Mythology of the Americas

Incas, Mayan, Aztec, Navajo, Crow, and Iroquois

The Incan Empire

At first, the Incas were simply a small tribe that lived in the city of Cuzco. They worshiped gods of nature. They believed in omens and dreams.

The Inca empire developed between 1400 and 1500 AD in an area which is now Peru. Before the 15th century the Andean region was populated by many different tribes of people. Under the military leadership of Pachacuti and his son Topa Inca, who were Inca emperors between 1438 and 1493, the Inca state expanded into a great empire.

Inca Culture From a geographic point of view, the Inca empire was not a

very attractive place to live. The north-western border --coastal region of the Pacific

Ocean, which is the driest desert on earth. Not a drop of rain has fallen there in over 500 years.

The towering Andes Mountains begin east of the desert, with steep slopes that make agriculture a serious challenge. The Inca solved that problem by creating terraces and filling them with fertile earth brought up from the mountain valleys.

To the east of the Andes, lay the vast and humid jungle of the Amazon River Basin, inhabited by fierce tribes whom the Inca never managed to conquer.

Inca Culture

The Inca were incredible builders and architects. Their irrigation systems, palaces, temples, and fortifications can still be seen throughout the Andes.

They had an efficient road system which was mainly used for government and military purposes. Couriers would carry messages in the form of knotted cords all over the empire. Unfortunately, this road network was also used by the Spanish, which greatly facilitated their conquest of the Inca Empire.

Inca Culture The Incas adopted and improved the agricultural advances of

previous highland cultures, and gave special importance to maize production. But the potato was fundamental to their empire’s food security: in the Incas’ vast network of state storehouses, potato – especially a freeze-dried potato product called chuño – was one of the main food items, used to feed officials, soldiers and laborers and as an emergency stock after crop failures.

Terrace farming was developed as a technique of agriculture by the Incas as a more efficient way to grow crops in the steep Andes Mountains of South America. Terrace farming made use of canals to transport water, and cisterns for storing it. Inca farmers built sophisticated structures by using stones of specific heights and setting them at different angles to form the best water system.

Inca History The Incas were able to build a vast empire by demanding

loyalty from conquered people. At the height of their power, the Inca Empire was 2,500 miles long, 500 miles wide, and home to 12 million people. These people called themselves "the Children of the Sun”.

The Inca empire and culture was largely destroyed by the Spanish in the most brutal conquest seen on the American continent.

Under the leadership of Fransisco Pizarro the Spanish stole over 280,000 kilograms of gold from the Inca, destroyed and prohibited all expression of native religion and culture.

Yet many traditions managed to survive in the myths and culture of Peru, Ecuador and Columbia.

Incan Religion The Incas believed that their ruler was the direct

descendant of the sun god, Inti. Their ruler was a god. The Incas believed in many gods. They believed in the god of nature, the moon, of weather, of rainbows, and of planets. Every mountaintop was a god. All Incas had little statues in their homes that were the homes of little spirits. Anything might house a god. Just to be safe, they prayed to all their gods every day.

Every month, the Incas held a huge and public religious festival honoring one of their major gods. At the festival, there was dancing and feasting and sacrifice. Mostly, the Incas sacrificed animals. Sometimes, if something really important was going on, they sacrificed people.

Pachacamac The creator god of the Inca, also known as Viracocha

The sky god who created the sun, the moon and the people

brought Manco Capac and Mama Occlo to the world to civilize people and teach them skills such as farming and crafts

Inti The sun god and the patron deity of the holy city of Cuzco, home of the sun

The patron god of the Incas and especially worshipped by farmers who needed his warmth and light to grow crops

Represented with a human face in a great disk and is found on many temples

Manco Capac•Pachacamac’s son, celebrated for his courage•sent to earth to become the first king of the Incas•taught his people how to grow plants, make weapons, work together, share resources and worship the gods

Mama Occlo • the sister of Manco Capac chosen by Pachacamac for her wisdom to civilize the people. • taught the women how to weave cloth and build houses.

