Chapter 6: Commonalities and Variations: Africa and the Americas, 500 B.C.E.–1200 C.E


1. What is the proper chronological order of these civilizations?
a. Tiwanaku, Hopewell, Chavín
b. Meröe, Cahokia, Axum
c. Hopewell, Tiwanaku, Cahokia
d. Axum, Meröe, Nubia
The answer is c. Interestingly, the two mound-building cultures of Hopewell and Cahokia were considerably separated in time, with the flourishing of Tiwanaku falling between them.
2. The population of the world at the beginning of the Common Era was about
a. 1 billion.
b. 100 million.
c. 500 million.
d. 250 million.
Incorrect. The answer is d. The world’s population at the beginning of the Common Era was about 250 million.
3. Which of the following statements best describes African contact with Eurasia in the period 500 B.C.E.–1200 C.E.?
a. Thanks to the Mediterranean Sea, at least northern Africa had frequent contact with Europe, but Africans had little contact with Asia.
b. Africa had frequent interaction with both Europe and Asia.
c. Africa had frequent contact with Asia via the Indian Ocean, but rarely interacted with Europe.
d. Africa rarely interacted with Eurasia before the early modern period.
The answer is b. Africa had frequent interaction with Asia via the Indian Ocean and with Europe via the Mediterranean.
4. Which of the following statements best describes the sense of common African culture in pre-modern times?
a. East Africa had a sense of common identity, thanks to its common culture of Indian Ocean trade, but it did not include other parts of Africa.
b. Sub-Saharan Africa had a sense of common identity created by sharing a common Bantu language, but it did not include North Africa.
c. There was no common identity among the people of the continent as Africans.
d. North Africans had a sense of common culture, united by Islam and their Berber heritage.
The answer is c. Pre-modern Africa was a geographic concept, not a cultural identity.
5. Which of the following statements is generally true of African climate and agriculture, compared to Eurasia?
a. Africa’s climate is mostly temperate, creating growing conditions similar to those in Eurasia.
b. Africa’s climate is mostly tropical, making the soil poorer and less fertile.
c. Africa’s climate is mostly tropical, making soil richer.
d. Africa’s climate is tropical, but its richer soils compensated agriculturally until the modern era.
The answer is b. The poorer and less fertile soil of much of Africa is attributed to the continent’s tropical climate, which causes rapid decomposition of humus.
6. Where was the civilization of Meröe?
a. In the upper Nile Valley
b. Along the Niger River
c. In the northeastern part of North America
d. In the high Andes
The answer is a. Meröe was in the upper Nile valley, where it replaced the Nubian civilization.
7. Unlike most civilizations, this kingdom had a substantial number of female rulers who appear to have held equal power and prominence to their male counterparts.
a. Chavín
b. Pueblo
c. Maya
d. Meröe
The answer is d. Meröe had at least ten female rulers, who had power and prominence comparable to their male counterparts.
8. Christianity was firmly established in this African state in the fourth century.
a. Meröe
b. Axum
c. Niger Valley
d. Benin
The answer is b. Axum was introduced to Christianity early in the fourth century through its connections to Red Sea trade and Egypt, and the new religion quickly took root.
9. Which of the following statements best describes the civilization of the middle Niger River?
a. Cities formed in the region, but without corresponding state structures.
b. A complex society formed, but without significant urbanization.
c. A number of independent city-states developed, each ruled by a king.
d. The peoples of the Niger Valley were gathered together over time into a single unified state.
The answer is a. The Niger Valley civilization is a rare example of urbanization with the creation of state structures.
10. Which of the following was an important reason for the decline of Meröe?
a. The kingdom suffered a massive drought that led to large-scale famine.
b. Meröe was conquered by Egypt.
c. The kingdom suffered severe deforestation because so much wood was used to smelt iron.
d. Meröe failed to adopt the iron culture of its neighbors and thus could not compete economically.
