Assignment 3a

1. Pre-Colombian means all the history before European influences. It quite literally means before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During this time the Caribbean was populated mostly by three groups: the Ciboney or Guanahautebey, the Taino or Arawak, and the Caribs. All these groups were basically completely wiped out when Columbus came and all their history is now skewed.

http://atheism.about.com/library/world/AJ/bl_CaribbeanAncient.htm

5. I am choosing the Maya's. I am choosing them mainly because I have actually visited the ruins in Mexico in 2000. They were such a brilliant people and knew so much without the technology we have today.
The sources I used are the youtube video and my other source is MSN Encarta: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576077/maya_civilization.html

6. The Maya people lived in what is now eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belixe, El Salvador, and western Honduras. They lived and did very well for about 2000 years. they had three periods: the preclassic period, the classic period, and the postclassic period. during each of these periods they became smarter and more advanced.

In the classic period is the period where they thrived the most. We see a religion come from the classic period. The Maya people worshipped many gods with a main one called Hunab Ku. They performed ceremonies which would involve a sacrifice to a god in order to gain their favor. All of their ceremonies were done in pyramids that were extravagantly carved and painted with many intricate details.
Sun Tample
Also from the Classic period we see the emergence of science. The science they were really good at was mathematics and astronomy. Their biggest achievement in the science was their calendars. They had one calendar the was based on the sun and another calendar that would tell them lucky and unlucky days. They used the concept of zero which was very important in their ability to make such accurate calculations.

7. I used a video from youtube and MSN Encarta. The links are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyvw6G9Max0 and http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576077_2/Maya_Civilization.html. I believe the youtube video I used is credible because it is a clip from National Geographic and there information is credible. As for youtube, it is credible because there is so much on one topic that if something were wrong you would easily be able to prove it. I also used MSN Encarta and that is a credible source because it is an online encyclopedia. No one can change what it says and no one can make anything up.