Mayan Empire Ancient Mayan culture

once stretched from central Mexico to Honduras. It also included parts of what is now Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador.

More than 40 cities were founded on the Yucátan Peninsula in Mexico (and elsewhere).

Powerful city-states vied for supremacy, militarily and culturally.

Mayan Culture From the third to the ninth

century, Maya civilization produced awe-inspiring temples and pyramids, highly accurate calendars, mathematics and hieroglyphic writing, and a complex social and political order.

They had a well-developed religion and divine pantheon, some of which is described in the Popol Vuh.

The Maya were well on their way to becoming a powerful empire when suddenly the civilization collapsed and the mighty cities were abandoned.

One of the mightiest civilizations in the ancient Americas simply fell into ruin in a very short time.

Cities were abandoned and Maya stonemasons stopped making temples and stelae (tall sculpted stone shafts and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars).

The dates are not in doubt: deciphered glyphs at several sites indicate a thriving culture in the ninth century A.D., but the record goes silent after the last recorded date on a Maya stela, 904 A.D.

Mayan Culture The Maya strongly believed in

the influence of astronomy on daily life. Consequently, Mayan knowledge and understanding of celestial bodies was advanced for their time: For example, they knew how to predict solar eclipses.

They also used astrological cycles to aid in planting and harvesting and developed two calendars that are as precise as those we use today: the Calendar Round and the Long Count. One important idea used in these calendars was the inclusion of the placeholder zero.

The first, known as the Calendar Round, was based on two overlapping annual cycles: a 260-day sacred year and a 365-day secular year. Every 52 years counted as a single interval, or Calendar Round. After each interval the calendar would reset itself like a clock.

The Long Count calendar worked the same way that the Calendar Round did–it cycled through one interval after another–but its interval, known as a “Grand Cycle,” was much longer. One Grand Cycle was equal to 13 baktuns, or about 5,139 solar years.

Mayan Pantheon

god who invented writing.

the patron of the arts and sciences as well as the god of the sky

goddess of weaving, medicine and childbirth

also the ancient goddess of the moon

sends floods and powerful rainstorms to earth, and is the wife of Itzamná.

ITZAMNÁ IX CHEL

Mayan Pantheon

Rain god associated with

creation and life (also closely related to Kukulcan).

one of the three gods that was thought to have created the Earth.

serpent in his natural form and was responsible for teaching the Mayan's about such things as how to run a civilization, agriculture, and medicine.

had a human form as well as his feathered serpent form

would transform into a man standing about 6 feet tall with long white hair, but most interestingly he was a male Caucasian man with white skin! 

CHAC Kukulcán (Quetzalcóatl)

Aztec Empire The Aztecs, who probably

originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century.

The capital city of Tenochtitlan was originally built on an island on Lake Texcoco, it had a system of canals and causeways that supplied the hundreds of thousands of people who lived there.

From their capital city,

Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious and commercial organization that brought many of the region’s city-states under their control by the 15th century.

Invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes overthrew the Aztecs by force and captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica’s last great native civilization (disease brought in by Europeans).

Aztec Culture Had an elaborate

government and society that consisted of four classes: nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves

Economy was based upon agriculture, corn being the most important crop.

Religion was a staple in the Aztec culture.

The Aztecs worshiped hundreds of gods and goddesses; each represented a different aspect of life.

Ceremonies were very important to the Aztecs during the agricultural year ensuring good crops.

During these ceremonies human sacrifices were given to the gods. These ceremonies included removing a human heart while it was still beating.

They felt that human hearts and blood gave the gods strength.

Many of the sacrifices were war prisoners or children.

Aztec Pantheon

The Aztec's main god Called "Hummingbird on

the Left (South)", "Left-Handed Humming Bird"

God of Sun, death, war, young men, warriors, storms, guide for journeys.

His festival was one of 25 days of a blood orgy with hearts and blood of prisoners dumped on his altar.

HUITZILOPOCHTLI(pronounced Weetz-ee-loh-

POCHT-lee)

Aztec Pantheon

“The Feathered Serpent” or Precious Twin.

