Mesoamerica

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Mesoamerica is a region that extends roughly from the Tropic of Cancer in central Mexico down through northwestern Costa Rica. The term is generally used to denote the peoples and cultures of that region before the Spanish conquest.

The name Mesoamerica was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff to refer to a region of similar cultures characterized by the practice of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle. The term has now become part of the vernacular in pre-Columbian anthropological studies. By contrast, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica have not entered widespread usage.

Ecology

Mesoamerica is located between 10° and 22° northern latitude. It encompasses central Mexico, except for those Mexican states that border the United States and San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Aguascalientes and the north of Sinaloa. It extends south to include the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the Pacific coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica up to the Gulf of Nicoya.

The region comprises a complex combination of ecological systems. Archaeologist and anthropologist Michael D. Coe groups these different niches into two broad categories: lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and altiplanos or highlands (those situated between 1000 and 2000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates, the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall.

Highlands

Some of the valleys of the highlands of Mesoamerica have fertile soil suitable for farming. This is true of the valleys of Oaxaca, of Puebla-Tlaxcala, and of the Mexican Federal District. However, the mountainous terrain blocks the passage of clouds, making rain scarce and providing few sources of running surface water. This situation is particularly severe in the hot valley lands of the Mixtec area, perhaps the driest part of the highlands.

The first archaeological researchers in Mesoamerica postulated that the climate was more hospitable in the past. However, as more research was conducted in the area, it became apparent that the climate was not very different than it is today, even though the ecosystems do show a significant degree of decline due to human activity. Many parts of the highlands show evidence of early deforestation, and various species have disappeared from their former habitats.

The highlands of Mesoamerica, while not extraordinarily rich, proved sufficiently fertile to allow the development of the high agricultural cultures of ancient, pre-Hispanic times. In fact, the situation was quite similar to that of other regions of the world where early civilizations thrived, as in the north of Peru, or in the valley of the Indus River in Asia. In these sites, as in Mesoamerica, humans had to to learn to make the most of the resources that were available in their ecological niches. The Mesoamericans of the highlands, as agricultural peoples, learned to store water or divert it from its sources in the mountains to the cultivable lands. Perhaps most characterisitic of the farming techniques of Mesoamerica was cultivation in chinampas, or artificial islands. Chinampas developed in the lakes of the Tarasca plateau, and especially in the Valley of Mexico, where some chinampas still survive in Xochimilco. Further, residents had to learn to keep track of time, for the planting season fell between the dry, hot spring, and the winter frosts—two periods that would threaten a good harvest of their principal crop, maize.

Lowlands

The situation in the lowlands was very different. On the southeast coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the rains are very abundant. Lush tropical forests full of vegetative species covered a good part of the coastal plain, and presented an obstacle to the development of agriculture. In these areas, both the vegetation and the excess water were a problem. To deal with this, the ancient Mesoamericans invented systems of drainage, remnants of which can still be seen in the Chontalpa region of Tabasco, where the so-called camellones chontales are to be found.

Lack of domesticated animals

The fauna available to the Mesoamerican people were not easily domesticated. Many millennia before the beginning of Mesoamerican civilization, the major mammalian species that could have been domesticated had disappeared because of excessive hunting. Such was the case of the horse and various cattle species. This explains why the people of the region were lacking in pack animals and why the Mesoamerican civilization was exclusively agricultural. The only domesticated species were xoloitzcuintle and guajolote, but they never formed an important part of the diet or economy of most Mesoamericans. Despite all this, the societies of this region did hunt certain wild species as a complement to their diet (deer, rabbit, birds, and various types of insects), or for luxury items such as cat fur and bird plumage.

Lack of self-sufficiency

Given that Mesoamerica was broken into numerous and diverse ecological niches, none of the societies that inhabited the area in pre-Hispanic times were self-sufficient. For this reason, from the last centuries of the Archaic period onward, the peoples of the region specialized in the extraction of certain abundant natural resources and then established commercial trade networks that compensated for the environmental inadequacies of their particular region. The people of the west, for example, specialized in agricultural production and ceramics; the Oaxacans produced cotton and cochineal; coastal regions produced salt, dry fish, sea shells, and dyes; the lowlands of the Mayan Area and Gulf of Mexico produced cocoa, vanilla, jaguar furs, and valuable birds such as the quetzal and macaw; and the central region provided a good deal of obsidian that was used in the production of arms and tools.

Cultural Areas

Cultural areas are those inhabited by peoples who have various cultural elements in common. This is not to say that all the peoples in an area share a common ethnicity (indeed, in many cases they do not even share the same language), but this does not prevent various types of interactions among them, such as political, commercial, or some other type of relationship or alliance.

Central Mexico

One of the most important areas in the pre-Hispanic history of Mexico is known as 'Central Mexico'. This area is composed of moderate to cold valleys in the southern part of the Mexican high plateau and in the north of the Balsas River basin. It is an ecological niche characterized by its temperate climate and absence of significant water sources. The rains arrive between the months of April and September, and are not abundant. This led to the early development of hydraulic projects, among them the building of canals from the rivers–reservoirs in the hillsides for storing water.

The valley of Tehuacán, located in the southeast of this region, is important because there are found the oldest remnants of maize cultivation, and examples of the most ancient ceramics in Mesoamerica. Central Mexico also includes the lake basin of the Valley of Mexico, composed of various lakes and lagoons. Many important peoples thrived near Lake Texcoco, such as those of Cuicuilco, in the Pre-Classic period; Teotihuacan in the Classic period; and Tula and Tenochtitlan in the Post-Classic period.

Maya Region

The Maya region is one of the largest in Mesoamerica. Some authors divide it into two parts: the Yucatan Peninsula, in the north, and the Tierras Altas ("Highlands"), in the south. The first area comprises, in addition to the Yucatan Peninsula, the Guatemalan Petén and Belize. It is an area of low-lying lands with a hot climate, battered by the hurricanes and tropical storms of the Caribbean. It is a limestone plateau, slightly elevated toward the south, where the Mayan mountains interrupt the plain. It lacks surface water, though the soil is very porous, and cenotes (water-filled sinkholes) are abundant. The other region, the Tierras Altas, comprises the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas. It is a region of cold-to-temperate climate, with abundant rains. The slopes of these mountains are covered by heavy vegetation that impedes the development of agriculture. The Mayan Tierras Altas are not protected from the influence of the Caribbean cyclones, and storm destruction is frequent in the region.

The first important cultural developments in the Maya region occurred in the southern part. The first ceramics, produced in the Belizean region of Cuello, appear to indicate that the development of earthen pottery in the Maya region was derived from South American traditions. Centuries later, the first population centers developed, later becoming the cities of the Classical period. Among them were Kaminaljuyú and Tikal, the latter being the largest of the Maya cities between the third and eighth centuries CE. The fall and abandonment of these great cities is the result of a combination of factors: internal wars, ecological disaster, climate change, and migrations from the north of Mesoamerica. Thus the center of Maya culture moved to the Yucatán. In this region would flourish the later cities of Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, and Tulum, among many others, that, in reality, grew to be small rival states.

