Meso-American
History
excerpt from Occupied America: A
History of Chicanos by Rudy Acuna
Intro to Chicana/o History
Basic Ideas
•
Chicana/o History challenges the “master narratives”
• The view of history that is often presented in a
traditional K-12 education.
• “master narratives” claim to be “objective” and the
“truth” but are actually one-sided (the conqueror’s
history)
– Ideas used to validate notions of “superiority” and
racism
• “counter-narratives” introduce other perspectives
•
The construction of history itself is subjective
• There are different ways of looking at how history is
constructed and told.
–
“beginning and end” or “progress” thinking approach vs.
“cyclical” and “revisionist” approach
In the beginning…there was no
beginning.
A different perspective
Africa
• science suggests that it is the cradle
of all mankind
• evolution, migration and change
The “Bering Strait” Theory
Native American Perspectives
From Sedentary Life to
Civilizations
7000 B.C.- Sedentary
life in certain regions -which were vast and
expansive
1500 B.C. - The
Olmecs establish one
of the first great
civilizations near the
east coast of Mexico
(Vera Cruz).
• existence of pyramids
and figures similar to
North African culture
Early Developments
-
-
-
The Olmecs develop agriculture and cities
They created large trade centers and ceremonial
edifices.
They used hieroglyphics and created many sacred
works of art, sculptures, and carvings.
The Olmecs (or the Mayans) develop the concept of zero
around 200 B.C.
They had a “more accurate calendar than that used in
the West today.”
The Mayans
build upon the achievements of the Olmecs
further prosper from agriculture and trade
create huge pyramids and monuments
their mastery of astronomy enables these
accomplishments
Early Civilizations in North
America
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
the Olmeca
the Maya (southern
Mexico, Yucatan),
Teotihuacanos (central
Mexico)
Zapoteca (Monte Alban),
Mixteca (Oaxaca),
Chichimecas (Northern
Mexico),
and the Nahuas (all over
central Mexico,
consisting of numerous
tribes).
The Nahuas
The North American continent is known to the
central tribes as Anahuac, meaning “Turtle
Island.”
The Chichemeca
• related to Northern tribes such as the Apaches
• migrate from the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico
into the central Valley
• According to legend, they migrated from “Aztlan”
• the American Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico,
Utah, Nevada, Colorado and California
From them, emerge the
• The Tarasco people (Michoacan)
• The Tolteca (a warrior people)
• The Azteca (Nahua tribes in the central Valley of Mexico,
including the Mexica).
The Aztec/Mexica Empire
The Mexica settle on the shore of Lake Texcoco in
central Mexico
• They are outcast by other Nahua tribes due to their belief
in the practice of human sacrifice, so they take refuge on a
small island in the middle of the lake.
• They start to develop their territory by building dwellings
and cultivating crops on the island.
• Their people experience tremendous growth and
prosperity.
• It is a somewhat peaceful and ordered society,
but becomes increasingly imperialistic.
• The Mexica proceed to subjugate all of the surrounding Nahua
tribes to create a unified empire.
The Aztec/Mexica Empire
Emerges
Like all civilizations and cultures, the Mexica construct
religious beliefs and myths to justify their existence.
The Myth:
• Aztec warrior-god leader Mexitli is told by heaven to look
for an eagle with a serpent in its mouth, stationed on a
lone cactus in the middle of a lake
• This becomes the location of Tenochtitlan (the Mexica
metropolis), situated towards the western shore of Lake
Texcoco at the center of the Valley of Mexico.
1200-1521 A.D. the Mexica Empire flourishes and is the apex
of civilization in North America
Like all empires, there are
serious problems
Mexica subjugation of
other tribes creates
bitter enemies
• the Tlaxcalteca to the
East
Some successfully
keep the Mexica at
bay
• the Tarasco of
Michoacán have their
own civilization and
defeat a Mexica
invasion
Aztec Religion and Spirituality
Most Nahua tribes believed in
• Tezcatlipoca (god of portents, foreknowledge)
• Quetzalcoatl (god of wisdom, humanity; has been
interpreted as having many traits similar to the
persona of Christ, but this needs to be contextualized)
• the Great Spirit Ometeotl (male and female duality)
During the reign of Itzcoatl (early 1400s), the
royal counselor Tlacaelel influences the public
practice of religion and human sacrifice
• Huitzilopochtli, the Mexica god of warfare, becomes
the main deity as the god of the Sun, who “demands
human blood.”
The Human Sacrifice Issue
Human Sacrifice?
• Please keep the practice in context with other civilizations
• see Acuña, 5th Edition, p. 9
How has the focus on human sacrifice been used to
promote racism against Mexicans and Latinos?
How does the focus on it obscure the other
achievements of the Aztecs and other Pre-Columbian
Civilizations?
How does the focus on it as “evidence” of “primitive
barbarism” in the past distract us from barbaric
practices in the present?
• Consider the savagery of today’s warfare, capital
punishment, torture, and imperialism.
CHAPTER
tr{i3ii$1
Nor Jusr PvnamrDs,
ExploRERs,
ANDHenors
here historians begin their narrative often depends as much on what they
know as on what they do not know. When we began to seriously examine
the corpus of knowledge that comprises Chicana/o Studies in the late
1960s,where we started the story depended on the speciattyof the historian. We were
locked into periods such as U.S. or Mexican colonial, nineteenth century or the national
period history. Frequently, non-historians interpreted the body of knowledge on
Chicanas/osthrough the eyesof their own disciplines.They sought important answers
about what it means to be human, and attempted to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual senseof the world's complexity. But their theories and their conclusionswere often
flawed becausethey excludedthe Mesoamericanpast.
