Common indigenous peoples in Central & South America?

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The Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas are indigenous peoples of Central and South America. The Aztecs settled in Mexico City and domesticated plants like cocoa and vanilla. The Incas were skilled in mathematics and built roads and buildings. The Mayans were talented potters and weavers, created underground rainwater storage tanks, and had advanced mathematics and writing systems. The modern Maya number over six million and have over thirty separate dialects of the Mayan language.

The Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas are the most common indigenous peoples of Central and South America. The Incas are the native people of Peru. The Mayans and Aztecs are the first peoples of Mexico.
The Aztec indigenous group lived a life of hunter-gatherers starting in 1325 in Mexico. The Aztecs settled in the capital Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Many indigenous people of Mexico have Aztec heritage.

The Aztecs domesticated plants such as cocoa, vanilla, tomatoes, corn, tobacco, onions, bananas, squash, and beans, as well as many others. Cocoa beans were prized for making chocolate and were used as ancient currency. The indigenous Aztecs traded cocoa beans for clothing and tools. Sculpture was important to the Aztecs and most of their sculptures were carved from limestone. Parts of Mexico remain rich in limestone deposits today.

The Inca empire started in 1438 BC The Incas were also called Tiwantinsuya. Quechua is the Inca language. The Inca people predicted the seasons through careful observation of the planets and stars. They were a highly skilled indigenous tribe who designed roads and complex buildings with their skillful use of mathematics.

The indigenous Incas of Peru were polytheists as they believed in multiple gods. Viracocha is the god that the Incas believe created the Incas and the Inca people are known as the “Children of the Sun”. The Incas created adobe dwellings using rocks and mud-grass mixtures. They grew corn, potatoes, coffee, and grains like quinoa.

The Maya civilization began in 2600 BC in the Yucatan. The Mayan people spread across Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras and northern Belize. The Mayans were talented potters and weavers who were also skilled at clearing land for trade networks. The Mayans created innovative underground rainwater storage tanks.

The Maya are one of the most innovative and imaginative indigenous peoples. They built massive stone structures with carved decorative architectural details using very limited tools. The Mayans also created advanced mathematics and writing systems.

The modern Maya number more than six million people, making the Maya one of the largest indigenous peoples in the world. Many Mayan indigenous groups live in Mexico such as the Yucatecs, Tzotzils and Tzeltals. More than thirty indigenous Mayan groups currently inhabit Central America, and each group has a separate dialect of the Mayan language.




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