Oaxaca

The Oaxacan region has been one of the most diverse since the Mesoamerican epoch. It is a completely mountainous territory, marked by the Sierra Madre del Sur and the Mixteca shield. It includes a portion of the Balsas River basin, characterized by its dryness and complicated geographical relief. Its river beds are shallow and of small capacity. In this sense, it appears much like Central Mexico.

There were two principal scenarios in the cultural history of the Oaxacan people. On the one hand, the Central Valley of Oaxaca saw the development of the Zapotec culture, one of the most ancient and well known of the Mesoamerican region. This culture was developed by the chiefdoms that controlled the arable land (which was very fertile, albeit dry) of the small valleys of Etla, Tlacolula, and Miahuatlán. Some of the first examples of great architecture in Mesoamerica were in this region, for example, the ceremonial center of San José Mogote. The hegemony of this center in the Valley region passed into the hands of Monte Albán, the Classical capital of the Zapotec. The fall of Teotihuacán in the 8th century CE permitted the great heights achieved by the Zapotec culture. However, the city of Monte Albán was abandoned in the 10th century CE, and gave way to a series of regional centers that fought among each other for political dominance.

The other principal scenario was that of the Mixtec region, which lies to the west of the Central Valley. The Mixtec region has also been occupied since prehistoric times. It has an extremely mountainous terrain of variable altitude, rising to more than 3000 meters. The climate varies from mountainous and temperate to tropical and dry, and rain is generally scarce. There is little running surface water, and presently, a good part of the area has become alarmingly deforested, a result of the ground-clearing agricultural practices of the ancient inhabitants of the region.

By the Pre-Classic period there were already important population centers in the region, such as Yucuita and Cerro de las Minas. However, the Mixtec capitals did not reach the magnitude of their Zapotec neighbors. The summit of the Mixtec culture was reached in the Post-Classical period, when Lord Ocho Venado de Tutupec y Tilantongo embarked on a campaign of political unification of the Mixtec city-states, and came to occupy the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.

Guerrero

Guerrero has traditionally been considered part of Western Mexico. However, recent discoveries have reoriented the divisions of the Mesoamerican cultural areas, and in the works of recent authors, Guerrero is regarded as an independent cultural area. The Guerrero region occupies approximately the area of the southern Mexican state of the same name. It can be divided into three regions with different characteristics: in the north, the Basin of the Balsas River, whose current is the defining characteristic of the regional geography. The Balsas Basin is a low-lying region, with a hot climate and scarce rainfall, whose dryness is mitigated by the presence of the Balsas River and its numerous branches. Central Guerrero corresponds to the Sierra Madre del Sur, a region rich in mineral deposits but poor in agricultural potential. Lastly, the southern part of the region consists of the Pacific coast, a wide coastal plain, full of mangroves and palms, battered by hurricanes from the south.

Guerrero was the site of the first pottery traditions in Mesoamerica. The most ancient remains have been found in Puerto Marqués, near Acapulco, and are about 3500 years old. During the Pre-Classic period, the Balsas Basin became an area of vital importance for the cultural development of the Olmec, who left signs of their presence in areas such as Teopantecuanitlán and the grottos of Juxtlahuaca. Later came the development of a sculptural tradition known as Mezcala, characterized by its geometrization of the human form. During the Post-Classical period, the greater part of Guerrero remained under the domination of the Mexica, and only the Tlapanec lands of Yopitzinco remained independent.

The West

The Western Region is one of the least known areas of Mesoamerica. It is an extensive region that comprises the slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, a part of the Sierra Madre del Sur y and the middle and lower basin of the Lerma River. The foothills of the mountain were covered by forests of pine and oak, but forestry in the area has reduced its size. The land is suited to cultivation due to its fertility and abundant water resources, especially in the coastal plain of Sinaloa, the Bajío, and the Tarascan Plateau. The climate varies from cold in the mountains, in the east of Michoacán, to tropical along the coast of Nayarit.

This region was inhabited by Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples, such as the Cora, the Huichol, and the Tepehuano. The incorporation of these peoples into the sphere of Mesoamerican civilization was very gradual, and it is presumed that the first ceramics developed in this region were linked to traditions of the Andean people of Ecuador and Perú. The changes that clearly affected the rest of the region are less observable in the West, and for that reason, the cultural traditions of the Pre-Classical period, such as those of the Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit, or those of the Tumbas de Tiro survived well into the Classical period (150-750 CE). The best known of the western societies is the Purépecha, or Tarascan, which rivaled the power of the Mexica during the 15th century CE.

The North

The North of Mesoamerica formed part of the cultural superarea only during the Classical era (150-750 CE), during which Teotihuacan's apogee, and population growth, favored migration towards the north and commerce with distant Oasisamerica. The region is flat, compressed between the mountain ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental. The climate is dry, if not desert-like, with scarce vegetation, for which reason agriculture was only possible through the canalization of surface water currents (especially the Pánuco River and the Lerma tributaries) and the storage of rain water. The excessive dependence on good weather led the people of the North to abandon the region in the middle of the 8th century after enduring a prolonged drought and invasions of Aridoamerican people.

The centers of population in the North were dependent on the network of commerce that was established between Teotihuacan and the Oasisamerican societies. Sites such as La Quemada in Zacatecas, and La Ferrería in Durango served as forts to guard the commercial routes. When agriculture and the social system collapsed in the North, the occupants of the region migrated towards the West, the Gulf, and the Center of Mexico.

Centroamerica

The area known as Centroamerica occupies the Pacific coasts of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. The climate of this region is tropical, with important geological activity, and includes the great Mediterranean lakes of Central America: Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua. As in the case of the northern region, Centroamerica formed part of the Mesoamerican world only temporarily. It is customary to count the Centroamerican peoples as part of the transition zone between the Andean world and Mesoamerica. Their first contact with the center of Mesoamerica occurred in the Pre-Classical period, as indicated by the Olmec influence in the area. However, in the Classical period relations were interrupted and Centroamerica received significant cultural influences from the Colombian Altiplano. The development of metallurgy in Centroamerica, for example, occurred much earlier than in the rest of Mesoamerica. During the Post-Classical period, the area was again part of the Mesoamerican sphere, and was invaded by the Pipil and Nicarao, both speakers of Nahuatl, a dialect of the language of the Mexica.

Common characteristics of Mesoamerican culture

Paul Kirchhoff, at the same time that he defined the geographical limits of Mesoamerica, proposed a set of cultural characteristics common to the various peoples of Mesoamerica. He realized that if one were to give a precise definition of Mesoamerican culture it would have to go further then simple material characteristics such as the cultivation of corn, the use of cotton, etc., and also include the cultural aspects that originated from the early sedentary societies of the region. Among these common cultural features of the Pre-Columbian peoples of geographic Mesoamerica are the use of two different calendars, a religious calendar of 260 days, and another calendar of 365 days, a base twenty number system, a pictographic written language, the practice of human sacrifice, and the worship of various divinities (most notably Tláloc, Quetzalcóatl, and Huehuetéotl). Along with several other characteristics the aforementioned give a general classification to what makes a culture Mesoamerican.