We are the inheritors of a world createdby past cultures. Hence, this narrative begins
with Mexico's indigenous history. I hope that the discussioncounteracts the trend among
some ethno-historians to romanticize the survival of indigenous Mexicans following the
Spanishinvasion and colonization. To their credit, these scholarspoint out that the natives
aggressivelyresistedthe excessesof conquest and colonization. However, in the context of
today's "culture wars" and conseryativeefforts to toughen immigration policy, I feel uncomfortable with this survivalist interpretation of history becauseit absolvesthe Spaniards,and
ultimately Europe, of responsibility for past and present actions. An account of history in
which there are no victims masksthe classand racial disparities createdby colonialism that
make rebellion, such as the ongoing armed revolts in Chiapas,highly probable today. In the
context of present-daypolitics, it also sendsthe not-too-subtle messagethat minorities can
also survive inferior schools,a lack of medical care,racism, and classoppression.
There was a price for Europe'seventual dominance of the world.l The year 1492 twned
the European continent into a major player on the world stage-temporarily. Natural
resourcesfuom the New World paid for European expansion and its cultural renaissance.
The conquerors destroyed the Americas' indigenous villages and trade centerswhich constituted a cohesive "world system," reducing them to a small fraction of their original size.
Further, the invasion introduced African slavery and justified the enslavement of the
natives. The result was the complete destruction of the Americas' original civilizations.2
Mesoamerica,at the time, was a complex mixture of regional and local cultures in a
constant state of flux and expansion.3Its people lived in geographicallydiverse locales
that can be generalizedas highland and lowland areas.Beforethe Spaniardsinterrupted
their lives, the Mesoamericancivilizations were undergoing the same kind of important
transformation experiencedby people in other parts of the world.
2
g* CHAPTER1
Explorers,and Heroes
NotJust Pyramids,
THE CRADLESOF CIVILIZATIONS
A civilization is a complex society where people live in large agricultural groups and
eventually develop urban centerswhere thousands of people are not primarily engaged
in agriculture. The culture is the result of a planned, deliberateprocess.Food surpluses
make possible "specializationof labor" and the development of complex social institutions such as organized religion and education. Trade and a writing system evolve as well.
An interactive map showing the formation of such civilizations can be found online at
http://weber.ucsd.edu/-anthclub/quetzalcoatl/map2.htm.
Go to the end of the book, read "Creating a Timeline," and correlate this discussionto
the online maps and the timelime below, which shows the stagesof human evolution.
40000Bc
8000
Bc
2000
Bc
AD2OO
AD900
ADt5t9
The Corn People
Until recently, the established paradigm was that the Old World people, meaning
Europeans,"discovered" the New World of the Americas 8,000 years ago. But current
scholarship suggeststhat Native Americans arrived much earlier, migrating from Asia
30,000 to 50,000 yearsbefore contact with the Spaniards.aMoreover, these early people
may well have migrated back to Asia from the Americas, with the last migrations probably ceasingwhen the Bering Strait'sice bridge melted around 9000 nc.
The earliest known villages appeared along the coasts of the Americas as early as
l2,5OOyearsago.sBut it was not until around 7000 nc, when the hunters and fruit gatherersbegan to farm, that they began to alter or control their environment. In the Valley
of Mexico, the climate had changed, and water sources,game, and flora diminished. As
the population grew, it had to turn to agriculture or perish. What made the evolution of
this civilization possible was the development of maize (corn). First domesticatedand
cultivated in the central valley of Mexico as early as 9,000 years ago, it became the primary dietary staple throughout Mesoamerica and then spread northward and southward.6 Native Americans commonly planted maize, beans, and squash, which formed
the basisof their diet.
Maize is one of the few food plants that diverse cultures have in common; in fact,
maize unified Native American cultures. Recent findings show that people traveled with
the seedto various places in the Americas.Archaeologistshave discoveredthe remains
of the largesthuman settlement in the American Southwestdating from between 76Osc
and 200 rc, which included evidence of maize farming. The completenessof the maize
culture supports the theory that agriculture came into the Southwest with the immigration of an already agricultural people.T Corn spread a culture that extended along
what today is U.S. Highway 10 into the eastern half of the United States,eventually
becoming a staple throughout much of North America.sArchaeologicalfindings show
the symbolic significance of maize and its role in ceremony and ritual in Mesoamerica
and the Southwest.Maize is also said to have existedin what is modern-day Peru as early
as ao 450.e
The European invasion put the corn cultures in danger of extinction. This threat
continues today in placeslike the remote mountains of Oaxaca,Mexico, where genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been found in the native corn. Mexico, which
banned the commercial planting of transgenic corn in 1998, imports about 6.2 million
The Cradlesof Civilizations W 3
Sreces oF EvoLUTtoN
40,000 nc-8000 nc
Paleoindian
8000 ec-2000 sc
Archaic
2000 sc-eo 200
FormativePreclassic
,qo200-900
Classic
eo 900-1519
Postclassic
Hunting and gathering. Characterizedby
bands of hunters and by seedand fruit gatherers.
Incipient agriculture. Domestication of maize and
other plants. Earliest corn grown in Tehuac6n circa
5000 sc
Intensification of farming and growth of villages.
Olmeca chiefdom standsout. Relianceon maize and the
spread of a religious hadition that focuses on the earth
and fertility. Organizational evolution, 1200-400 sc:
numerous chiefdoms evolve through Mesoamerica.
Maya appearduring this period. Monte Alb6n is
establishedcirca 400 sc-eo 200. Rapid population
growth, a market system, and agricultural intensification occur. Development of solar calendar. Villages
grow into centers.
The GoldenAge of Mesoamerica.The evolution of statelevel societies.The emergenceof kings. Priestsbecome
more important. Complex irigation, population
growth, and highly stratified society. Excellent ceramics, sculpture, and murals. Building of huge pyramids.
Teotihuac6n had more than 150,000 people, the largest
city outside China.
Growth of City-statesand Empires.Civll, market, and
commercial elements become more important. The
Azteca and Tarascanempires emerge as dominant powers. Cyclical conquests. Use of metals, increasedtrade,
and warfare.
