Deck 7: The Settlement of the Americas and the Pacific Islands

Question 1

In the Americas, which food was grown over a huge geographical area and became the staple grain for a large part of the Amerindian population?

A)Maize, or Indian corn.
B)Pumpkins.
C)Yams, or sweet potatoes.
D)Wild figs.
E)Sweet cactus.

Answer 1

Maize, or Indian corn.

Question 2

Which of the following is most descriptive of  the Amerindian civilizations during the Archaic Period?

A)They probably ate small animals.
B)They lacked any social structure.
C)They were sedentary and lived in large villages.
D)They developed impressive metalworking skills.
E)They appear to have no reverence for nature.

Answer 2

They probably ate small animals.

Question 3

The Clovis culture was

A)the earliest hunting culture of which we have evidence.
B)a hunting-gathering culture that arose in central Mexico.
C)the originator of the use of the atlatl.
D)the first group of migrants to the New World.
E)begun during the Archaic Period, when finding sufficient fruits and berries became problematic.

Answer 3

the earliest hunting culture of which we have evidence.

Question 4

Which of the following statements was true of Pre-Columbian Peru?

A)The El Niño effect usually improved fishing prospects for the year.
B)The inhabitants established early on a major cotton textile industry.
C)Early Peruvians isolated themselves from trade and exchange with outsiders.
D)Food shortages were often worse in Peru than in Mesoamerica, due to more mountainous terrain.
E)Earliest settlers to the area appeared along the rivers flowing from the Peruvian mountains.

Question 5

The trade networks of the Americas

A)disseminated goods.
B)facilitated cultural exchange.
C)linked the Olmec and Chavin.
D)All of the options are correct.
E)None of the options are correct.

Question 6

What are the main sources of information on the ancient South American cultures?

A)Archaeological discoveries.
B)Books known as codices.
C)Left over kipu cords.
D)Linguistic evidence.
E)Both A and D.

Question 7

What was the most important crop in the Americas in ancient times?

A)The potato.
B)Squash.
C)Cacao.
D)Maize.
E)The chili pepper.

Question 8

The Olmec civilization evidently did not contain which of the following?

A)Pyramids.
B)Advanced agriculture.
C)A complex system used for record keeping.
D)Iron smelting for weaponry.
E)Stonework that rivaled some Egyptian stonework.

Question 9

Mesoamerica has which of the following geographic features?

A)Amazon River
B)Grand Canyon
C)Andes Mountains
D)Mississippi River
E)Sierra Madre Mountains

Question 10

Which of the following was characteristic of the Clovis culture?

A)They used large spearheads.
B)They hunted only small game.
C)They do not appear to have used animal hides.
D)They had no small tools.
E)All of the options are correct.

Question 11

The Archaic Period is marked by

A)iron smelting.
B)use of draft animals.
C)extinction of megafauna.
D)warmer climate.
E)the growing importance of the written and spoken languages.

Question 12

The ancestors of Native Americans today

A)are known as Amerindians.
B)originated in northeast Asia.
C)migrated across a land bridge.
D)All of the options are correct.
E)None of the options are correct.

Question 13

Before the American Southwest was desert, it was

A)swampland.
B)tundra.
C)grassland.
D)rain forest.
E)hilly.

Question 14

The Adena culture

A)was the most significant Woodland Civilization.
B)are known for burial practices.
C)relied on forest animals for food.
D)used bows and arrows.
E)All of the options are correct.

Question 15

The climate of Paleoindian America was ____ than it is today.

A)warmer
B)milder.
C)drier.
D)cooler.
E)Both A and B.

Question 16

About how far south did the descendants of the first wave of Asian migrants to the New World probably settle?

A)All the way to the American Southwest.
B)Part of the way to eastern Canada.
C)Only as far as Alaska.
D)The southern tip of South America.
E)Almost to Mexico City.

Question 17

Discoveries of tool kits from the archaic Period indicate that

A)hunting and gathering had become less important that previously.
B)big game still provided a fair percentage of the people's food.
C)the people used specialized hunting and gathering tools.
D)tools from the period were designed more for processing plants than for use on animals.
E)people did not eat animals such as mice, rats, and snakes.

Question 18

Where were the Woodland Civilizations located?

