Question

Why did Mayan script (from present-day Mexico), never reach the Inca, living in South America?

A. The Maya were jealous of the Spanish-Inca relationship, and so refused to share their writing.
B. The Mayan writing was incredibly complicated, so the Inca created their own system of written communication.
C. Ideas, people, farming, and animals have a difficult time moving north and south through different latitudes.
D. The Inca determined it was easier to use Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Answer 1

The Mayan script did not reach the Inca due to the challenging geographic barriers, such as dense jungles and Andean mountains, which hindered the exchange of ideas and systems. Consequently, the Inca developed a distinctive method of record-keeping with the quipu, a knotted string system, to manage their empire.

Step-by-step explanation:

The reason the Mayan script did not reach the Inca is best explained by option C, which states that ideas, people, farming, and animals have a difficult time moving north and south through different latitudes. This was largely due to the challenging geography between the Maya and the Inca, which included dense jungles and harsh Andean terrains. The Inca, living in their own isolated environment, went on to develop a thriving civilization with unique systems of communication, like the quipu, instead of adopting the Mayan writing system.

While the Maya developed an intricate system of writing involving glyphs that could represent words or syllables and recorded their history and scientific knowledge in codices, the Inca relied on the quipu, a complex system of knotted strings, to record information and manage their empire. This difference in written communication further highlights the distinct cultural developments that arose from their separate environments. The absence of a traditional writing system among the Inca illustrates how civilizations adapt to their circumstances and avail of the resources and knowledge available to them.