapting farming technologies?

  • types of crops?

• How did the Inca king hold his empire together?

• On what were Incan religious beliefs based?

• What were technological and military achievements of the Inca?

• Why did the Inca not invent a written language?

• Why did the Inca not build wheeled carts?

• What connection existed between the Inca King to the Sun?

• List two ways the Incan Empire was similar to the Roman Empire:

• What caused the destruction of the Incas? How was that possible?

 © 2008 NYSED