The 260-day calendar

The 260-day calendar, which originated around 1200 BCE, shows the evolution of the measurement of time in Mesoamerican culture. Not only was it used as a tool to govern agriculture, observe religious holidays, and mark the position of the stars (though it did these things), but was also used to predict the future and establish human destinies.

The names used to identify the days, months, and years in the Mesoamerican world come, for the most part, from the magical and religious view the Pre-Classical Mesoamericans had of the environment in which they lived. The various measurements of time were named after animals, flowers, the stars, and death. This calendar was used in all of the cultural zones of Mesoamerica—from the Olmec in Oaxaca, to the Maya in the Yucatan and the Central High Plateau.

Glyphic writing

The glyphic writing of Mesoamerica, and its usage, has been the subject of much scholarly debate. Since the beginning there has been discussion on whether or not the Mesoamerican glyphic system (excluding the Maya glyphs) was an example of a written language to express ideas, specifically those of religious nature, that had no phonetic connection, or if it were simply like other pictographic languages. Pictographic writings tend to clearly represent some object or concept, whereas the Mesoamerican writings seem to have had a large variety of meanings, not only artistic, but also religious and cultural. The glyphs can be understood as characters, animals, dates, and place names, among other things, and are present in all of the Mesoamerican cultures, including Teotihuacan, where the glyphs are beautiful and artistically rendered, and are both pictographic and ideographic.

The purpose of writing varied between different Mesoamerican peoples: it allowed for the interpretations of the cosmos and the divining of a person's future, as well as preserving the myths and histories of the various peoples. Writing was done by the literate priests, the only class that would have been capable of reading the glyphs, and was recorded on large stones or in manuscripts.

Another very important use of writing was the legitimization and reinforcement of power by the ruling class. The Mesoamerican language was inscribed onto enormous public monuments, such as murals, stelae, and pyramids, and gave the common people an explanation of the power of their masters, making simple glyphic pictographs which even the peasants could understand an early form of propaganda.

Offerings to the Earth

The burying of rich offerings in the earth at the ceremonial centers is a tradition from the beginning of Mesoamerican society when the nomadic peoples began to settle. Ceremonial and secular spaces were distinguished, to establish a cosmic order in the world, created to justify the position of the rulers over the ruled and to pay tribute to the earth, which was deified by the Mesoamericans, to maintain this order.

An offering to the original gods, the old fire from the volcano and the Earth Mother, was typical. Offerings from all the individuals of a community would consist of a mound of earth, and, later, the construction of pyramids, and these structures would be used in the future for the giving of the offering and various other religious activities.

The offerings were an important part of the ceremonial center, giving it ideological and religious power. Looting the offerings would eradicate the religious power of the temple. The exact significance of the objects is not known with certainty, but they have always been thought to have magical powers, and this power was independent of the age of the objects in question.

Human sacrifice

It must be noted that human sacrifice was not just killing for the sake of killing. The act of sacrifice had a great religious and political significance. The sacrifice symbolized the renewal of the divine cosmic energy. The gods had given life to mankind by sacrificing parts of their own bodies, and the Mesoamericans believed that humans should give their lives in order to maintain order in the universe.

Blood signified life in Mesoamerican belief. Human blood was the liquid that satisfied the thirst of the gods (in this case the Sun god), because human blood was partially made up of the blood of the gods to whom it was being returned. The blood would not only revitalize the gods, but also the earth, the plants (in particular the maize harvest), and the animals (for example the jaguar and the eagle). Blood was viewed as as necessary for life as water, both in the terrestrial world and the world of the gods.

This obligation to revitalize the cosmic order is seen reflected in Mesoamerican culture through the images used to evoke the sacrifice: eagles and jaguars devouring human hearts; jade circles or necklaces that represented hearts; images which showed pleas for rain or pleas for blood, with the same intention—to replenish the divine energy; plants and flowers that symbolized both nature and blood that gushed forth life.

What importance did the sacrifice have in the social and religious aspects of Mesoamerican Culture? First, it showed death transformed into the divine. Death is the consequence of a human sacrifice, but it is not the end; it is but the continuation of of the cosmic cycle. Death creates life—divine energy is liberated through death and returns to the gods, who are then able to create more life. Secondly, it justifies war, since the most valuable sacrifices are obtained thereby: the death of the warrior is the greatest sacrifice, and gives the gods the energy to go about their daily activities, such as the bringing of rain. Warfare and the capturing of prisoners became a method of social advancement, and a religious cause. Finally, it justifies the control of power by the two ruling classes, the priests and the warriors. The priests control the religious ideology, and the warriors supply the sacrifices through war and the conquest of new territory (with its corresponding tribute), making both of these classes crucial to the functioning of the Mesoamerican way of life.

Polytheism

The great breadth of the Mesoamerican pantheon of deities is due to the incorporation of ideological and religious elements from the first primitive religion of Fire, Earth, Water and Nature. Astral divinities (the sun, stars, constellations, and Venus) were adopted, and represented in anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and anthropozoomorphic sculptures, and in day-to-day objects.

The qualities of these gods and their attributes changed with the passage of time and with cultural influences from other Mesoamerican groups. The gods are at once three different cosmic entities, and at the same time just one. An important characteristic of Mesoamerican religion was the dualism among the divine entities. The gods represented the confrontation between opposite poles: the positive, exemplified by light, the masculine, force, war, the sun, etc.; and the negative, exemplified by darkness, the feminine, repose, peace, the moon, etc.

Dualist system of thought

One must understand the capacity of indigenous peoples to think in contrary, dualistic categories under one mode of thought; the Mesoamerican spirit is marked by this tendency, as much in religion and politics as in popular belief and daily behavior. This thought system was born of the superposition of the Nahuas and indigenous people, that is, of a cultural fusion between both; there exist innumerable manifestations of this thought system, but here we consider only the most representative examples: nagualismo and the ball game.

Nagualism

Nagualism is the capacity of human beings to connect with their animal side. This word refers both to the animal aspect of human beings and to the ability of humans to incarnate themselves in an animal. However, the basic belief is that one can be both human and animal at the same time. This relationship between human and animal is strictly an individual one, unlike the belief in totems that have significance to an entire group. Some common nahualli (one's corresponding animal) were the jaguar and the eagle; less majestic animals such as the dog, the armadillo, and the tlacuache, also fulfilled this role.

Nagualism has been represented in diverse forms in pre-Hispanic art. The first form, barely understandable to us today, seems at first glance to be of an armadillo or a jaguar, but in fact what it represents is a nahualli of a God or a king. The second form is clearer: the man and his double are imagined together like a anthropozoomorphic creature, that is to say, having human parts, which might be the head and arms, for example, and animal parts which could be the legs, beak, tail, etc. Nagualismo is a typical idea of Mesoamerica by which man-animal designates itself to the relation exclusively.

The ballgame

The ball game is one of the more important cultural characteristics of Mesoamérica. Although its name may lead some to believe it was a sport, it was actually more of a ritual, and the field where it was played was always located between ceremonial centers. This game had a cosmic essence, related to the movement of the sun and the universe; this movement was imagined with the aid of the ball, which was made of hardened rubber that was removed from the sap of a fig tree; they used mainly this material because of its capacity to bounce.