Soarce:Robert M. Carmack, Janine Gasco,and Gary H. Gossen, TheLegacyof Mesoameica:History and Culture of a Native
American Civilization (IJpper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996i),pp.48-49; also see Michael C, Meyer, William L.
Sherman, and SusanM. Deeds, The Courseof Mexi&n History, 6ft Edition ().lew York: Oxford Press,1998j p. 4.
tons of corn a year, mostly from the United States.About a quarter of the U.S. commercial corn crop contains GMOs, and after harvest it is mixed with conventional corn. As a
result, much of the corn in Mexico is now considered to contain at least a low level of
"background" GMOs. This concerns Mexicans since GMO foods and seedare an environmental threat to wild plants and speciessuch as the monarch butterfly.lo
The Olmeca | 500 Bc-500 Bc
Around 3000 ec, a qualitative change took place in the life of the corn people. The agriculture surpluses and concentration of population encouraged specialization of labor.
So-calledshamans became more important in this society. Tools were more sophisticated
and pottery more complex. The introduction of record keeping shows the development
of civilization occurring at about the same time as in North Africa and Asia, where the
"cradle of civilization" is traditionally believed to have been located. Mesoamerican
identity had already begun to form, revolving around a dependence on maize agriculture
and a growing population.ll
4
Explorers,
andHeroes
1 NotJustPyramids,
W CHAPTER
Becausethe Olmeca civilization was so advanced, some people speculatethat the
Olmeca suddenly arrived from Africa-or even from outer space!Most scholars, however,
agreethat Olmeca, known as the mother culture of Mexico, was the product of the crossfertilization of indigenous cultures that included other Mesoamerican civilizations and
The Olmeca "built the first kingdoms and establisheda template of world view
cultures.12
and political symbolism the Maya would inherit."13
One of a few known primary civilizations in the world-that is, state-like organizations that evolved without ideas taken from other systems-the Olmeca culture is one of
the world's first tropical lowland civilizations, an antecedent to later Mayan "Classic" culture. The Olmeca settled villages and cities in the Gulf Coast lowlands, mostly in presentday southeastern Veracruz and Tabasco,and in northern Central America.
Around 2000 ac, the production of maize and other domesticatedcrops becamesufficient to support whole villages. A second breakthrough occurred with the introduction
of pottery throughout the region. The earliest pottery came from the Oco, who populated the Pacific coast of Chiapas and Guatemala.Although not much is known about
the Oco, their pottery is found from Veracruz to El Salvador and Honduras. The development of pottery allowed the storageof food surpluses,encouragingthe Olmeca and other
Mesoamericanpeople to form small villages. Little evidence of social ranking and craft
specialization has been found in the early villages, which evolved from an egalitarian
community into a hierarchical agrarian society of toolmakers,potters, and sculptures.As
they evolved, the Olmeca became more patriarchal, and they probably excluded women
from production outside the home.
The Olmeca began to build villageson the Gulf Coastas early as 1500 nc. By 1150 nc
the Olmeca civilization had formed settlementsof thousands, constructed large formal
temples built on earthen mounds, and carved colossalnine-feet-high stone heads. San
Lorenzo was one such settlement, an urban center with public buildings, a drainage system, and a ball court.
La Venta, a major ceremonial site in Tabasco,eclipsed San Lorenzo as the center
of the Olmeca civilization in about 900 sc. Tres Zapotes would eventually overtake
La Venta. By the Middle Formative period, other chiefdoms emerged throughout
Mesoamerica.Trade networks linked the Olmeca with contemporaries in Oaxaca and
Central Mexico. In the Valley of Oaxaca,SanJos6Mogote functioned as a primary centet
as did Chalcatzingo in the present-daystate of Morelos. A priestly elite occupied the primary Olmeca settlements.From these centers,they ruled dispersedpopulations of farmers, who periodically assembled at the ceremonial and trade sites to meet labor
obligations, attend ceremonies, and use the marketplace. The elites had greater accessto
valuable trade goods and occupied larger homes than did the common people.The elites
even had larger tombs.
The Olmeca left behind archeological evidence of their hierogllphic script and the
foundations for the complex Mayan and Zapotecan calendars. Basically, the Olmeca
developed three calendars: a ritual calendar with a 26o-day cycle that was used for religious purposes;a solar calendarwith 18 months of 2O days,plus 5 days tacked on (corresponding to our 365-day calendar); and a combination of the 2 calendars in which
religious days determined taskssuch as the naming of a newborn infant.la
The development of the calendar required a sophisticated knowledge of mathematics. Considerablediscussionhas taken place about whether the Olmeca or the Maya discovered the concept of the number zerocirca 200 nc. (The Hindus discovered the zero in
the fifth century Ao, and not until ro L202 did Arab mathematicians take the concept to
Europe.) Notwithstanding, the fact is that before the time of Christ, the Olmeca were
The Maya )
5
using a more accurate calendar than that used in the West today. Pre-Columbian astronomy, too, was far ahead of Europe's.The writing system of the Olmeca is still being deciphered. These hieroglyphic texts represent more than a history; they also constitute
literature.ls
With the growth of agricultural surpluses and increased trade, the Olmeca had the
luxury of developing advanced art forms. Although they are best known for the massive
carved full-rounded heads,they also crafted smaller figurines of polished fade. Religion
and the natural world inspired the subiect matter for Olmeca art.
The Olmeca culture passed its organizational forms, religion, and art to the Maya,
Teotihuac6n, and later Azteca societies. About 300 nc, Olmeca civilization supposedly
mysteriously vanished. In truth, however, it continued to exist fuom 150 BCto AD450, in
what some scholarscall the Epi-Olmecperiod.i6
THE MAYA
Mayan agricultural villages began to appear about 1800 nc. The Maya eventually
formed a trade network of the time, interacting with other chiefdoms in the Gulf
Coast, Oaxaca,and Central Mexico. Merchants from Teotihuac6n lived in Maya centers
such as Tikal at least from the first century np.17The Maya experimented with intensive
forms of agriculture, dug irrigation canals, and reclaimed wetlands by constructing
raised fields. As their population increased,they built large ceremonial centers.At this
point, as in the caseof other Mesoamericansocieties,rulers took control of religious rituals and the belief system.