God of intelligence and self-reflection, a patron of priests.

Primordial god of creation, a giver of life.

With his opposite Tezcatlipoca he created the world.

“The Smoking Mirror” God of the night sky,

ancestral memory, time and the Lord of the North, the embodiment of change through conflict.

Together with his eternal opposite Quetzalcoatl, he created the world.

In this process, he lost his foot when he used it as bait for the Earth Monster Cipactli.

Quetzalcoatl Tezcatlipoca

Aztec Pantheon

“He Who Makes Things Sprout”

God of rain, He is a fertility

god, but also a wrathful deity, responsible for both floods and droughts.

"She of the Jade Skirt" or "She whose Night robe of Jewel stars Whirls Above".

The patron god of women she controlled fertility as well as the oceans, rivers and any other running water.

As the wife of Tlaloc she had a lot of responsibility in the Aztec nation.

Tlaloc Chalchiuhtlicue

Navajo Culture The word Navajo comes from the

phrase Tewa Navahu, meaning highly cultivated lands.

Largely reside in the Southwestern United States, primarily in New Mexico and Arizona

Are considered to be the largest tribe of all Native American Indians.

Originally began their tribes in the 1500’s.

Traded maize (or corn crops) and woven cotton items such as blankets for things like bison meat and various materials that they could use to make tools and weapons.

When the Spanish came into their territory in the 1600’s, the Navajo who use their sheep for things like clothing and food.

Navajo Culture While the Navajo (or Dine) had

been hunter-gatherers in the north where plants and game were plentiful, they gave up their nomadic way of life soon after arriving in the Southwest and began sheep herding.

Families built hogans, single room, eight-sided houses made up of a skeleton of logs covered with a thick coat of mud, in scattered camps that allowed them to tend their flocks both summer and winter.

Navajo society is matrilineal, structured around the nuclear family, the mother's extended family, and her clan.

The Navajo were adaptable and willing to learn from others, selectively adopting whatever they found useful from all the people they encountered—Spanish, Hopi, Americans, and others.

While contact with the Pueblo led the Navajo to adopt horticulture and weaving, they acquired livestock from the Spanish and became some of the best herdsmen and riders in the Southwest.

Navajo Mythology There is no supreme being

in the Navajo religion. Navajo religion worships the

winds, watercourses, sun, and a number of gods that they believe intervene in human affairs.

These gods are worshipped often by offerings made to them and ceremonial dances in their honor where they are represented by painted and masked men.

They believe that there are two types of beings, the earth people and the Holy People.

Although the Holy People cannot be seen, the feel that they either help or harm the earth people and are extremely powerful which is why it is important for them to worship and perform ceremonies often.

There are around sixty sacred ceremonies that can be performed by the Navajo Indians.

In order for these ceremonies to be effective, they tend to last as long as four days.

Four is a sacred number to the Navajo.

Navajo Pantheon Estsanatlehi - Chief goddess Hastsehogan - House god Hastseltsi - God of racing Hastsezini - Fire god Iyatiku - Mother of humans

and corn goddess Nayenezgani - God of war

Nltci - God of wind instruments and wind

Tobadzistsini - God of war Tonenili - Rain god Tsohanoai - Sun god and

creator Yei - Creator gods Yolkai Estan - Sea goddess

Crow Culture Horses and firearms

revolutionized the buffalo hunt. The horse made it possible to approach the herd quickly and without disguises.

Crow men hunted on horseback for bison, sheep, deer, elk, and other game and were skilled at using bows and arrows and spears to catch their prey. This culture measured its wealth by the amount of food it had.

The name of the tribe, Apasaalooke, meaning "children of the large-beaked bird,” was a name given by the Hidatsa, a neighboring Siouan tribe. White men later misinterpreted the word as "crow."

The Crow Indians, who were made up of many small clans, once inhabited the Great Plains areas of Yellowstone River Valley, which covers parts of Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. The Crow Indians were far-ranging people, especially once they acquired horses.