The game had many rules, which changed from region to region. There was one version that could be played only with the hands, another one which used the hips and the elbows, and a version in which only a bat was used. For each type different playing fields were used: one with sidewalks so that the ball bounced to the height of the hip, and another with the ground dug up. In general all the fields had the form of a letter "I" and on the ends one could find heads of birds, as in Copán, or a large ring which the ball had to pass through, as in Xochicalco. The ball game concluded with a human sacrifice; it is not known if the one sacrificed was the captain of the winning team or of the losers; in most of the cases the players were prisoners of war.

Magic and logic

Medicine

Mesoamerican science and learning can be thought of as existing along two principal axes: those of the magical mind and the logical mind, which, despite being distinct, managed to coexist. In the field of medicine there were two schools: one was the shamanist tradition, where shaman is understood as being a priestly healer who dealt with certain ailments, the most common of which was the loss of the soul. In order to cure his patients, the shaman turned to psychotropic drugs (peyote, tobacco, red beans mixed with mescaline) and magical manipulations (incantations, offerings).

The other school of medicine consisted of pragmatic knowledge. In Mesoemerica there were healers who knew how to deal with fractures, treat and dress wounds, and were even able to perform certain obstetric procedures. They also knew how to treat using plants, and successfully used the active ingredient in aspirin, which at that time was already known, and extracted from willow bark.

Arithmetic

Arithmetic did not just deal with ordinary numbers, rather, numbers were held to have both a literal and a symbolic value, a consequence of the dualistic way of thinking. The Mesoamerican system was vigesimal, that is, it used the number 20 as a base; numbers were represented by dots that had a value of one, and bars that had a value of five. This type of arithmetic was combined with a symbolic numerology: '2' was related to origins, as all origins can be thought of as doubling; '3' was related to household fire; '4' was linked to the four corners of the universe; '5' expressed instablity; '9' pertained to the underworld and the night; '13' was the number for light, '20' for abundance, and '400' for infinity. This was also the first culture to have a concept of, and a symbolic representation for, the number zero.

One of the great contributions to arithmetic, above all that of the Mexica, was the invention of the Nepohualtzitzin, an abacus used to quickly carry out arithmetical operations. The device, made of wood, string, and grains of maize, is also known as the "Aztec computer".

Astronomy

Astronomy was born out of the observation of the heavenly bodies and the symbolic construction of cosmic life. The Mesoamericans believed that the heavens were organized according to regular cycles that gave rise to the progression of the seasons and astronomical phenomena. Figures such as animals and plants were associated with the different constellations. Astronomical knowledge was accumulated over the course of millennia. The culmination of this process was the invention of the calendar (which had its roots in the middle pre-Classical period), which was not based so much on the observation of the skies as on arithmetic:

"The Mesoamericans preferred to construct a more abstract calendar, based on the correlation between two distinct calculations, with a structure more mathematical than astronomical. For example, it is surprising that they preferred the year of 360 days (18 months of 20 days) to the 365-day year of the Maya Long Count (Duverger 1999: 71).

The symbolism of space and time

The terms space, and time are associated with the four cardinal compass points, and are linked together by the calendar, assuring thereby the recurrence of qualities possessed by space. In Mesoamérica a date or an event was always tied to a compass direction, and the calendar specified the symbolic geographical characteristic peculiar to that period. The name of each day is associated with a cardinal point, which conferred a magical significance to it. Below are the symbols and concepts associated with each direction:

• The symbols associated with the East were: the crocodile, the serpent, water, cane, and movement. The East was associated with vegetative fertility, or, in other words, tropical exuberance, and was also linked to the world of the priests.
• The symbols associated with the North were: wind, death, the dog, the jaguar, pedernal (a mineral similar to obsidian, in composition and in uses). This direction contrasts with the East because symbolically the North is dry, cold, and oppressive. It is considered to be the nocturnal part of the universe, and includes the dwellings of the dead. The dog (xoloitzcuintle) has a very specific meaning, as it is the one who accompanies the deceased during the trip to the lands of the dead and helps them cross the river of death that leads into nothingness.
• The symbols associated with the West were: the house, the deer, the monkey, the eagle, and rain. The west was associated with the cycles of vegetation in Mesoamerica, specifically the temperate high plains that experience light rains, and the change of seasons.
• The symbols associated with the South were: the rabbit, the lizard, dried herbs, the buzzard, and the flower. It is related on the one hand to the luminous Sun and the noon heat, and on the other with rain filled with alcoholic drink. The rabbit, the principal symbol of the West, was associated with farmers and with pulque.

From this it can be said that a key characteristic of Mesoamerican culture is a symbolic geography, one that deals with imaginary qualities rather than with a specific place; otherwise, these symbols would not be applied to Mesoamerica in general, but instead an infinite number would exist for each geographical region.

Territory and ceremonial centers

Ceremonial centers were the nucleii of Mesoamerican settlements. They gave rise to urban development, in that towns were literally planned around the temple, being nothing more than an extension of the holy center, which for its part constituted the heart of the sacred space. The temples provided spatial orientation, which was imparted to the surrounding town. The cities with their commercial and religious centers were always political entities, somewhat similar to the European city-state, and each person could identify themself with the city in which they lived, a concept well expressed in the quote below:

"Men are not tribal; the natural ethnocentrocism of peoples makes practically everyone identify with their fellow man. However, the ethnic diversity of Mesoamerica does not permit the association of one ethnic group to one territory, therefore the city is what creates the identity: to be Mexica means to live in Mexico; to be Zapotec means to inhabit Zapotlán." (Duverger, 1996: 77)

The ceremonial centers were always built to be visible. The pyramids were meant to stand out from the rest of the city, to represent its gods and their powers. Another characteristic feature of the ceremonial centers is historic layers. All of the ceremonial edifices were built in various phases, one on top of the other, to the point that what we now see is usually the last stage of construction. Ultimately, the ceremonial centers were the architectural translation of the identity of each city, as represented by the veneration of their gods and masters.

Journey to the afterlife

In this period there were various conceptions of the afterlife, and therefore various funeral practices: simple or complex, involving graves, burial chambers, urns, etc. Cremation was also practiced. Today it is known that both a person's social status, and the manner in which they died, were two factors that determined the type of burial they received. All this comes from the idea of a journey after death, in which the tomb was the point of departure to the world beyond. The Mesoamericans believed in three destinies: the first was the celestial journey, in which participated only those who had died in the field of battle, or on the sacrificial stone, or in childbirth. This first was known as Cincalco (house of corn). The second was a journey below the earth that consisted of a subterranean pilgrimage that took the dead to the extreme north of the world. This place was called Mictlan (place of the dead). The third destiny was the journey toward the solar paradise, which was found toward the east. It was an area dominated by the sun, and in Nahuatl, was given the name Tonatiuhichan (house of the sun).