From np 250 to 900, the Maya lived in an area roughly half the size of Texas (today
the Mexican statesof YucatSn,Campeche, Quintana Roo, part of Chiapas, Tabasco,as
well as Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador). The divine ahauob, the
"divine lord," ruled millions of farmers, craftsmen, merchants, warriors, and nobles and
presided over capitals studded with pyramids, temples, palaces, and vast open plazas
serviced by urban populations numbering in the tens of thousands.l8 Agriculture and
trade produced prosperity and gave the Maya the ability to build temple-pyramids, monuments, and palaces of limestone masonry in dozens of states. They also used their
astronomy skills to link earthly events to those of the heavens.
In the ninth century ao, the Maya Classic culture began to deteriorate, probably
becauseof revolts, warfare, disease,and/or crop failure. But the Maya left many examples
of their accomplishments. In a limestone cavern in northern Guatemala, through narrow
tunnels frequented twelve centuries ago, there are black carbon images of a sacred ball
game, musicians, dwarfs contemplating shells, homosexual lovers locked in embrace,
and columns of intricately entwined hieroglyphs. The decipherment of the glyphs raises
many questions.For example, there is little doubt that homosexuality existed;the question is how society formed attitudes toward homosexuality.le
Researchin this area is just beginning and, like past literature on the subject, it
comes from highly political sources. One of the most interesting accounts is by
Richard Trexler, who arguesthat Spaniardswould often feminize their enemies in warfare, calling them sodomites and pederasts.Trexler says that European notions form
much of what we know about homosexuality. In the caseof the invasion and subjugation of the Mesoamericans, the Spaniards' homophobia suggested their moral
supremacy. Sodomy "was seen as either a sign of insufficient civilization or a sign of
moral decay."20
6 W
CHAPTER
1
NotJust furamids, Explorers, and Heroes
Maya Hieroglyphic
Writing
The current decipherment of hieroglyphic writing is leading to a greater understanding of the Maya culture, including the identification of dynasties of rulers and an
understanding of how the various people interacted.2l Direct evidence from bones
of the ancient Maya suggests that the common people seldom lived beyond the age of
40-many died in infancy and early childhood. Men and women in the ruling class
were physically larger than others-as much as four inches taller. Furthermore, evidence from bones and inscriptions shows that the ruling class sometimes lived
remarkably long lives. One of the greatest rulers of the ancient city of Yaxchil6n,
Shield Jaguar, lived almost 100 years.
Maya glyphs suggest that a ballgame, played throughout Mesoamerica, served as a
means to communicate with the gods. It also enhanced social and economic organization and was a substitute for war.22 Revered by both the Maya and the Azteca, the game
possessed deep religious significance. The object of the game, which was played by small
groups in an outdoor stone court, was to pass a large rubber ball through a stone ring at
opposite ends of the court.z3
The Maya based their numerical system on counting on the fingers and toes; for
example, in Quich6, a branch of Maya culture, the word for the number 20 symbolized "a
whole person." This method of counting is also reflected in the decimal divisions. The
Maya used a system based on the number 20, with only three symbols: a bar for five, a dot
for one, and a stylized shell for zero. As we have discussed above, the Maya, if not the
Olmeca, were probably the first people to develop the mathematical concept for zero.2a
Their knowledge of mathematics allowed the Maya to use an advanced calendar. The
astronomy of the Maya was not limited to observation of the stars and approximate predictions of the movements of the heavenly bodies. Using their sophisticated numerical
systems and various tabular calculations in conjunction with the hieroglyphic script,
Maya astronomers were able to calculate with figures running into millions.
At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Maya still wrote glyphs-not only on stone
slate but in handmade books. In 1566 in the Yucat6n Friar Diego de Landa read a great
number of Maya books. According to him, because the books were about the indigenous
antiquities and sciences, which he believed were based on nothing but superstitions and
falsehoods of the devil, he burned them. However, not all of the Maya books were
burned; some were sent to Europe as part of the booty seized by Cort6s from the Native
Americans. The Spaniards could not decipher them, and over the years, most crumbled
into dust or were thrown out as trash.
Maya Society
Like other Mesoamerican societies, the Maya lived within the matrix of the community.
They organized themselves into extended families where there was a patrilineal descent.
Multiple generations of a clan that had a common ancestor resided in one household
compound. The inheritor of supreme authority was established through primogeniture,
which resulted in the rule of clan elders. Kings also based their legitimacy on their membership in a clan. The kings erected monuments to commemorate their victories and to
record their lineage.zs
During the Late Classic period, Tikal, a kingdom of around 500,000 people, was the
largest known Maya center. It covered about 14 square miles and included more than
3,000 structures. It made alliances with other city-states but also often used force to
expand their territory.
The Maya gil1 7
The reading of Maya hieroglyphs shows the existence of a complex society. The
glyphs on a prominent Tikal building revealthe names of prominent women such as Bird
claw, Jaguar Seat, Twelve Macaw, and the woman of Tikal.26These women, although
buried in honored places,were present only through a relationship with a prominent
male' But the differencesbetween malesand femaleschangedwith time. Scholirs suggest
that there was more equality before el 25 than after. As in most advanced civilizations,
classdifferenceswere striking and with time, one's position in societybecamehereditary.