The answer is c. Large-scale iron work led to severe deforestation as wood was used for charcoal in the smelting process.
11. Jenne-jeno was a major center of which civilization?
a. Axum
b. Pueblo
c. Maya
d. Niger Valley
The answer is d. Jenne-jeno is the most-studied urban cluster of the Niger Valley civilization; at its height, it probably had a population of more than 40,000.
12. Which of the following statements is true of iron working in sub-Saharan Africa?
a. Iron technology was not known in sub-Saharan Africa until it was introduced after 1000 C.E. by Muslim traders.
b. Iron-working technology was widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, especially the Niger Valley civilization.
c. Sub-Saharan Africa imported iron but did not have the technology to work it for themselves.
d. Some regions of sub-Saharan Africa knew how to work iron, but their production was on a very small scale.
Correct. The answer is b. Iron smithing was an early and prestigious occupation in the cities of the Niger Valley civilization.
13. Which of the following statements accurately describes the Mayan civilization?
a. Mayan civilization developed over a long period in Mesoamerica.
b. Mayan civilization only reached a limited area in what is now Guatemala.
c. Mayan civilization remained rather simple, without significant urbanization.
d. The Mayan people of the classical era were preliterate.
The answer is a. A distinctive Mayan civilization began to develop as early as 2000 B.C.E. and continued until about 900 C.E.
14. What do scholars regard as the leading reason for the collapse of much of Maya civilization in the ninth century C.E.?
a. Invasion by their northern neighbors, the Aztecs
b. Catastrophic flooding
c. Soil exhaustion after centuries of extensive agriculture
d. A long-term drought
Incorrect. The answer is d. A long-term drought that began in 840 led the population in the Maya heartland to drop 85 percent or more.
15. Which of the following statements best describes Teotihuacán?
a. Teotihuacán was the most important urban center of the Mayan civilization.
b. Teotihuacán was a major center of the Hopewell Culture.
c. Teotihuacán was a Mesoamerican city but not part of Maya civilization.
d. Teotihuacán was the center of a major Andean urban network.
The answer is c. Teotihuacán was north of Maya civilization, growing up in the Valley of Mexico.
16. This city had streets laid out in a grid pattern and a large ritual center where archaeologists have found evidence of human sacrifice.
a. Tikal
b. Teotihuacán
c. Tiwanaku
d. Cahokia
Correct. The answer is b. Teotihuacán was impressive in its layout, with streets in a grid pattern and a major ritual center; archaeologists have discovered evidence of large-scale human sacrifice.
17. Which region produced the Chavín culture?
a. Andes
b. East Africa
c. Mesoamerica
d. Niger Valley
Incorrect. The answer is a. A village in the Andean highlands, Chavín de Huántar, was the focus of the Chavín religious movement.
18. Which statement best describes the Chavín Phenomenon?
a. It was an imperial system.
b. It was a federation of Andean cities.
c. It was a religious movement that was spread forcibly by conquest.
d. It was a religious movement that did not include political control.
The answer is d. Chavín produced a unique religious movement that was popular across much of Peru, but it did not create an empire.
19. Which of the following American states was governed by warrior-priests?
a. Chavín
b. Pueblo
c. Moche
d. Maya
The answer is c. The Moche state of northern Peru was governed by warrior-priests.
20. Wari and what other state flourished in the Andes in the period 400–1000 C.E.?
a. Tiwanaku
b. Teotihuacán
c. Timbuktu
d. Tikal
The answer is a. Tiwanaku flourished in the southern highlands of the Andes, Wari in the north at the same period.
21. Which of the following was a feature of the Wari state?
a. Elaborately fitted stone walls and buildings
b. A network of roads linking cities to the capital
c. Agriculture using the raised field system
d. A common culture with the state of Tiwanaku
The answer is b. The Wari road system, linking cities to the capital, is taken as evidence of a tightly controlled political system.
