DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. How do we learn about the past in the absence of written records?

2. How did the Aztec, Maya and Inca civilizations differ from those of Europe and how were they similar?

3. What aspects of modern Latin American civilization have been inherited from pre-Columbian civilizations?

4. How did the indigenous cultures of North America contribute to modern North American culture?

5. What might life have been like in Tenochtitlan? In Cuzco?

6. The looting of archaeological sites is a severe problem throughout the Americas and is illegal in Latin America and in the United States. Looting, quite simply, destroys archaeological sites. If you think of archaeological sites as books -- books which can be read only once -- then a good metaphor for looting is the cutting out of a few words or letters from a page and throwing the rest of the page away. Most of the story is lost, forever. Discuss our responsibilities to preserve the past for the present and future generations.