Therefore,a distinct divide between high-ranking members of Tikal society and the poor
existed,and widened over time.
glyphs revealfew actual woman rulers among the Maya. In Palenqueduring the
. . -The
sixth
and seventh centuries, there were only two woman rulers, Lady Kanal-Ikal and,Lady
Zac-Kuk. Both were the descendants of kings and thus legitimate rulers. Both inherited
the throne and passedit onto their children. Lady Zac-Kuk was the granddaughter of
Lady Kanal-Ikal and was the mother of the Great Pacal,who built grand buildings as testimony to her greatness.Indeed, Pacal got his legitimacy through his mother,s line of
ancestry.Sheenjoyed great prestigebecauseshe lived for 25 yearsinto his rule. pacaldied
in his nineties.zT
The Decline of Mayan Civilization
After ao 909 the Maya built few new temples, and even fewer cities, except in the northern Yucat6n, at such sites as Chich6n ltz6 andTulum. Tulum and other coastal cities were
important centersfor sea-basedcommerce. Chich6n ItzA, tinedominant Maya center in
the Yucat6n peninsula during the early Postclassicperiod, was closely linked to the Tula
people in the north, and was greatly influenced by that culture. The center declined in
importance after the late-twelfth century, when a rival Maya group sackedit.
Glyphs may someday reveal the many unanswered questions about the Maya, who
built their civiiization in a hostile and fragile rain forest. How did six million Maya coexist in this difficult environment? For a time, these civilizations answeredthe challenge,
and they developed a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy and mathematics that
allowed them to incteaseproduction of food and other necessities.They constructed a
mosaic of sunken gardens,fruit trees,and terraces-a systemthat used the rainfall, fertile
soil, and shade of the jungle to its advantagewithout permanently harming it. Maya
farmers dug canalsand built raisedfields in the swampsfor intensive agricultuie.z8Uniil
recently,archaeologistsassumedthe Maya used a slash-and-burnmethod in which farmers cut and burned the jungle-planted crops for a few years and then moved on when
nutrients were depleted.zeA true slash-and-burn method would have supported only
about 65 people per square mile. The Maya population density had alreidy reached
about 125 per square mile by at 600.
We can speculatethat engineering projects like canais, reservoirs,and the terraced
fields came about at the cost of human labor. After hundreds of yearsof relative prosperity and power, the urban infrastructure of many Maya cities broke down. The drop irrthe
food supply causedfeuds between the lower and the elite classesand between city-states.
Today, Mesoamerican scholars generally agree that no single factor caused this fall.
During the Late Classicperiod populations sufferedfrom malnutrition and other chronic
diseases.The environment simply could not support the population indefinitely.3o
Surely,classoppression and war played a role in the decline. The common person
labored in the fields, maintaining a complex agricultural network, while priests resided
in empty ceremonial centers.The nobles plainly oppressedthe commoner-the warrior,
temple buildeq and farmer. The Maya organized construction crews of coryee,or unpaid
8 W CHAPTER 1
NotJust furamids, Explorers, and Heroes
labor, and the growth of this system magnified class hostilities over time. In addition,
evidence shows a sharp decrease in rainfall between the years 800 and 1000-one of the
most severe climate changes in 10,000 years-at roughly the time of the Maya decline in
820.31 The drought supposedly caused tensions: cities, villages, and fields were burned
and wars increased.
Although the cities of the Maya lowlands shared a common culture, they were never
politically unified. Each region had a capital city and numerous smaller subiect cities,
towns, and villages. Furthermore, increased trade and competition led to warfare. The
Maya civilization, however, had endured for more than 1,000 years during what is
known as the "golden age of Mesoamerica." In the Postclassic period, the Maya did not
disappear, but experienced a gradual breakdown of its social structures, marked by the
decline of the priest class and the growing political and cultural influence of a rising mer-
chant
class.32
Until recently, scholars described the Maya society as peaceful, but the decoded
glyphs suggest another perspective of the Maya, revealing their practice of human sacrifice and bloodtetting. The Maya believed that the gods controlled the natural elements,
and had to be pleased by btoodletting. Human sacrifice was mostly limited to prisoners,
slaves, and orphaned or illegitimate children purchased for the occasion. Generally, it
was more common to sacrifice animals. This bloodletting and human sacrifice assured
the Maya that their crops would grow and their children would be born healthy. As
drought and a drop in the food supply took its toll, there was a corresponding increase in
both human sacrifice to appease the gods and warfare.
TEOTIHUACAN
Teotihuac6n, the "city of the gods," located in the Valley of Teotihuac6n in a pocketlike extension of the Valley of Mexico, became the primary center of Mesoamerican
civilization around 200 sc. Like the other city-states, by the end of the Formative
Preclassic period, it amassed the central authority and technology necessary to make a
quantitative and qualitative leap from a loose collection of settlements to a unified
empire. The civic-religious complex laid the foundation for this development. At its
height, at the end of the sixth century ao, it covered about eight square miles. It may
havi housed more than 150,000 inhabitants, making it the largest city in the world
outside China.
In the Early Classic period, the people of Teotihuac6n lived in apartment compounds, with some larger than others. There were more than 2,000 separate residential
itructures within the city. Built by the rural peasants, the outlying vitlages were linked by
commerce to the core city. As with peasants of other societies, these workers provided
labor, food, and other products for urban elites and state institutions. Teotihuac6n was
ruled by a strong central government whose administrators presided over peasants in the
city and countryside, treating them as subiects. The ruling elite forcibly moved the rural
peasants into the city during the Early Classic period, leaving some scattered villages.
Teotihuacanos, aided by a highly centralized state, conquered an empire that covered
most of the central Mexican highlands.
Urbanism and Trade
Teotihuac6n was a major manufacturing center of the Early Classic period. The products
of its craft workers spread over much of Mesoamerica, as far south as Honduras. The pot-
Other Corn Civilizations W
9
tery especially,representsTeotihuac6n'shighest achievement as a city and empire. Its
hallmark feature is the cylindrical vesselwith three slab legs and a cover.Vesselsshaped
like modern flower vasesand cream pitchers graced the city. Artifacts from other civilizations were also present, adding to the city's splendor. So fabled was Teotihuacdn that
Aztecaroyalty annually made pilgrimages there.33
Teotihuac6n civilization was contemporary with the Maya Classic period and acted
as the hub of trade networks from Central America to today's southwestern United States.
Without its influence , Maya culture would have remained at the chiefdom stage,instead
of evolving into a sophisticatedworld systemthat stressedmaterial production and common ideas.
' Teotihuac6n suffered from internal civil strife in the seventh century, and again
at
the beginning of the tenth century. From Teotihuacdnthere emanateda network of societies such as in the city of Xochicalco, later associatedwith the Tolteca people. It also
remained a center of long-distancetrade, continuing its history of robust mercantile contact with other regions.3aEven after its decline, Teotihuac6n continued to be a great city
of 30,000 inhabitants until about at 950. However,without its authority, Mesoimerican
societieswere lesscentralized,breaking up into dozensof city-states,which competed for
trade and influence.
OTHER CORN CIVILIZATIONS
The Zapotecapeople were the original occupants of the Valley of Oaxaca.About 4,000
years ago, Oaxaca'speople settled in agricultural villages. Common ancestorsplayed an
important role in integrating autonomous villages. Between 500 and 100 rc, a ttigtrty
centralized, urbanized state emerged, with Monte Alb5,n as the principal center. Grejt
prazas,pyramids, a ball court, and underground passagewaysgraied the city. Some evidence exists that the Zapoteca and the Olmeca engaged in long-distance irading that
dates to the time of San Lorenzo, and that the Zapotecalater enjoyed good relationi with
the city of Teotihuac6n.
As with the Maya, zapoteca society was driven by religion, which held that a
supreme being created everything, although not by himself, and there was no beginning
and no end of the universe. Like other Mesoamericansocieties,the Zapotecawrote irt
hieroglyphics and were obsessedwith astronomical observation. Their 365- and 261-day
calendars set a rhythm for their lives, with the latter serving as a religious guide and
marking the birthdays of its adherents.
Monte Albdn's decline began after ao 650, which saw the rise of other strong citystatesin the valley, such as Mitla, in the easternpart of the Oaxacan valtey. Mitla became
the best-known Postclassicsite, continuously occupied since the Early Formative period,
and is thought to have been a Zapotecareligious center. Despite the growth of other societies, the Zapoteca remained a major player in the region.
Meanwhile, in the highlands, the Mixteca increased their influence, and by the
eleventh century they interacted with the Zapoteca-speaking
people of the valley. ihere
was a high degree of assimilation and intermarriage between the Mixteca and the
Zapoteca nobility. The Mixteca, like the Azteca,fought a highly ritualized form of war
and were known for military prowess. Despite this influence, the Mixteca, like the
Zapoteca before them, were not a dominant imperial power. They established the kingdom of Tututepec on the coast, which was important enough to garner tribute from
other kingdoms. The Mixteca spreadtheir power and created strong bonds with other
city-states through extensive intermarriage and war.3s
andHeroes
Explorers,
1 NotJustPyramids,
10 W CHAPTER
The Mixteca developed their own particular art style, influenced by the Zapoteca,
and the two cultures created a synthesis.The creations of their goldsmiths and their
manuscript illuminations are exceptional. Mixteca manuscripts or codices constitute an
illustrated encyclopedia, reflecting religious beliefs and rites and the history of the aboriginal dynasties and national heroes. The style and color range of the illustrations, as
*ill ar the symbolslinked to the ritual calendar,are also found in their murals'36The history depicted in the codices is a holy history, displaying an abundance of deities and rituats.ffre Mixteca also excelledin ceramics,which becamethe most highly prized ware in
fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Mexico.
The Tolteca
The Postclassicperiod is characterizedby a secularization of Mesoamerica. Religion
remained imporiant to the Mesoamerican peoples. However, the civil and commercial
elements of society became more important than the religious hierarchy, and their rise
led to the expansion of market systemsand long-distanceexchange.
The Tolteca emergedas a dominant force during this period (from about eo 900 to
1150). A subgroup of the Chichemeca, a Nahua-speakingpeople from the northern
desert, the Tolteca controlled the Valley of Mexico.37Their capital was Tula, about 40
miles north of present-day Mexico City. Founded in the ninth century,Tula incorporated
part of the heritage of Teotihuac6n, although it is generally associatedwith Tolteca culiure. The Tolteca also developed a system of cosmology,practiced religious rites, including human sacrifice, and built grand temples to their gods. In the courtyards of Tula,
supporting the roof of the great Temple of Quetzalc6atl, stood 1S-foot columns in the
foim of stylized human figures. They were enormous statues of warriors standing stiffly
under the weight of their weapons, and wearing rigid crowns made from eagle feathers.
processionsor military marches,and eaglesand jaguarsdevouring human hearts are portrayed. The Plumed Serpent, formerly interpreted in TeotihuacSn as the benevolent
dMnity of agricultural plenty, in Tula became a god of the Morning Star, the archer-god
with fearsomearrows.
There is little evidence that the Tolteca built an empire. Tula, for instance, was not
at the crossroadsof the international trade networks of the time. In the mid-1100s, the
Toltecacollapsed,perhaps under attack by nomadic tribes, and Tula was abandoned. By
that time, h-owever,the Tolteca had extended their sphere of influence into what is
now Central America. This culture was transposed to Yucatdn, where it was superimposed on Maya tradition, evolving and becoming more flexible and elegant. A hybrid
art form of dazzling brilliance developed and lasted for two centuries. The Tolteca
influence can be seen in a cross-cultural fusion of deities depicted in Mayan glyphs,
frescos,and designs.
The Tarasco
By the twelfth century, the Tarasco people, also known as the Purepecha, ruled over a
vist territory in West Mexico, centered in present-dayMichoac6n. Their exact origin is
unknown. Most probably, they were part of the Chichimeca migration. The Chichimeca
were supposedlluncivilized natives from the north that the Tolteca were once part of'
Nomadic groups along the northern frontier of civilization migrated to what is today
Central Mixico. The Aztecawere part of the later wave of Chichimeca. They, along with
the Tarascans, formed the Nahuas. The Tarascan civilization was originally formed
through political unification of some eight city-stateslocatedwithin the P5rzcuarobasin.
OtherCornCivilizationsW 11
The Tarasconatives continuously occupied the region for more than 1,600 years
(150 ec-an 1530). Their development resembledthat of other Mesoamericancultures.
Ceramic artifacts link the Tarasco to the old traditions of Chupicuaro (present-day
Guanaiuato). Their pottery and metalwork styles are unique, although they borrowed
heavily from surrounding societies.This borrowing was common. for exampie, ceramics
found in the present-daynorthern Mexican statesof Zacatecasand Durang6 bear resemblance to the Hohokam ceramic found in what today is Arizona.
The capital city of the Tarascowas Tzintzuntz6n,bullton the shores of Lake pffizuarc
and dominated by a huge platform that supported five round temples.The Tarascoraised
a well-trained army and from Tzintzuntzdn forged an empire. However, Tarascomilitary
prowessdid not tell their whole story. Their language and culture almost totally dominated the region, with many of the surrounding villages assimilating into it. They were
excellsnl craftspeople,and they invaded other peoplesfor honey, cotion, feathers,copal,
and depositsof salt, gold, and copper.Tarascolords were placed in conquered lands ind
collectedtributes in goods.
Unlike other Mesoamericans,the Tarascowere not renor,vnedtraders.Nevertheless,it is
speculatedthat they did engagein some long-distance trading, even by sea,reaching South
America. Tarascosociety was socially stratified, with nobility, commoners/ and slaves.The
capital city dominated the area,although most people lived in rural settlements.
The Tarascohad many deities who, among other things, were associatedwith animals and calendrical days. Ceremonial dancesaffirmed their connection with ancestral
gods. The Azteca attempted to conquer the Tarascobut failed. ln 1478,24pOO Azteca
retreatedin the face of a Tarascoarmy of 40,000 warriors. Becausethe Tarascodid not
leave a written language, scholars know relatively little about them.
The Azteca
Between 7325 and 1345, the Aztecafounded their capital of Tenochtitl6n on an island in
Lake Texcoco (later drained to build Mexico City). The Aztecaconfederation of city-states
reacheda population of more than 350,000. Part of the Chichimeca migration from the
north, their people came from a mythical place today called Aztl6n.38(Some Chicanos
say that it was in what is today the southwestern United States;others, in northern
Mexico, in the area of Zacatecas).A network of trade routes linked the high plateau of
central Mexico with Maya territories, reaching as far as the most remote northern districts of the empire, in what is now the southwesternUnited States.
The Aztecas' surplus agricultural system underwrote its highly advanced craftmanufacturing industry. The Azteca excelled in the building arts and supplied food for
large cities. The growth of market systems gave the Azteca more opportunities to
exchange their goods as well as to accessthem. The society was straiiiied, with the
elites taking tribute and the commoners paying it. The peasants seem to have fared
better under the Azteca than in Teotihuacdn. They lived in small adobe houses with
stone roofs and had more accessto material soods.
The Azteca benefited from a highly pr6ductive agricultural infrastructure.They
farmed on raised fields, or chinampas,created by piling earth over the natural growlng
surface, as a way of reclaiming swampland for cultivation. They built flat mounds of fertile river sediment and then deepeningthe ditches or canalsaround them to createa waffleJike pattern. The advantage of raised fields was that they could be cultivated
year-round, even during the dry season,becauseswamp water percolated up into the
nutrient-rich soil. Five hundred acresof fields could have fed up to 5,200 people.3e
andHeroes
Explorers,
1 NotJustPyramids,
12 W CHAPTER
The Azteca absorbed the cultural strengths of generations of native peoples. For
example, Mixteca art played an important role in Azteca artistic development. Azteca
sculpture displayed technical perfection and powerful symbolism. The Azteca knew and
appreciatedthe masterpiecesof the civilizations that precededthem and those of contemporariessuch as in Monte Alb6n. They had a well-defined literature, some of which
has been preservedthrough oral testimony. Much of this tradition has also been conserved in codices, which consist of a combination of pictographs and ideographs.
Religiousand cosmologicalthemes dominate the codices.
They also had two kinds of schools-one for commoners, the other for nobility. In
both, boys and girls were taught rhetoric, history, ritual dancing, and singing; in the
Calmecac school for future leaders,the curriculum included law, architecture, arithmetic,
astronomy, and agriculture. The poets were frequently kings or military captains from
satellite principalities.40
Although a lot is known about the work performed by women, relatively little is
known about cultural attitudes toward them. Some scholarsassumethat Azteca society
was rigidly patriarchal, made increasingly so with the militarization of society. Another
viewpoint is that the "prehispanic Azteca gender system appearsto have combined gender parallelism (where men and women played different but parallel and equivalent
roles) with gender hierarchy. Gender parallelism was rooted in the kinship structures and
in religious and secular ideology. Men and women were genealogically and structurally
equivalent."al
The lower classes,as in other societies,bore the burden of classoppression.Lowerclasswomen did embroidering, which they often sold. Generally, a woman's caste determined her occupation, and she was schooled to play out that role. Women could enter
the priesthood; however, although there were female goddesses,women could not
become the musicians or poets who honored them in public. Furthermore, they could
not engage in violent activities or participate directly in mercantile caravans, but they
could become prostitutes. The woman who worked outside the sphere of male control
was suspect. According to Irene Silverblatt, "class and social standing critically shaped
the socialexperiencesof Mexica men and women'"42
Anthropologist June Nash's "The Aztecs and the Ideology of Male Dominance"a3
describesthe transformation of the Azteca society from a kinship-based society to a classstructured empire, claiming that there was a diminution of the power of women beginning in at 830 and continuing to the fifteenth century. Despite this, women had equal
rights under the law and could participate in the economy. According to Nash, women
were active producers as well as vendors. They could hold property-but whether they
did and how much dependedon social class.
The Azteca were the beneficiary of Tolteca culture, and many Azteca males took
Tolteca wives, which quickened the assimilation process.According to Nash, polygamy
,,weakenedthe role of women in royal families since their sonswere not guaranteedsuccessionas in the past." "[The] division of labor by sex had been well establishedby the
late fifteenth century. The codices show men teaching boys to fish, cultivate, and work
metal and women teaching girls to weaver tend babies,and cook." According to Nash,
sacrificialceremoniesglorified the cult of male dominance.aa
And, while Aztecasociety may have ignored forms of male homosexuality, lesbians
were disdained as lower than prostitutes. Almost contradictorily, there were transvestite
performers, who are said to have been bisexual, and they enioyed accessto both male
ind female. In short, Azteca culture appea$ to be highly puritanical, militaristic, and
male-centered.Among these men, power came with age,which brought privileges.
OtherCornCivillzationsffilii13
As with other Mesoamerican civilizations, human sacrifice and war were interwoven
as part of the Aztecareligious practice.The Aztec rationale for human sacrificewas a cosmic view that encompassedthe demands of their god Huitzilopochtli, lord of the sun
and god of war. The Azteca had faith in their priests, who revealed that the sun and the
earth had been destroyed four times, and their era was known as el quinto sol, ,,the fifth
sun," the final destruction of which was imminent. Only special iniervention through
Huitzilopochtli would savethem.
The religious system legitimized the authority and the tributary rights of its leaders.
Blood sacrifice was necessaryto preservethe sun, and the whole structure of the universe,
from the threat of cosmic destruction.The need for sacrificeswas made even more imperative after the drought of 1450 ravaged central Mexico. The Azteca and others belieied
that too few victims having been offered to the gods causedthe calamitiesof 1450.4sThe
Aztecarationalized war, which was the result of politics and trade, in much the same way
as the Christians and Muslims rationalized their holy wars.
Every aspect of Azteca life, from the birth of a young warrior to a woman's continuous sweeping of dust from the house, symbolized the intricacy of war as well as their
advanced society.Azteca society was well-ordered and highly moralistic, treating commoners with "consideration, compassion, and mercy,"a6while also demandlng from
them moral conformity. Medical treatment was on a par with Europe's, and life was less
harsh than it was in Europe at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards.
En El Norte
Mesoamerican culture soon spread beyond its traditional boundaries. According to
carlos Y1rez-lbifiez, "uto-Azteca speakers came out of the south from the Misoamerican region carrying maize and squash and 'bumped, into recipient populations
from as early as 300 sc." As noted, recent studiespush this date backward to the eighth
century nc. complex social and economic systems had already begun developing
among these northern peoples,such as the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi,as *ett ai
the rancheriapopulations made up of the Opata of northern Sonora and pimas Altos.
Band tribes such as the Apache also struggled in proximity to these populations.
According to V6lez-Ib5flez, "a triad of complex agriculturally based societies that
included the Hohokam of Southern Arizonaand Sonora,perhapsthe Mogollon of Casas
Grandes,chihuahua, Mexico, and to a lesserextent the Anasazi of chaco canyon and
Mesa verde who inhabited the Four corners area of New Mexico , Arizona, uiah, and
Colorado, lived in the region."
The Hohokam began their transformation about 300 nc, although, as in the caseof
the Mesoamericancivilizations, the processbegan hundreds of years before this date.
According to anthropologist v6lez-lb6flez, they were probably migrants from Mesoamerica.aT
For nearly 1,70Oyearc,they flourished along the desertriveis beforevanishing
in the fifteenth century ao.
During the Formative period the Hohokam lived mainly in somewhat flask-shaped
huts set in shallow pits, plasteredwith mud over a framework of poles and woven twigs.
Early villages were loose clustersof housesseparatedby stretchesof packed clay.asAfter
about al 1000 Hohokam villages took on a more urban aspect.Each contained several
"great houses,"typically three or four storieshigh, and numerous smaller dwellings similar to the early pit houses.One city stretched for a mile and included at least 25 compounds of buildings. A vast irrigation network consisting of more than a thousand miles
of canalscrisscrossed
an areaof some 10,000 squaremiles.ae
l+ ffi
CHAPTER
1
NotJust Pyramids, Explorers' and Heroes
Archaeologists estimate that at Ieast 100,000 and possibly a million people lived in
these ancient iities. They fed themselves by making the baren desert productive with
irigation and by breeding a variety of drought-tolerant corn that would grow from
ptantlng to harvest on a single wateling. In addition, they grew squash, beans, tobacco,
ind cotion. Acid-etched shells suggest that the Hohokam traded with tribes a thousand
miles to the east.
By L450, Hohokam civilization vanished. Tradition says raiders from the east swept
down on the Hohokam three times, destroying homes and fields. The invaders killed or
enslaved the inhabitants of the great cities. Some Hohokam escaped, but upon returning
they never rebuilt the cities or canals. Some archaeological authorities think the demise
of the Hohokam came after a gradual transition influenced by other indigenous people.
possibly the Salado, a mixture of Anasazi and Mogollon cultures, simply migrated in and
took over, blending with the Hohokam and diffusing them out of existence. Further evi-
dence suggests that the long-term effects of irrigation contributed to the Hohokam
demise. River water carries dissolved minerals. As this water evaporates from irrigated
fields, it leaves behind mineral residues-usually alkali salts that gradually make the soil
unfit for plants.
The Anasazi (meaning "ancient ones" in the Navaio language), which neighbored
the Hohokam, settled in the Four Corners region in about ap 100 to ao 1300. Ancestors
of pueblo Indians now living in New Mexico and Arizona, they farmed and produced
fine baskets, pottery, cloth, ornaments, and tools. Villages evolved in caves that consisted of a.t uiray of semi-subterranean houses. Houses in the open also consisted of
chambers below and above ground. Pit houses, known as kivas, served ceremonial purposes; these were community structures with up to a thousand rooms. