Legacy of mesoamerica exam 1

The characteristics of mesoamerica (Kirchoff 1943) 

 Economic Traits:

• Maize, Beans and Squash

•  Obsidian Tools

• Plaster in Architecture

•  Market Exchange

 Political Characteristics:

• Large Monumental Centers

• The Mesoamerican Ballgame

 Religious Practices:

• Shared Pantheon of Gods

•  Ritual Importance of Blood Sacrifice

•  The Number 13

•  Common Ritual Calendar

•  Ritual Importance of Cyclical Astronomic Events

Carmack et al’s definition of mesoamerica

 A particular historical tradition of Indigenous cultures, or “civilization.”

 Constantly undergoing change (before, during and after Colonial contact).

 A complex mixture of regional and local cultures.

 A cohesive legacy of cultural tradition.

 Never politically or linguistically unified.

What do we call the people? Self-identity and “Mesoamericans”

 When referring to the region in a scholarly way, we may call them “Mesoamericans”—but that is not what they call themselves

 Most peoples self-identify as members of an ethnic group (Mayas, Nahuas) or local community (Chamulas, Zinacantanecos)

 The words “Indian” and “Ladino” are highly charged, with specific meanings from Colonial history

• Use these only when referring to historical documentary sources.

• We will talk about the history of these words, and their meanings in colonial and modern activist contexts.

• Generally, it is ok to specify if someone identifies as “Indigenous” or not.

Defining Mesoamerica—culture and politics

 It is important to recognize that most of Mesoamerica was never politically unified.

 Even the Aztec Empire, the Tarascan Empire and the Mayapan confederacy (the largest political entities prior to European contact) never controlled the whole region.

 During the Colonial period, the region was partially unified under “New Spain,” but was sub-divided into vice-royalties of New Spain, Soconusco, Guatemala and Yucatan.

 The modern country of Mexico was mostly formed following the end of the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, but never included Guatemala, Belize, Honduras or El Salvador

Major language families of Mesoamerica

Lowlands (tierra caliente)

Lowlands (Tierra Caliente)

Hot, humid

Tropical Rain Forest

0-1000 masl

Highlands (tierra templada)

Highlands (Tierra Templada)

Temperate, arid

1000-2000 masl

A.2 figure also look A.3

Coldlands (tierra fria)

•  Coldlands (Tierra Fria)

•  Cold

•  Over 2000 masl

Why does geography matter?

Climate (altitude, rainfall and humidity) affects the length of the growing season and the types of crops that you can grow

Lowlands could grow more food, and often supplied food to the highlands. They also had specialty crops (cacao, vanilla) and tropical animal species.

Highland areas had specialized mineral resources (volcanic stone and ash, precious stones, metal ore), pine and oak timber, and maguey plants.

Coastal areas and natural springs had salt and marine shell

Growing seasons

 Climate (altitude, rainfall and humidity) affects the length of the growing season and the types of crops that you can grow

 Lowlands could grow more food, and often supplied food to the highlands. They also had specialty crops (cacao, vanilla) and tropical animal species.

 Highland areas had specialized mineral resources (volcanic stone and ash, precious stones, metal ore), pine and oak timber, and maguey plants.

 Coastal areas and natural springs had salt and marine shell.

Geography and natural resources (plant species, animal species, crops, minerals) in different climates

 Climate (altitude, rainfall and humidity) affects the length of the growing season and the types of crops that you can grow

 Lowlands could grow more food, and often supplied food to the highlands. They also had specialty crops (cacao, vanilla) and tropical animal species.

 Highland areas had specialized mineral resources (volcanic stone and ash, precious stones, metal ore), pine and oak timber, and maguey plants

 Coastal areas and natural springs had salt and marine shell

The “three sisters”

 In most areas of Mesoamerica, the “Three Sisters” dominated staple agriculture

 Corn, beans and squash

Milpa farming/ multicropping

Milpa farming (multicropping)

 Highlands—Terrace farming

 Coastal lowlands/rivers—Raised-field agriculture

The distribution of valuable raw materials

Highlands vs. lowlands and environmental determinism

 Sanders and Price (1968) ecological model (reflected in your book)

• Environmental determinism

•  Highlands

•      Heterogenous resource distribution

•      Arid environment suited to intensive agriculture

•      Bounded territories

 Lowlands

• Homogeneous resource distribution

• Landscape amenable to slash and burn agriculture

• Less bounded physical landscape

Critiques of the ecological model/ new perspectives 

 We now know that the ecological model is incorrect—lowlands had cities and heterogeneous resources

 Why were they wrong?

