The term Mesoamerica, literally Middle America, was introduced by anthropologist Paul Kirchhoff in 1943 to define a huge geographic and cultural area that included the central and southern portion of Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize and part of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mesoamerica is home to many different cultures that flourished here before and after the contact with European people.
Within this vast and interconnected world, Kirchhoff recognized and organized a series of cultural traits that could be found widespread from north to south and east to west, in this portion of the American continent. His definition of Mesoamerica as a cultural area stemmed from a middle 20th century archaeological tradition called cultural-history, which tried to define ancient cultures based on the distribution of certain objects and cultural features. Archaeologists today recognize that some of the artifacts and cultural elements defined by Kirchhoff are by no mean exclusive to a Mesoamerican tradition, but the utility of the term is still recognized along with some of its markers.
Paul Kirchhoff’s Mesoamerican Cultural Traits
Some of the cultural traits used by Paul Kirchhoff to define Mesoamerica as a culture area are: presence of specific linguistic groups (Uto-Aztecan, Otomanguean, Totonac, Mixe-Zoquean, Mayan, Tarascan, Huave), specific agricultural techniques (among which chinampas, floating orchards) and crops (maize, beans, manioc, squash, chili peppers, yucca, cocoa), pictographic and hieroglyphic writing systems, screen-folding books (codices), construction of stepped pyramids and courts for the ball game, combination of a 365 solar and 260 ritual calendar, communal important deities, like the rain god, whose name was Tlaloc, in Central Mexico, Cocijo, in Oaxaca, and Chaac in the Maya area, ritual importance of the number 13, human sacrifices, auto-sacrifices (through the perforation of body parts) performed by elite members, and long-distance trade of items such as jade, shells and obsidian.
Mesoamerican Cultural and Geographic Regions
Mesoamerica includes different environmental and climatic zones such as humid tropical forests and coastal, swampy areas, dry and wet highlands with many volcanoes, savannas, warm tropical and dry lowlands. This variable macro-area is usually divided into smaller regions according to geographic characteristics:
- Central Mexico
- Gulf Coast
- Oaxaca
- North Central Mexico
- Northeast Mexico
- Northwestern Mexico
- Maya Highlands
- Northern Maya Lowlands
- Southern Maya Lowlands
- Western Mexico
- Southeastern Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican Cultures and People
Some of the groups that inhabited ancient Mesoamerica and are best known archaeologically include: Olmecs, Maya, Mixe-Zoques, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Aztecs, Tarascan, Totonacs.
Mesoamerican Timeline
- Read about the Timeline of Mesoamerican Cultures
Mesoamerican Sites
Important Mesoamerican sites include: La Venta, San Lorenzo, Tres Zapotes, El Mirador, Tikal, Nakbé, Cerros, Uaxactun, Calakmul, Copan, Kaminaljuyu, Palenque, Yaxchilán, Piedras Negras, Toniná, Dos Pilas, Bonampak, Izapa, Chiapa de Corzo, Seibal, Dzibilchaltun, Chichén Itzá, Ek Balam, Cobá, Quiriguá, Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, Mitla, Tututepec, Tilantongo, Cacaxtla, Xochicalco, Tula, El Tajin, Cempoala, Chalcatzingo, Cholula, Tepoztlan, Otumba, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Tayasal, La Quemada, Alta Vista, Tzintzuntzan. Santa Isabel Iztapan, Paso de la Amada
Sources
Carrasco Davíd (ed.), 2001, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, Oxford University Press.
Manzanilla Linda and Leonardo Lopez Lujan (eds.), 2001 [1995], Historia Antigua de Mexico, Miguel Angel Porrúa, Mexico City.