Deck 18: Cross-Cultural Encounters

Question 1

Describe the unique features of literature,music,and sculpture in African culture.

Answer 1

Diversity characterizes all aspects of Africa's history and culture.Literature,art,and music vary widely from region to region.Still,some common characteristics emerge.Most African cultures,for example,prize a synthesis of the arts of music,dance,poetry,and decorative display that mirrored shared spiritual and communal values.
Most African cultures were steeped in folk traditions,which they transmitted orally.As a result,the literary contributions of Africans remained unrecorded for hundreds of years-in some cases until the nineteenth century and thereafter.Over time,several of the traditional African languages have developed written forms and produced a literature of note.Even to this day,however,a highly prized oral tradition dominates African literature.The oral tradition was the province of griots,a special class of professional poet-historians who preserved the legends of the past by chanting or singing them from memory.
African music,an integral part of any major life event,is marked by a sophisticated use of polyrhythms.Reflecting the communal nature of African life,call-and-response techniques were also an important part of the music.A wide variety of percussion instruments,including various types of drum and rattle,is used in performances,as are pitched instruments,such as the balafon and the kora.African culture is notably musical,and the dynamic convergence of poetry,dance,and music generates a singularly dramatic experience.
African figural sculpture served many functions:grave figures were designed to watch over the dead,fertility images were invoked to promote pregnancy or assist in childbirth;still other sculptures served in rituals of divination and healing.In style,such objects range from realistic to abstract.The greater part of African sculpture was executed in the medium of wood,using axes,knives,and chisels to carve.

Question 2

The period between ________ was the greatest age of trans-Eurasian travel since the days of the Roman Empire.

A)1300 and 1400
B)1600 and 1800
C)1400 and 1600
D)900 and 1300

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The fourteenth-century travels of the scholar ________ document a cross-cultural encounter between peoples of vastly different customs and beliefs.

A)Andreas Walsperger
B)Ibn Battuta
C)Henry of Portugal
D)Magellan

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The first of the great Meso-American empires,the ________ built civic centers with stone temples,palaces,and ball courts.

A)Aztec
B)Inca
C)Maya
D)Tua

Question 5

Two features that distinguish the history of the vast African continent are the dominance of a kinship system that forms the basis of social and communal organization,and a(n)________ view of nature.

A)monotheistic
B)scientific
C)patriarchic
D)animistic

Question 6

Christopher Columbus,an Italian in the employ of ________,sailed west in search of an all-water route to China.

A)Spain
B)Portugal
C)Genoa
D)the papacy

Question 7

By 1498,________ had navigated around Southern Africa to establish Portuguese trading posts in India.

A)Francesco Pegolotti
B)Vasco da Gama
C)Marco Polo
D)Christopher Columbus

Question 8

Which of the following are NOT among the rich output of the native populations of the Northwest?

A)totems
B)masks
C)textiles
D)kachina figures

Question 9

At their height in the late fifteenth century,the ________ ruled a Peruvian empire of some sixteen million people.They left monumental architecture,textiles,and ritual objects in silver and gold.

A)Aztec
B)Inca
C)Maya
D)Tua

Question 10

Inseparable from the rituals for which they were made,African masks function as transformative objects that work to

A)channel spiritual energy.
B)scare away evil.
C)depict a story.
D)illustrate musical lyrics.

Question 11

Explain the impact of "encounter" in Africa,the Americas,and Europe.

Question 12

By the year 1500,the ________ controlled the flow of both gold and slaves to Europe.The transatlantic slave trade commenced in 1551,when they began to ship thousands of slaves from Africa to work on the sugar plantations of Brazil.

A)British
B)Dutch
C)Portuguese
D)Venetians

Question 13

List some specific characteristics of the African cultural heritage,as illustrated in the arts of West Africa.

Question 14

Which of the following African empires did NOT come under the influence of Muslim culture?

A)Songhai
B)Ghana
C)Benin
D)Mali

Question 15

The great body of African literature emerges out of

A)a written tradition.
B)an oral tradition.
C)a priest-to-initiate system.
D)a leader-scholar system.

Question 16

The last of the Native American empires,the ________,was centered in Mexico at their capital of Tenochitlán.

A)Aztec
B)Inca
C)Maya
D)Tua

Question 17

The ________ produced maps and charts that exceeded the accuracy of those drafted by Classical and Muslim cartographers.

A)Dutch
B)Norwegians
C)Lombards
D)Portuguese

Question 18

Explain the factors that precipitated European overseas expansion.

Question 19

Describe the unique features of Meso-American cultures,as illustrated by the Maya.
C.E.and survived with considerable political and economic vigor until roughly 1600.Mayans constructed fortified cities consisting of elaborate palace complexes,replete with carved and painted scenes of religious ceremonies and war,as well as images of their gods: Quetzalcoatl,the creator god and Tlaloc,the long-snouted rain deity.According to the Maya,the gods fashioned human beings out of maize-the principal Native American crop-but chose deliberately to deprive them of perfect understanding.
The Maya were the only known Native American culture to produce a written language.Their ancient script,comprised of hieroglyphs,was decoded during the second half of the twentieth century.Further,the Maya became accomplished mathematicians and astronomers.Carefully observing the earth's movements around the sun,they devised a calendar that was more accurate than any used in medieval Europe before the twelfth century.Having developed a mathematical system that recognized "zero," they computed planetary and celestial cycles with some accuracy,tracked the paths of Venus,Jupiter,and Saturn,and successfully predicted eclipses of the sun and moon.At the principal pyramid at Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán,the ninety-one steps on each of four sides,plus the platform on which the temple stands,correspond to the 365 days in the solar calendar.
Maya culture also features a key feature of almost all Meso-American sacred precincts: an I-shaped,high-walled stone court that served as a ballpark.It was used for the performance of ceremonial games that enacted a life-and-death ritual that maintained the regenerative power of the sun,thus securing cosmic order.
Also in line with other cultures was the practice of blood sacrifice and bloodletting.We have a window into these rituals from carvings,such as the low-relief lintel from Yaxchilan in Chiapas,Mexico that shows a royal bloodletting ceremony.Such ceremonies were performed on the accession of a new king,prior to waging war,and at ceremonies celebrating victory in battle.They served to honor the gods and confirm the political legitimacy of the ruler.

Question 20

European exploration was motivated by the fall of ________ in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks,who now dominated overland trade routes to the East.

A)Rome
B)Constantinople
C)Syracuse
D)Jerusalem