SuitabookThe Maya and other American civilisations
Charlie Samuels
- Reading
- Read it as a guided overview, pausing to compare one technology or knowledge system from each civilisation. Check whether the treatment gives equal context to the different societies.
- Themes
- Technological knowledge: The book describes how civilisations developed knowledge and applied it to practical activities and systems. The emphasis appears informational, presenting technologies as developments that affected how people lived.
- Writing and systems of knowledge: Several forms of record-keeping, time-measurement and knowledge are included in the historical survey. The book presents these subjects as areas of knowledge to be examined rather than as a fictional conflict or personal story.
- Weapons within the technological survey: Weapons are listed alongside pottery, textiles and other developments in the period covered. Their presence is clear, but the book’s evaluative treatment and level of detail cannot be determined.
- Worth knowing
- Weapons are included among the technologies covered. You may wish to notice how such objects are explained alongside calendars, textiles, writing, pottery and other crafts.