• Archaeologists like large, grid-plan cities

•      Tenochtitlan, Teotihuacan

• Tropical environments are hard to survey on foot

•      New LiDAR survey can document the size of lowland cities

•  Ecological models were based on assumptions developed for the Near East

•  More written sources are available for central Mexico

•      Conquest of Tenochtitlan

•      Preservation of documents in arid vs. tropical climates

Geographic regions (know its location, major geographic features, important sites associated with it, climate, important plants/animals/crops, types of agriculture, etc)

Northern Highlands

 Central Mexico, including the Basin of Mexico, highland Oaxaca and Guerrero

 Lies between the Sierra Madre Occidental (W) and Oriental (E)

 Volcanoes, highland plateaus, lakes and basins

 Supported many large cities from the Classic period onward

 Arid highland climate, pine-oak forest

•  Cloud forest at high elevations

•  Cacti, grasses and scrub oak at low elevations

 Terrace farming

•  Maguey

 Highland fauna

•  Deer, dogs, turkeys, rabbits, pumas, lake resources Terrace farming

Xoloitzcuintle dogs

Northern Mexico Dry Lands

 Northern Mexico between the Sierra Madre Occidental (W) and Oriental (E)

 High desert basins with daytime-nighttime temperature swings

 Important transportation corridor between Mesoamerica and Puebloan peoples

Gulf coast lowlands

 Hot, humid, tropical grasslands and tropical forests, lots of rivers

 Lagoons and tidal swamps

 Hardwood, palm, rubber, fruit trees

 Cacao and vanilla

 Tropical forest and coastal fauna

• Monkeys, sloths, coatis

• Tapir, peccaries, brocket deer

• Tropical birds and waterfowl

• Fish

 Important coastal trade route

Pacific coast lowlands

 Hot, humid, tropical plains, mangrove forests, river valleys

 Pacific Coastal Chiapas is known as the Soconusco (from the Aztec province of Xoconochco)

 Defined to the west/north by the Sierra Madre Occidental

 Distinct rainy-season dry-season climate

 Huge cacao production from ancient to modern times

 Important coastal trade and migration route

 Tropical forest and coastal fauna, similar to Gulf Coast 

Includes soconusco: 

Southern highlands

 Highland Chiapas and Highland Guatemala

 Central Plateau of Chiapas + the Cuchumatanes Mountains + Sierra Madre Occidental

 Volcanoes, highland plateaus

 Intermontaine plateaus and basins are smalll compared to Central Mexico

 Highland climate, pine-oak forest

• Cloud forest at high elevations

• Less arid than Central Mexico

• Rainy season-dry season

 Terrace farming

• Maguey

 Highland fauna + Tropical fauna at mid- range elevations

• Tapir

• Jaguar

• Quetzal

Southern maya lowlands

 Hot, humid, tropical forest, seasonal swamps (bajos), some river valleys

 Home to Maya political capitals during the Classic period

 Distinct rainy-season dry-season climate

 Tropical forest fauna

 High plant diversity

 Fragile soils

Bajos

 Seasonal swamps that flood during the rainy season (May-Nov)

 “Bread basket” areas for water-intensive crops due to rich soils

 Concentrations of rural settlement

Intensive wetland agriculture

Karst formations

Northern maya lowlands

• Hot, semi arid, tropical dry forest 

• Mangrove swamps, coastal beaches, and salt flats along the coast 

• Hoem to maya political capitals during the postclassic period 

  • Coastal trade routes 

• Distinct rainy-season dry-season climate 

• Cenotes (sinkholes) and karst topography 

• Tropical dry forest fauna 

• Thin soils 

• Deer, dogs, iguanas, stingless bees 

Mangrove swamps

Rainfall patterns in the Maya culture area

 Greater rainfall in the Southern Maya Lowlands

 Rainy season-dry season Pattern

 Tendency towards droughts 

Archaeology 

 Able to document a wide range of activities and lived

experiences

•  Relative and absolute (Carbon 14) dating

 Not all activities can be preserved though archaeology

•  Organics destroyed through decay in tropical environments

•  Erosion, continuing occupation of the land, looting

 Need to exercise caution in interpretations—we cannot know peoples thoughts and feelings from material culture