A)North of the Rio Grande River.
B)In southern Mexico.
C)In Central America.
D)On the Pacific coastline.
E)Deep within the Amazon rainforest.

Question 19

Beringia connected Northeast Asia with present day

A)Argentina.
B)Peru.
C)Oregon.
D)Alaska.
E)British Columbia.

Question 20

What cultural practices distinguished the Adena culture from other woodland civilizations?

A)Their burial practices and their style of pottery.
B)There are no artifacts left by the Adena.
C)They had extensive written records.
D)They actually had no real culture of their own.
E)They appear to have flourished around 12000 BCE.

Question 21

What are two examples of the animals the Andean people raised for food?

A)Camels and sheep.
B)Horses and cows.
C)Turtles and frogs.
D)Turkeys and hamsters.
E)Guinea pigs and llamas.

Question 22

The early ____________________ civilizations raised guinea pigs and llamas for food, which added to their protein sources and allowed the development of a great civilization.

Question 23

How far west did the Austronesians sail and colonize while traveling across the Indian Ocean?

A)As far as the Hawaiian Islands.
B)To some parts of the Bismarck Archipelago.
C)To the coast of New Zealand.
D)To the island of Madagascar off the coast of east Africa.
E)To the edge of South America.

Question 24

Which of the following was not part of Olmec society?

A)Elites
B)Priestly class
C)Slaves
D)Hereditary king or high-priest ruler
E)Both C and D.

Question 25

Early Neolithic Native Americans lived in ____________________.

Question 26

Folsom culture spear implements are called ____________________.

Question 27

What was the location of the earliest Mesoamerican cultures?

A)In the Central Valley of Mexico.
B)In Mexico's river valleys.
C)In Guatemala's rain forest.
D)In southern Mexico.
E)At the convergence of the Eastern and Western Sierra Madres.

Question 28

Some of the major islands settled by the Polynesians were ____________________.

Question 29

The second wave of migrants to North America probably

A)came from Southeast Asia by boat.
B)settled in western Canada.
C)came from northeast Asia.
D)were ancestors of the Inuit Eskimo peoples.
E)moved across southern Canada as far as the Great Lakes region.

Question 30

____________________ was the land bridge connecting Asia and North America during the last Ice Age.

Question 31

The most significant achievement of the Chavin, according to scholars today, was

A)their procurement of food.
B)political centralization.
C)road networks that connected North and South America.
D)economic development.
E)None of the options are correct.

Question 32

The animal revered most by the Olmecs was the ____________________.

Question 33

Peruvian ____________________ were extremely important to Andean societies.

Question 34

Our knowledge of Andean societies is speculative because

A)there was no writing.
B)there are few archaeological sites.
C)there are no artifacts, only written records.
D)the geography is too difficult to navigate today.
E)None of the options are correct.

Question 35

The Olmec are believed to have had which of the following types of government?

A)Democracy
B)Oligarchy
C)Monarchy
D)Republic
E)Theocracy

Question 36

Term for identification: Beringia

Question 37

The ____________________ was a large, notched, leaf-shaped spearhead used to kill large animals.

Question 38

The Chavin cult

A)had a powerful military.
B)unified Peru and Chile.
C)made widespread use of the llama.
D)had an elephant deity.
E)All of the options are correct.

Question 39

The earliest known Pre-Columbian civilization was that of the ____________________.

Question 40

The Andean knotted cords used for calculating numerical data are known as ____________________.

Question 41

Term for identification: Peruvian textiles

Question 42

Term for identification: Paleoindians

Question 43

Term for identification: Chavin

Question 44

Term for identification: pit house

Question 45

Trace the development of food production in the Americas.  Your answer should include plant and animal sources of food.

Question 46

Term for identification: quinoa

Question 47

Explain the role of the environment on American civilizations.

Question 48

In what major ways did North American and South American civilizations differ?

Question 49

Term for identification: Andes

Question 50

Elaborate on the significance of climatic change on the prehistory of the Americas.

Question 51

Term for identification: maize cultivation

Question 52

Compare and contrast what is known of Woodland, Mesoamerican, and Andean civilizations.

Question 53

Term for identification: woodland civilizations

Question 54

Term for identification: atlatls

Question 55

How did the Austronesians, Lapita, and later Polynesians manage to migrate across such large expanses of ocean in ancient times?