22. Which of the following statements best describes the movement of Bantu-speaking peoples in sub-Saharan Africa?
a. People moved over the period of about one century.
b. It involved the movement mostly of traders, who gradually had a cultural impact on the regions they reached.
c. The Bantu-speaking peoples expanded by conquering new territories and establishing states.
d. People moved gradually to new regions over many centuries.
The answer is d. The spread of Bantu-speaking peoples in sub-Saharan Africa was a centuries-long process.
23. What impact did the Bantu peoples have on the gathering and hunting societies of Africa?
a. The Bantu were gatherers and hunters who only gradually converted to farming.
b. The Bantu had little significant impact on gatherers and hunters, because the two lifestyles operated in different geographical regions.
c. The Bantu gradually displaced gathering and hunting societies or converted them to an agricultural way of life.
d. The Bantu in their migrations attacked and defeated the gatherer-hunter societies they found.
The answer is c. The interaction of the Bantu with gatherers and hunters was part of the global phenomenon that replaced foraging societies with farmers.
24. What were Batwa?
a. Bantu-speaking peoples who settled in East Africa
b. Foraging people who lived in the rain forest region of Central Africa
c. Ritual ball courts in Mesoamerica
d. Raised beds for agriculture in the Andes
The answer is b. The Batwa (Pygmy) people were one of the few gatherer-hunter societies not displaced or absorbed by the Bantu, although they adopted elements of Bantu culture.
25. What is “gender parallelism”?
a. A “separate but equal” definition of gender roles
b. A system in which men and women live separately, married couples only coming together occasionally
c. A gender system in which women carry on trades for women, and men for men
d. A gender system that strictly subordinates women to men
The answer is a. The gender parallelism that was common in south-central Africa associated women with village life and men with hunting and forest life, but regarded both of equal importance.
26. Which of the following best describes Bantu religious practice in the period before 1500 C.E.?
a. Bantu believed in a pantheon of gods, including three great gods who managed human affairs.
b. Bantu believed that a Creator God continued to oversee human daily life.
c. Bantu believed in two gods, a god of good and a god of evil, who fought for control of the cosmos.
d. Bantu believed there was a Creator God, but that he was remote and uninvolved in ordinary life.
The answer is d. The Bantu focused on ancestral or nature spirits, because they believed the Creator God was remote and uninvolved in human existence.
27. Which of the following statements best describes the peoples who inhabited the eastern woodlands of what is now the United States?
a. They were semi-sedentary, practicing light agriculture and building mounds that served as ritual centers.
b. They were gatherers and hunters.
c. They practiced intensive agriculture, especially of corn and squash.
d. They formed a significant urban civilization.
The answer is a. The mound-building cultures of the eastern woodlands practiced agriculture, but not intensively, and are regarded as “semi-sedentary.”
28. This society only gradually created permanent village life as agriculture was adapted to their desert environment and lived at first in pit houses that gradually grew into larger settlements.
a. Mound Builders
b. Niger Valley Civilization
c. Ancestral Pueblo
d. Batwa
The answer is c. The Ancestral Pueblo only gradually adapted agriculture to the needs of their society; they lived at first in pit houses and gradually developed aboveground structures known as pueblos. (See section “The Ancestral Pueblo: Pit Houses and Great Houses” in your textbook.)
29. Which society produced an elaborate and mysterious road system consisting of hundreds of miles of roads radiating out from their center that seemed unnecessary for trade or travel?
a. Ancestral Pueblo
b. Mound Builders
c. Bantu
d. Wari
The answer is a. The roads of the Chaco Phenomenon are the biggest mystery of Ancestral Pueblo life; the roads are extensive and some very wide, but they seem to have served no practical purpose.
30. What was the dominant center of the Mississippi Valley Mound Builder culture?
a. Hopewell
b. Tiwanaku
c. Chaco
d. Cahokia

The answer is d. Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, Missouri, was the dominant center of the Mississippi Mound Builder culture.

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