Biological anthropology

 Bioarchaeology- study of human remains

 Paleodemography- reconstructing population growth and mortality in past societies

 Epidemiology of nutrition studies of modern Mesoamerican peoples

Bioarchaeology 

Bioarchaeology can document a lot of aspects of ancient life:

 demographic factors

 ancient diseases

 diets

 health

 warfare

 Human bone has preservation issues in the archaeological record:

 Burial conditions—pit vs. tomb vs. cave

 Tropical vs. dry climates

Cultural anthropology

 The analysis of human culture and social life, typically focusing on modern peoples.

 Ethnography: The scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

 Ethnoarchaeology: The study of modern populations to answer methodological questions about traditional lifeways in the study of past populations

Ethnoarchaeology

 Many cultures preserve the traditions of their ancestors

 Cross-cultural analogies based on environment, complexity, technology

 However:

• Traditions change a lot in 500 years

• Indigenous traditions mixed with European influences over 500 years

Linguistic Anthropology

 Historical linguistics--The reconstruction of past languages

 Epigraphy—The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing

 Language often holds clues to:

•  Populations movements and relationships

• Cultural practices

•  Cognitive concepts

 However:

• Language also changes over time

•  Many languages have loan words

• Cognitive concepts can change over time

•  Relationships between groups also change over time

History

 History: The study of the human past through written records

•  Includes: Indigenous documentary texts, languages, and oral histories

 Carved objects with texts

•  Stone monuments, portable objects (stone, shell, ceramic)

 Pictoral codices

 Colonial period codices and documents

•  Books of the Chilam Balam

•  Accounts by Spanish conquistadors and friars

• Legal documents and church records

Codex (codices)

Ethnohistory

 Reports of the Spanish conquistadors

• Hernan Cortes

• Diego de Godoy

• Bernal Diaz del Castillo

 Other Spanish chroniclers: Friars often compiled documents describing aspects of Indigenous life

• Diego Durán

• Fray Bernadino de Sahagún

• Bishop Diego de Landa

• Bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas

Maya codices

Aztec codices

Mixtec codices

Books of the Chilam Balam

•  17th-18th centuries

 Written in small towns in Yucatan state

•  9 total

•     Chumayel (Canul)

•     Mani (Xiu)

•     Tizimin (Cocom)

 Written in Yucatec Maya using a Latin alphabet

 Religious prognostications, political history, medicine

Fray Bernadino de Sahagún

 14 volume chronicle, covers lots and lots of stuff- had sons of nobility (kidnapped?) and would just get them to tell them about various things, draw a picture and then write about it

wrote the florentine codex

Bishop Diego de Landa

• Auto de fe of Mani, 1562

• Burned 27 codices

• Bit extreme- believed it was his duty to stamp out idolatry (lots of torture). Dis it so much he actually got in trouble with spanish authority. Got dragged back to spain to answer for his actions (usually only done in extreme circumstances) 

  • Prepared justification of his actions as part of his defense to the spanish court- did it in association with a young man from one of the first “royal”(?)families to convert to catholicism. Ended upo helping to crack code of maya hieroglyphics 

  • Got the guy to write down consonant vowel pairs corresponding with a symbol- they didnt understand it, but eventually people did.

wrote Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan (An account of the things of the Yucatan)- account of maya culture

Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan (An account of the things of the Yucatan)

written by diego de landa

Bishop bartolome de las casas

• A short account of the destruction of the indies 

• Historia de las indias 

• Appalled by actions of spanish in cuba, converted to priesthood. Went back to spain and studied, got sent back to chiapas to try to convert indigenous peoples

• Kept documenting atrocities by spanish conquistadors in chiapas- wrote accounts defending rights of indigenous peoples. 

• Not perfect! Quite racist against black people and enslaved africans brought by spanish

Historical records

• Native chroniclers working under spanish friars- oftensons of indigenous nobles 

  • Codex ixtilxochitl 

    • Don fernando de Alva ixtlilxochitl 

  • Often told from the perspective of indigenous elite of a very particular cultural group- Aztecs vs. Tlaxcalan perspective of the conquest 
    

• Relaciones (mexico) 

  • Created by colonial administrators for administrators for tax purposes- very specific types of information, from an outsider perspective, several years after the conquest 

Codex Ixtlilxochitl

• Don fernando de Alva ixtlilxochitl 

written by 

The Relaciones (Mexico)

• Created by colonial administrators for administrators for tax purposes- very specific types of information, from an outsider perspective, several years after the conquest 

Historical records

Past studies of mesoamerica 

 Romanticists

 Early scientific approaches

 Culture historians

 Processual Approaches

 Postprocessual Approaches

Early scientific approaches

 Fields of Study

• Archaeology

• history

• Art History

• Epigraphy

 Research Goals

• Develop Chronology

• Document Architecture and Texts

• Unclear Research Objectives

“Romanticism” and pseudoscience

 Alexander von Humboldt (1769 –1859)

 Prussian geographer, explorer and naturalist

 Travelled extensively in the Americas from 1799-1804

•  Central Mexico, Peru, Venezeula, Cuba

•  Published a portion of the Dresden Codex (Maya) and illustrated monuments such as the Aztec Stone of the Sun

Stephens and Catherwood

1839-1842 explorations

Correctly Attributed Ruins to Ancestors of Contemporary Maya

Incidents of travel in yucatan (book name) 

Alfred Maudsley

 British diplomat and archaeologist (1850-1931)

 Translation of Bernal Díaz del Castillo's “Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España” from the only original manuscript in 1908

 Conducted excavations, mapping and photography at major Maya sites

• Quirigua, Copan, Tikal, Palenque

 Plaster casts of stela and monuments

 Drawings of inscriptions

Early Institutions in Mexico

 Wealthy Mexican nobles began collecting Aztec sculptures by the late 18th century

 The first Cabinet of Curiosities of Mexico was established in 1790 by botanist José Longinos Martínez.

 In 1825, the first president of independent Mexico, Guadelupe Victoria, established the National Mexican Museum 

Culture history

the description and chronological and spatial ordering of archaeological data, became the sole objective of archaeological research and it remained so until the 1950s.

•  Interpretation consisted primarily of description of the diet, technology, migrations, and lifeways of past societies.

Leopoldo Batres

Leopoldo Batres (1852-1926)

 A Mexican noble and former army officer

 Worked as an archaeologist for the Museo National de Antropologia in 1884-88

 Conducted excavations at Teotihuacan, but is highly criticized for some things

• Used dynamite to speed up excavation

• Removed and sold sheet mica from the temple façade

• Reconstructions distorted the shape and size of the pyramid

 Also worked at Monte Alban, Mitla, La Quemada, Xochicalco and Isla de Sacrificios

Alfonso Caso

•  Began his career as a lawyer and professor at UNAM, but his career was changed through a visit to Xochicalco

•  Rejected diffusionist arguments for the development of Mesoamerican civilization— emphasized continuity and internal evolution.

•  Famous for his work at Monte Alban, esp. The discovery of Tomb 7.

•  First director of INAH In 1939 (Instituto National de Antropologia e Historia)

Frans Blom

• Danish archaeologist and explorer, 1893-1963

•  Went to Harvard after becoming interested in archaeology while working in Chiapas for the rubber industry in the 1920s

•  Founded the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University

•       Led numerous “expeditions” to rural Chiapas to map and photograph sites in the 20s

•        First map of

•  Moved to Mexico in the 1950s

•  Excavations in highland Chiapas

Direct Historical Approach

Working backwards in time from historically known Indigenous peoples into prehistoric times.