In each burial food and drink were left in earthenware vessels so that the dead would be able to feed themselves during the journey. They were also given masks to protect themselves from the cold. Today some indigenous tribes still place pesos between the fingers of the dead in order to cover the costs of the journey.

Political and religious art

Mesoamerican artistic expression was conditioned by ideology, a mix of both religion and power; most of the works that survived the Spanish conquest were public monuments. This type of art was made principally for public display, and played a key role in the keeping of time, affirming the greatness of the city, and in the veneration of the gods. There existed another type of pre-Hispanic art that was produced for its inner, rather than outward, meaning. It is differentiated from the first type in that its value is not so much in what is observed, but rather in what it represents. The earthenware containers, for example, that were used in burial rituals, or in the invisible faces of statues, are both examples of this second type of art.

Art remained anonymous, and to this day no signature has ever been found associated with any work. Furthermore, it is said that Mesoamerican art was abstract, though not in the figurative sense, but in the manner in which it is disconnected from any natural references.

Despite all that, the pre-Hispanic art is also considered extremely intellectual, capable of liberating itself from all realist obligation. Following this idea, two observations emerge: the first refers to the austere image that archaeology has presented: generally it prefers noble things and museum pieces, while disdaining perishable artifacts, even if it is certain that these were essential for Mesoamerican ceremonial centers.

The second observation refers to the problem of counterfeiting that still persists today. The inspiration of these forgeries plays an important role in that new designs have been invented in order to sell artifacts to collecters, obviously attracted by their novelty. This has been a consequence of the poor understanding of Mesoamerican art.

Material organization

The state

Mesoamerican culture advanced with the first manifestations of the Olmec culture in 1200 BCE. These indicate that, even though they were still not agriculturists, they possessed state-like organizations. These societies consisted of a power structure and a very elaborate division of work; the territorial organization was based around the city, which was based in turn around a ceremonial center. They also used money, in the form of feathers, pieces of cotton, seeds, grains, and later metal.

Corn and agriculture

Mesoamerica is described as the "daughter of maize", and would never have achieved its level of development without this crop. Maize, therefore, was the single most important fact of both daily and religious life. More than just a natural resource, it is seen as the principal feature of an agricultural society. The Mesoamericans also obtained food through harvesting, hunting and fishing; they consumed greens, fruits, cactus fruits, such as the pitaya, prickly pear, and maguey worms. Further, they ate pineapple, papaya and mamey. They hunted iguanas, frogs, snakes, and gathered different types of mollusks. One can see their sources of food varied greatly, and were rich in nutrients.

Chronology

Mesoamerican civilization is a complex network of different cultures. As seen in the time-line below, these did not necessarily occur at the same time. The processes that gave rise to each of the cultural systems of Mesoamerica were very complex and not determined solely by the internal dynamics of each society. External as well as endogenous factors influenced their development. Among these factors, for example, were the relations between human groups and between humans and the environment, human migrations, and natural disasters.

Time-line

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Cultural horizons of Mesoamerica

Historians and archaeologists divide Mesoamerican history into three periods, each of which is described below. It is important to note that the dates mentioned are approximations, and that the transition from one period to another did not occur at the same time nor under the same circumstancs in all societies. In fact, some authors have challenged the Euro-centric vision of this chronology, which is very analogous to that of Ancient Greece.

Pre-Classical period

The Pre-Classical period ran from 2500 BCE to 200 CE. Its beginnings are marked by the development of the first ceramic traditions in the West, specifically at sites such as Matanchén, Nayarit, and Puerto Marqués, in Guerrero. Some authors hold that the early development of pottery in this area is related to the ties between South America and the coastal peoples of Mexico. The advent of ceramics is taken as an indicator of a sedentary society, and it signals the divergence of Mesoamerica from the hunter-gatherer societies in the desert to the north.

The Pre-Classical period is divided into three phases: the Early (2500-1200 BCE), Middle (1500-600 BCE), and Late (600 BCE-200 CE). During the first phase, the manufacture of ceramics was widespread across the entire region, the cultivation of maize and other vegetables became well-established, and society started to become socially stratified in a process that concluded with the appearance of the first hierarchical societies along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the early Pre-Classic period, the Capacha culture acted as a driving force in the process of civilizing Mesoamerica, and its pottery spread widely across the region.

Around 1500 BCE, the cultures of the West entered a period of decline, accompanied by an assimilation into the other peoples with whom they had maintained connections. As a result, there emerged Tlatilco in the Valley of Mexico, and the Olmec culture in the Gulf. Tlatilco was one of the principal Mesoamerican population centers of this period. Its people were adept at harnessing the natural resources of Lake Texcoco and at cultivating maize. Some authors posit that Tlatilco was founded and inhabited by the ancestors of today's Otomí people. The Olmecs, on the other hand, had entered into an expansionist phase that led them to construct their first works of monumental architecture, in La Venta and San Lorenzo. The Olmecs exchanged tropical goods within their own core area, and they controlled the mineral deposits of Guerrero and Morelos, where they established various enclaves such as Teopantecuanitlan and Atlihuayán. Their influence was felt as far away as Nicoya and Costa Rica, and throughout the Maya area. The momentum of the Olmec culture extended it as far as its neighbors to the southeast and Oaxaca, and it contributed to the initial development of the cultures of Kaminaljuyú and San José Mogote. The latter ceded dominance of the Oaxacan plateau to Monte Albán toward the end of the middle Pre-Classical period. During this same time, the Chupícuaro culture flourished in Bajío, while along the Gulf the Olmecs entered a period of decline.

Among the great cultural milestones that marked the Middle Pre-Classical Period are the development of the first writing systems and the base 20 number system in the central Olmec area and Monte Albán. During this period, the Mesoamerican societies were highly stratified. The connections between different centers of power permitted the rise of regional elites that controlled natural resources and peasant labor. This social differentiation was based on the possession of certain technical knowledge, such as astronomy, writing, and commerce. Furthermore, the Middle Pre-Classical period saw the beginnings of the process of urbanization that would come to define the societies of the Classical period. Some population centers such as Tlatilco, Monte Albán, and Cuicuilco flourished in the final stages of the Pre-Classical period. Meanwhile, the Olmec populations shrank and ceased to be major players in the area.

Toward the end of the Post-Classical period, political and commercial hegemony shifted to the population centers in the Valley of Mexico. Around Lake Texcoco there existed a number of villages that grew into true cities: Tlatilco and Cuicuilco are examples. The former was found on the northern bank of the lake, while the latter was on the slopes of the mountainous region of Ajusco. Tlatilco maintained strong relationships with the cultures of the West, so much so that Cuicuilco controlled commerce in the Maya area, Oaxaca, and the Gulf coast. The rivalry between the two cities ended with the decline of Tlatilco. Meanwhile at Monte Albán in Oaxaca, the Zapotec had begun developing culturally independent of the Olmec, adopting aspects of that culture and but making their own contributions as well. On the southern coast of Guatemala, Kaminaljuyú advanced in the direction of what would be the Classic Maya culture, even though its links to Central Mexico and the Gulf would initially provide their cultural models. Apart from the West, where the tradition of the Tumbas de Tiro had taken root, in all the regions of Mesoamerica the cities grew in wealth, with monumental constructions carried out according to urban plans that were surprisingly complex. The circular pyramid of Cuicuilco dates from this time, as well as the central plaza of Monte Albán, and the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan.

Around the year 0, Cuicuilco had disappeared, and the hegemony over the Mexican basin had passed to Teotihuacan. The next two centuries marked the period in which the so-called City of the gods consolidated its power, becoming the premier Mesoamerican city of the first millennium, and the principal political, economic, and cultural center for the next seven centuries.

The Olmec

For many years, the Olmec culture was thought to be the 'mother culture' of Mesoamerica, because of the great influence that it exercised throughout the region. However, more recent perspectives consider this culture to be more of a process to which all the contemporary peoples contributed, and which eventually crystallized on the coasts of Veracruz and Tabasco. The ethnic identity of the Olmecs is still widely debated. Based on linguistic evidence, archaeologists and anthropologists generally believe that they were either speakers of an Oto-Manguean language, or (more likely) the ancestors of the present-day Zoque people who live in the north of Chiapas and Oaxaca. According to this second hypothesis, Zoque tribes emigrated toward the south after the fall of the major population centers of the Gulf plains. Whatever their origin, these bearers of Olmec culture arrived at the leeward shore some eight thousand years BCE, entering like a wedge among the fringe of proto-Maya peoples who lived along the coast, a fact that would explain the separation of the Huastecs of the north of Veracruz from the rest of the Maya peoples based in the Yucatan peninsula and Guatemala.

The Olmec culture represents a milestone of Mesoamerican history, in that various characteristics that define the region first appeared there. Among them are the state organization, the development of the 260-day ritual calendar and the 365-day secular calendar, the first writing system, urban planning, and the multi-ethnic nature of the population. The development of this culture started around the 14th century BCE, though it continued to consolidate itself up to the 12th century BCE. Its principal sites were La Venta, San Lorenzo, and Tres Zapotes in the core region. However, throughout Mesoamerica numerous sites show evidence of Olmec occupation, especially in the Balsas river basin, where Teopantecuanitlan is located. This site is quite enigmatic, since it dates from several centuries earlier than the main populations of the Gulf, a fact which has continued to cause controversy and given rise to the hypothesis that the Olmec culture originated in that region.

Among the best-known expressions of Olmec culture are giant stone heads, sculptured monoliths up to three metres in height and several tons in weight. These feats of Olmec stonecutting are especially impressive when one considers that Mesoamericans lacked iron tools and that the heads are at sites dozens of kilometers from the quarries where their basalt was mined. The function of these monuments is unknown. Some authors propose that they were commorative monuments for notable players of the ball game, and others that they were images of the Olmec governing elite.

The Olmec are also known for their small carvings made of jade (a popular material in Mesoamerica), and other small carvings in basalt. So many of the Olmec figurines and sculptures contain representations of the were-jaguar, that, according to José María Covarrubias, they could be forerunners of the worship of the rain god, or maybe a predecessor of the future Tezcatlipoca in his manifestation as Tepeyolohtli, the "Heart of the Mountain"

The exact causes of the Olmec decline are unknown. It is associated with political conflicts among the elite and the principal power holders, and with invasions by other peoples. As has been said, the Zoques could have been descendants of the Olmec, expelled from the central area. Even so, one cannot ignore the fact that some of them would have come to the Oaxacan Valley, to the Maya highlands, or to the central basin of Mexico, where they contributed to the development of the Zapotec culture and to the Maya, and to the height of Teotihuacan in the Classical Period.

Classical period

The Classical period of Mesoamerica includes the years from 200 to 900 CE. The end point of this period varied from region to region: for example, in the center of Mexico it is related to the fall of the regional centers of the late Classical (sometimes called Epiclassical) period, towards the year 900; in the Gulf, with the decline of El Tajín, in the year 800; in the Mayan area, with the abandonment of the highland cities in the 9th century; and in Oaxaca, with the disappearance of Monte Albán around 850. Normally, the Classical period in Mesoamerica is characterized as the stage in which the arts, science, urbanism, architecture, and social organization reached their peak. This is true, but no less important for our understanding is the fact that this is a period dominated by the influence of Teotihuacan throughout the region, and that the competition between the different Mesoamerican states led to continuous warfare.

This period of Mesoamerican history can be divided into two phases. The first is known as early Classical, and includes the period 200–600 CE. The second is the late Classical, which went from 600–800/900 CE. The early Classical period was dominated by Teotihuacan. In fact, it started with that city's expansionist policy, which led it to control the principal trade routes of Mesoamerica. During this time, the process of urbanization that started in the last centuries of the early pre-Classical period was consolidated. The principal centers of this phase were Monte Albán, Tikal, and Calakmul, and then Teotihuacan, in which 80 percent of the 200,000 inhabitants of the Lake Texcoco basin were concentrated.

The cities of this era are characterized by their cosmopolitan nature, that is, by their multi-ethnic composition, which entails the cohabitation in the same population centers of people with different languages, cultural practices, and places of origin. During this period the alliances between the regional political elites were strengthened, especially for those allied with Teotihuacan. Also, social differentiation became more pronounced: a small dominant group ruled over the majority of the population. This majority was forced to pay tribute and participate in the building of public structures such as irrigation systems, religious edifices, and means of communication. The growth of the cities could not have happened without advances in agricultural methods and the strengthening of trade networks, which involved not only the peoples of Mesoamerica, but also the distant cultures of Oasisamerica.

The arts of Mesoamerica reached their high-point in this era. Especially notable are the Maya stelae (carved pillars), exquisite monuments commmemorating the stories of the families of the highland cities. Meanwhile in Teotihuacan, architecture made great advances: in this city the Classical style was defined by the construction of pyrimidal bases that sloped upward in a step-wise fashion. The Teotihuacan achitectural style was reproduced and modified in other cities throughout Mesoamerica, the clearest examples being the Zapotec capital of Monte Alban and Tikal in Guatemala. Centuries later, long after Teotihuacan was abandoned, cities of the post-Classical era followed the style of Teotihuacan construction, especially Tula, Tenochtitlan, and Chichén Itzá.

This period also saw many scientific advances. The Maya took the calendar and system of arithmetic that they had inherited from the Olmec to its highest level of development. Writing came to be used throughout Mesoamerica, even though it was regarded as a holy activity and practiced only by priests. Using the old Olmec system of writing as a base, other cultures developed their own, the most notable examples being those of the ñuiñe culture and the Zapotecs of Oaxaca. Astronomy became a matter of vital significance because of its importance for agriculature, the economic basis of Mesoamerican society.

The early Classical period ended with the decline of Teotihuacan. This allowed regional centers of power to flourish and compete for control of trade routes and the exploitation of natural resources. In this way the late Classical era commenced. As stated above, this was a time of political fragmentation during which no city had complete hegemony. Various population movements occurred during this period, caused by the incursion of groups from Aridoamerica and other northern regions, who pushed the older populations of Mesoamerica toward the south. Among these new groups were the Nahua, who would found the cities of Tula and Tenochtitlan, the two most important capitals of the post-Classical era. In addition to the migrations from the north, southern peoples finally established themselves in the center of Mexico. Among these were the Olmec-Xicalanca, who came from the Yucatan peninsula and founded Cacaxtla and Xochicalco.