Crow Mythology Death rituals sometimes consisted

of the mourning family inflicting pain on themselves. As a means of grieving, they would cut themselves so it would leave a scar.

Crow women were known to cut off their hair as a means of grieving.

Warriors moved on to become chiefs of their clan only if they fulfilled several prerequisites and were then selected as chief by the council of chiefs. They needed to defeat another tribe through war, physically touch one of their enemies during battle, steal a horse from an enemy settlement and take a weapon from an enemy under fire.

Tribe members customarily fasted up to three times in their life, in an attempt to bring themselves closer to the spirits.

A sacred pipe was smoked and passed around by the chiefs before tribal meetings with the belief that it would help to solve problems. The pipe had to be passed in a specific manner. It was passed only to the left and was not to be rotated in any way during the pass.

Crow Pantheon

Akbatekdia - Supreme god Coyote - God of creation Isakakate - The great

spirit

The shaman of the tribe was known as an Akbaalia ("healer").

Cirape ("younger brother") is a companion of the old coyote trickster spirit.

The Mannegishi are bald humanoids with large eyes and tiny bodies. They were tricksters and may be similar to fairies. They have supposedly been sighted in Massachusetts and are known there as Dover Demons.

Awakkule is also a trickster spirit, but occasionally helps people instead.

Baaxpee is a spiritual power that can cause a person to mature, as well as unusual events or circumstances that force maturation.

After transmogrification, the changed are known as Xapaaliia.

Andiciopec is a warrior hero who is invincible to bullets.

Iroquois Culture The Iroquois Indians are

Native American people that lived in the Northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada

The area is also referred to as the Eastern Woodlands region and encompasses New York and the immediate surrounding areas.

The Iroquois originally called themselves Kanonsionni, meaning “people of the Longhouse” (the name of the shelter they live in), but today they go by the name Haudenosaunee.

Originally five tribes made up this larger group, but in 1722 a sixth tribe joined the Iroquois nation and they also became known as the Six Nations: Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Tuscarora and, Seneca

Iroquois Culture The Iroquois were hunters

and gatherers, farmers, and fishermen but the main staples of their diet came from farming.

They harvested the three sisters -corn, beans, and squash as well as tobacco for smoking.

Out of six annual ceremonies, four of them revolved around the corn crops: Corn Planting Festival, Green Corn Festival, Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving, Maple Festival, New Year Festival, Strawberry Festival

The Iroquois are very well known for their masks. These masks are considered sacred and not meant for anyone but tribe members to see.

The Iroquois were very spiritual people. They believed that everything took place for a reason and everything, living and non-living, had a spirit.

Stories were passed down verbally from generation to generation.

The older tribe members would customarily sit around longhouse fires on cold winter nights and tell stories of how things came to be to the younger Iroquois.

Iroquois Culture The longhouse was the center of

Iroquois life. Archaeologists have unearthed longhouse remains that extend more than the length of a football field. These buildings held anywhere from 8 to 10 families.

Agriculture was the main source of food. In Iroquois society, women held a special role. Believed to be linked to the earth's power to create life, women determined how the food would be distributed — a considerable power in a farming society.

Women were also responsible for selecting the sachems for the Confederacy. Iroquois society was also matrilineal; when a marriage transpired, the family moved into the longhouse of the mother, and family lineage was traced from her.

The Iroquois society proved to be the most persistent military threat the European settlers would face. Although conquest and treaty forced them to cede much of their land, their legacy lingers.

Iroquois Pantheon

Ataensic - Sky woman and mother earth

Eithinoha - Earth goddess Ga-Oh - God of the winds Gendenwitha - Goddess of

the morning star

Ha Wen Neyu - The great spirit Hahgwehdiyu - A creator god Hawgwehdaetgah - A creator

god Hino - God of the sky Hodianokdoo Hediohe -

Omnipotent and incomprehensible creator god

Ioskeha - Creator god Neo - Supreme god Oki - God of oaths and

agreements Onatha - Goddess of wheat Sky-holder - Creator Sone-yah-tis-sa-ye - Great

spirit and creator of the Indians Taweskare - Malicious creator

god

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