•  Alfred Kidder – Guatemala

•  Alfred Tozzer– Translation and interpretation of Diego de Landa

•  Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus – Zapotec religion

J. Eric S. Thompson

•  Dominated Maya studies for nearly 60 years

•        Dominance of Carnegie Institution of Washington

•  Early Synthesis of archaeology and ethnohistory

•  Catalogue of Maya hieroglyphics

•  Bizarre analogies to Greek/Roman archaeology

•  Maya as non-complex, non-urban, mystic priests, “vacant ceremonial centres.”

in Maya epigraphy and political history

 Tatiana Proskouriakoff

•  Maya hieroglyphics as historic texts, with named rulers, dates and chronologies

•  Talented artist—reconstruction drawings of Maya cities

Maya epigraphy and political history

Processual archaeology

Processual archaeology focuses on the cultural process and the explanation of culture change.

•  Hypothesis testing against competing explanations

•  Use of the Scientific method

•  Aimed to identify universal laws of cultural change and human behavior

•  Systems ecology—Cultures are combinations of different, interrelated components.

•  At its best, ushered in an era of scientific advances; at worst, bluntly environmental determinist

Systems ecology

Cultures are combinations of different, interrelated components

Postprocessual archaeology 

Postprocessual archaeology 

• Meaning--Culture is interactive and constructed. Traditions must be constantly reinvented to persist.

•  Agency—Interested in individuals, not just groups.

•  Bias--Archaeologists often systematically neglect to investigate the past of minority groups such as women, ethnic minorities, and anonymous, often illiterate commoners—often called “people without history.”

Postprocessual perspectives in archaeology- Gender and farming 

• Robin 2006

•  Westerners (and Western scholars studying Mesoamerica) assume that farming was male work

•        Gendered labor is historically situated, and often changes over time

•  Ethnographies of 1940s Yucatan have been used as a scholary model for the entire history of Maya farming

•  Archaeological evidence from Chan Noohol, Belize

•        Intensive terrace farming of staple crops, tree groves and gardens

•        No visible gender divisions of space

•        Farming likely involved all ages and genders

Chan Noohol, Belize

•  Archaeological evidence from Chan Noohol, Belize of gender and farming stuff 

•        Intensive terrace farming of staple crops, tree groves and gardens

•        No visible gender divisions of space

•        Farming likely involved all ages and genders

Chronology

• Paleoindian (~30,000 – 7,000 BC)

• Archaic (7000 – 2000 BC)

• Formative (2000 BC – AD 250)

• Classic (AD 250 – 900)

• Postclassic (AD 900 – 1550)

Paleoindian period

• Earliest current archaeological evidence of human migration to the Americas

• Big game hunting

• Clovis, Folsom, Cascade and other projectile points

• Mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher groups

30,000-7000 BC

Peopling of the Americas

• The Clovis-first hypothesis

• Argued that the Americas were originally populated by a single group of people from Siberia

• Hypothesized that they migrated through an “Ice-free corridor” between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice sheets

• Initial migration was hypothesized to have happened around 13.5 kya when the corridor was open

• Spread across North America, and eventually to South America around 13 kya

Big game hunting

mobile hunter gatherer fisher groups

Clovis, folsom, cascade and other projectile points 

Projectile points (Clovis, Folsom, Cascade styles)

“Ice-free corridor”

The Clovis-first hypothesis

• Argued that the Americas were originally populated by a single group of people from Siberia

•  Hypothesized that they migrated through an “Ice-free corridor” between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice sheets

•  Initial migration was hypothesized to have happened around 13.5 kyawhen the corridor was open

• Spread across North America, and eventually to South America around 13 kya

The Coastal Hypothesis

• New discoveries suggest that there are a number of sites older than the Ice-free corridor

• Debra L. Freidkin site, Texas—pre- Clovis lithics dating to 13.5-15.5 kya

•  Lanceolate points with no evidence of the distinctive basal flute

• Gault site, Texas—9.3 kya

• Paisley Caves, Oregon—14.2 kya

• Page-Ladson site, Florida—14.6 kya

• Meadowcroft Rockshelter—14 kya

• Monte Verde, Chile—14.8 kya

Chiquihuite Cave, Zacatecas

• High-altitude cave site in central- northern Mexico

• Stone tools date back to the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500—19,000 BP)