In the Maya region, Tikal, Teotihuacan's old ally, shared the metropolis' decline. In its place, the cities of Palenque, Copán, and Yaxchilán arose. These and other city-states of the region found themselves involved in bloody wars that led to the ruin of the Classical Maya civilization. Toward the end of the late Classical period, the Maya stopped recording the years using the Long Count calendar, and many of their cities were burned and abandoned to the jungle. Meanwhile, in Oaxaca, Monte Alban reached the apex of its splendor, though it finally succumbed toward the end of the ninth century for reasons that are still unclear. Its fate was not much different than that of other cities such as La Quemada in the north and Teotihuacan in the center: it was burned and abandoned. In the last century of the Classical era, hegemony in the valley of Oaxaca passed to Lambityeco, several kilometers to the east.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan ("The City of the Gods" in Nahuatl) had its origins toward the end of the Pre-Classical period. Very little is known about its founders, but it is believed that the Otomí had an important role in the city's development, as they did in the ancient culture of the Valley of Mexico, represented by Tlatilco. At first, Teotihuacan competed with Cuicuilco for hegemony in the area. In this political and economic battle, Teotihuacan was aided by its control of the obsidian deposits in the Navaja mountains in Hidalgo. The decline of Cuicuilco is also still a mystery, but it is known that a large part of the former inhabitants resettled in Teotihuacan some years before the eruption of Xitle, which covered the southern town in lava.

Once free of competition in the area of the Lake of Mexico, Teotihuacan experienced an expansion phase that made it one of the largest cities of its time, not just in Mesoamerica, but in the entire world. During this period of growth, it attracted the vast majority of those then living in the Valley of Mexico.

Teotihuacan was completely dependent on agricultural activity, primarily the cultivation of maize, beans and squash, the Mesoamerican agricultural trinity. However, its political and economic hegemony was based on outside goods for which it enjoyed a monopoly: Anaranjado ceramics, produced in the Poblano-Tlaxcalteca valley, and the mineral deposits of the Hidalgan mountains. Both were highly valued throughout Mesoamerica, and were exchanged for luxury merchandise of the highest caliber, from places as far away as New Mexico and Guatemala. Because of this, Teotihuacan became the hub of the Mesoamerican trade network. Its partners were Monte Albán and Tikal in the southeast, Matacapan on the Gulf coast, Altavista in the north, and Tingambato in the west.

Teotihuacan refined the Mesoamerican pantheon of deities, whose origins dated from the time of the Olmec. Of special importance were the worship of Quetzalcóatl and Tláloc, agricultural deities. Trade links promoted the spread of these cults to other Mesoamerican societies, who took and transformed them. It was thought that Teotihuacan society had no knowledge of writing, but as Duverger demonstrates, the writing system of Teotihuacan was extremely pictographic, to the point that writing was confused with drawing.

The fall of Teotihuacan is associated with the emergence of city-states within the confines of the central area of Mexico. It is thought that these were able to flourish thanks to the decline of Teotihuacan, though things may have occurred in the opposite order: the cities of Cacaxtla, Xochicalco, Teotenango, and El Tajín could have first increased in power, and then were able to economically strangle Teotihuacan, trapped as it was in the center of the valley without access to trade routes. This occurred around 600 CE, and even though people continued to live there for another century and a half, the city was eventually destroyed and abandoned by its inhabitants, who took refuge in places such as Culhuacán and Azcapotzalco, on the shores of Lake Texcoco.

The Maya in the Classical period

The Maya were the creators of one of the most well known Mesoamerican cultures. Some authors, such as Michael D. Coe, think that the Mayan culture is completely different from the cultures surrounding it. However, many of the of the elements present in Maya culture are shared by the rest of Mesoamerica, including the use of two calendars, the base 20 number system, the cultivation of corn, human scarifice, and certain myths, such as that of the Fifth sun, and cultic worship, including the that of the Feathered Serpent and the Rain God, who in the Mayan Language was called Chaac.

The beginnings of Mayan culture date from the development of Kaminaljuyu, in the middle Pre-Classical period. However, the culture's characteristics features did not appear until the first century CE, and were inherited from the Olmecs of the Gulf who had migrated to the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala. The archealogical evidence indicates that the Maya never formed a united state; instead they were organized into small chiefdoms that were constantly at war. In fact, López Austin and López Luján have said that if there was one thing that characterized the pre-Classical Maya it was their bellicose nature. They were probably a people with a greater mastery of the art of war than Teotihuacan, yet they spread the idea, which persists today, that they were a peaceful society given to religious contemplation. Until much later the Maya practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism, both of which are confirmed by the murals of Bonampak, one of their most important cities.

The great Maya cities appeared relatively late, in comparison with other parts of Mesoamerica. By contrast, writing and the calendar were quite early developments, and some of the oldest commemorative monuments are from sites in the Maya region. Archaeologists used to think that the Maya sites functioned only as ceremonial centers, and that the common people lived in the surrounding villages. However, more recent excavations indicate the Maya sites enjoyed urban services as extensive as those of Teotihuacan—drainage, aqueducts, and pavement. The construction of these sites was carried out on the basis of a highly stratified society, dominated by the priestly class, who at the same time were the political elite.

This elite controlled agriculture, practiced by means of a system of ground-clearing; and, as in the rest of Mesoamerica, imposed on the lowest classes of the population taxes in kind or in labor, that permitted them to concentrate sufficient resources for the construction of public monuments, which legitimized the power of the elites and the social hierarchy. During the Classical Period, the Mayan political elite sustained strong ties to Teotihuacan, and it is possible that Tikal, the greatest of the cities in this area, may have been a Teotihuacan military outpost that controlled commerce with the highlands. Following the fall of Teotihuacan, Tikal also entered a period of recession, and its power passed into the hands of other cities located along the banks of the Usumacinta River, such as Palenque. Finally, it seems the great drought that ravaged Central America in the 9th century destroyed the Mayan political system, which led to popular uprisings and the defeat of the dominant political groups. Many cities were abandoned, remaining unknown until the 19th century, when the descendants of the Maya led a group of European and US archaeologists to these cities, which had been swallowed over the centuries by the jungle.

Post-Classical period

The Post-Classical period is the time between the year 900 and the conquest of Mesoamérica by the Spaniards, which occurred between 1521 and 1697. It was a period in which military activity became of great importance. The political elites associated with the priestly class were relieved of power by groups of warriors. In turn, at least a half century before the arrival of the Spaniards, the warrior class was yielding its positions of privilege to a very powerful group that were unconnected to the nobility: the pochtecas, merchants who obtained great political power by virtue of their economic power.

