Mesoamerica And Native America Similarities

Comparison Essay #2
The regions in native America were very different and somewhat similar. There were many different ways of showing how devoted they were to their religion, their artwork, and the way that they spent their time. The three regions within native America before 1300 were South America, North America, and Mesoamerica. Each one of these regions were very different.
There was some similarities between these regions. In Mesoamerica, there was many different civilizations but there are two that I am going to talk about. The Olmec’s, and the Maya, were two civilizations in South America. They are similar because they both made temples that had their rulers buried beneath them. The Olmec’s at Teotihuacan made an amazing temples called

“Temple of the Feathered Serpent” and beneath this tomb was sacrificed victims in and around the temple. Beneath the temple, the tomb was looted in antiquity and critics believe that the tomb belonged to a great ruler of that time. The Maya did a similar thing, they had a temple they created called “Temple of the Giant Jaguar” and it is a mausoleum of the greatest ruler Hasaw Chan K’awiil. In both of these civilizations, they believed in sacrificing for their gods. However, North America and South America never really got involved in sacrificing. In the Maya and Olmec’s, they had sacrificed victims around their temples talked about above.
In Mesoamerica, there was many courts found that were believed to be some kind of a game. The game in a way resembles soccer, but in this game, if you lose, you are sacrificed. The ball courts were huge t-shaped courts where players would gear up and protect themselves from a hard rubber ball. It is believed that the big boulders that were around the court, making the t-shape, is where the losers would go and get sacrificed at. Now in North America, they constructed monumental stone buildings that were said to lead to a sacred area or lead to a heaven. One monuments is the “Gateway to the Sun” which stood 9’ 10’’ high. So you can see that Mesoamerica was into sacrificing when it came to making it into heaven, while in South America, they made temples that lead to a sacred area, or other words known as the afterlife.
In conclusion, there were many differences in the Native American regions before 1300.