• Pushes back human occupation in the region to 33-31 kya

• 1,930 stone artifacts in a 3 m deep stratified sequence

• Pre-dates Clovis culture

The footprints of White Sands National Park

White Sands National Park, New Mexico

• Fossilized footprints across fossilized ancient Lake Otero

• Former lake and grasslands that attracted megafauna such as

mammoths, ancient camels, giant sloths, dire wolves, and

American lions

• C14 dating of ancient grass seeds suggests they were created

21,000-23,000 years ago

Wasnt on study guide PSA 

The Debra L. Freidkin site

Monte Verde

• Earliest deposits date to 33,000 BP—more controversial, contains charred animal bones, lithic artifacts, and possible hearths

• The upper level has more extensive artifacts and features, and dates to 14,800-13,800 BP

Artifacts and features of Monte Verde

• 20-foot long structure made from a wood frame with anumal hides

• Ropes made from local reeds

• Two communal hearths

• Many stone tools

• Spilled seeds, nuts, berries, wild potato, seaweed and other edible plants

• Human coprolites

• Human footprint

Mexico City airport discoveries

• Discovery of over 200 mammoths during the excavations for the new Mexico City airport in 2020

• 10000-20000 years old

• Trapped in lakeshore mud

• Also found 25 South American camels and 5 American horses

Clovis in Mesoamerica

• Early sites with pre-Clovis occupation in Mesoamerica, by 20,000 ya

•  Chiquihuite Cave, Zacatecas

•  El Cedral, San Luis Potosi

•  Tlapacoya, Basin of Mexico

• El Bosque, Nicaragua

Clovis points have been found in a wide range of contexts

•  Fin del Mundo site in Sonora

•  Skeletal remains of two gomphotheres in association with Clovis-era deposits

•  Dates to 13,390 BP

Archaic period

~7,000-1300 BC

Cultural developments associated with the Archaic period

• Mobile foraging to sedentism

• Plant Domestication

• Agriculture

• Shell mounds and dry cave sites

• Diversification of stone tool kits

• Trapping of small game vs. hunting big game

• First pottery in Tehuacan (Central Mexico) at 2300 BC

Tehuacan Valley

First pottery in Tehuacan (central mexico) at 2300 BC

Guila Naquitz cave

 Guilá Naquitz Cave has the earliest dated maize cob at 4300 BC

 Tehuacán Valley maize cobs date to 3500 BC

 Guilá Naquitz squash dates to 8000-6000 BC 

food????

-Maize (corn)

• Beans

• Squash (pumpkin)

• Squash (bottle

gourd)

• Manioc (yuca)

• Amaranth

• Cacao

• Avocados

• Chile peppers

Formative Period Sites

Archaic-period Basin of Mexico/ Zohapilco site

• Zohapilco site, on the ancient shore of Lake Chalco

• Fully sedentary groups appear by 6000 BC

•  No seasonal mobility

• Transition from a foraging to production economy:

•  “Proto-agricultural”

• Maize, amaranth and tomatillo

•  Occupation levels still contain a range of deer, Canid, rodent, turtle, fish and bird species

• Earliest ceramic anthropomorphic figurine known in Mesoamerica, 2300 BC

Archaic period stone tools 

Early formative period 

~1500-900

• Agriculture

• Pottery becomes widespread

• Social rank emerges (Chiefdoms)

• Population growth

• Specialized craft production

• Long-distance exchange

• Monumental sculpture and architecture

• Ball courts

Pacific coastal shell mounds

Soconusco region

Tlacuachero

Intensive shellfish harvesting

Seasonal fisher-horticulture

Earliest slash-and-burn farming

Abandonment of shellmounds

Cultural developments associated with the Early Formative period

• Agriculture

• Pottery becomes widespread

• Social rank emerges (Chiefdoms)

• Population growth

• Specialized craft production

• Long-distance exchange

• Monumental sculpture and architecture

• Ball courts

Paso de la Amada

• Soconosco Region

• Early Formative Village (2000-1000 BC)

• Earliest Pottery in Mesoamerica

• Public Architecture

Earliest ballcourt