The Post-Classical Period is divided into two phases. The first is the early Post-Classical, which includes the 10th to the 13th century, and is characterized by the Toltec hegemony of Tula. The 12th century marks the beginning of the late Post-Classical period, which begins with the arrival of the Chichimec, linguistically related to the Toltecs and the Mexica, who established themselves in the Valley of Mexico in 1325, following a two-century pilgrimage from Aztlán, the exact location of which is unknown. Many of the social changes of this final period of Mesoamerican civilization are related to the migratory movements of the northern peoples. These peoples came from Oasisamerica, Aridoamerica, and the northern region of Mesoamerica, driven by climate changes that threatened their survival. The migrations from the north caused, in turn, the displacement of peoples who had been rooted in Mesoamerica for centuries; some of them left for Centroamerica.

There were many cultural changes during that time. One of them was the expansion of metallurgy, imported from South America, and whose oldest remnants in Mesoamerica come from the West, as is the case also with ceramics. The Mesoamericans did not achieve great facility with metals, in fact, their use was rather limited (a few copper axes, needles, and above all jewellery). The most advanced techniques of Mesoamerican metallurgy were developed by the mixtecos, who produced fine, exquisitely handcrafted articles. Architecture saw remarkable advances as well. The use of nails in architecture was introduced to support the sidings of the temples, mortar was improved, the use of columns and stone roofs was widespread—something that only the Maya had used during the Classic period. In agriculture, the system of irrigation became more complex; in the Valley of Mexico especially, chinampas were used extensively by the Mexica, who built a city of 200,000 around them.

The political system also underwent important changes. During the early post-Classical period, the warlike political elites legitimized their position by means of their adherence to a complex set of religious beliefs that López Austin called zuyuanidad. According to this system, the ruling classes proclaimed themselves the descendants of Quetzalcóatl, the Plumed Serpent, one of the creative forces, and a cultural hero in Mesoamerican mythology. They likewise declared themselves the heirs of a no less mythical city, called Tollan in Nahuatl, and Zuyuá in Maya (from which López Austin derives the name for the belief system). Many of the important capitals of the time identified themselves with this name (for example, Tollan Xicocotitlan, Tollan Chollollan, Tollan Teotihuacan). The Tollan of myth was for a long time identified with Tula, in Hidalgo state, but Enrique Florescano and López Austin have claimed that this has no basis. Florescano states that the mythical Tollan was Teotihuacan; López Austin argues that Tollan was simply a product of the Mesoamerican religious imagination. Another feature of the zuyuano system was the formation of alliances with other city-states that were controlled by groups having the same ideology; such was the case with the League of Mayapán in Yucatan, and the Mixtec confederation of Ocho Venado, based in the Oaxacan mountains. These early post-Classical societies can be characterized by their military nature and multi-ethnic populations.

However, the fall of Tula checked the power of the zuyuano system, which finally broke down with the dissolution of the League of Mayapán, the Mixtec state, and the abandonment of Tula. Mesoamerica received new immigrants from the north, and although these groups were related to the ancient Toltecs, they had a completely different ideology than the existing residents. The final arrivals were the Mexica, who established themselves on a small island on Lake Texcoco under the dominion of the Texpanecs of Azcapotzalco. This group would, in the following decades, conquer a large pat of Mesoamerica, creating a united and centralized state whose only rivals were the Tarascan of Michoacán. Neither one of them could defeat the other, and it seems that a type of non-aggression pact was established between the two peoples. When the Spaniards arrived many of the peoples controlled by the Mexica no longer wished to continue under their rule. Therefore, they took advantage of the opportunity presented by the Europeans, agreeing to support them, thinking that in return they would gain their freedom, and not knowing that this would lead to the subjugation of all of the Mesoamerican world.

The Mexica

Of all Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, perhaps the best-known is that of the Mexica, sometimes called the Aztec. Among other things, its fame is due to the fact that the Mexica state was the richest and most powerful in the region, which came at the cost of exploiting the surrounding peoples. At the time of the Mexican conquest, many missionaries were preoccupied with preserving the cultural history of the Nahau people, and for that reason our body of knowledge about them is much greater in breadth and quality.

The Mexica people came from the north or the west of Mesoamerica. The Nayaritas believed that the mythic Aztlán was located on the island of Mexcaltitán. Some hypothesize that this mythical island could have been located somewhere in the state of the Zacatecas, and it has even been proposed that it was as far north as New Mexico. Whatever the case, they were probably not far removed from the classic Mesoamerican tradition. In fact, they shared many characteristics with the people of central Mesoamerica. The Mexicas spoke Nahuatl, the same language spoken the Toltecs and the Chichimecs who came before them.

The departure from Aztlán is deduced to have occurred in the first decades of the 12th century (1311), based on the document known as the Tira de la Peregrinación, a codex in which notable events of migration are recorded according to the Nahua calendar. After much wandering, the Mexicas arrived at the basin of the Mexico Valley in the 14th century. They established themselves at various points along the bank of the river (for example, Culhuacán and Tizapán), before settling on the Islet of Mexico, protected by Tezozómoc, king of the Texpanecas. The city of Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 as an ally of Azcapotzalco, but less than a century later, in 1430, the Mexicas joined with Texcoco and Tlacopan to wage war against Azcapotzalco and emerge victorious. This gave birth to the Triple Alliance that replaced the ancient confederation ruled by the Tecpanecas (which included Coatlinchan and Culhuacán).

In the earliest days of the Triple Alliance, the Mexica initiated an expansionist phase that led them to control a good part of Mesoamerica. During this time only a few regions retained their independence: Tlaxcala (Nahua), Meztitlán (Ootomí), Teotitlán del Camino (Cuicatec), Tututepec (Mixtec), Tehuantepec (Zapotec), and the Maya area of the west (ruled at that time by their rivals, the Tarascans). The provinces controlled by the Triple Alliance were obliged to pay a tribute to Tenochtitlan; these payments are recorded in another codex known as the Matrícula de los tributos (Registry of Tribute). This document specifies the quantity and type of every item that each province had to pay to the Mexicas.

The Mexica state was conquered by the Spanish froces of Hernán Cortés and their Tlaxcalan and Zempoaltecan allies in 1521. The defeat of Mesoamerica was complete when, in 1697, Tayasal was burned and razed by the Spanish.

Bibliography

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• Duverger, Christian (1999): Mesoamérica, arte y antropología. CONACULTA-Landucci Editores. Paris. ISBN 97-018-3751-7.
• Miller, Mary Ellen. (2001). El arte de mesoamérica. "Colecciones El mundo del arte". Ediciones Destino. Barcelona, España. ISBN 84-233-3095-8.

References

• This article draws heavily on the [corresponding article] in the [Spanish-language Wikipedia], which was accessed in the version of 29 May 2006. It was translated by the [Spanish Translation of the WeekSpanish Translation of the Week] collaboration.

External links

• [Mesoweb.com - an comprehensive site for Mesoamerican civilizations]
• [Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.]
• [Mesoamerican Peace Project]
• [Mesoamericas] Ancient Mesoamerica Explored
• () [Selected bibliography] concerning war in Mesoamerica
• () [National Museum of Anthropology and History] (Mexico)
• () [Museum of the Templo Mayor] (Mexico)

 

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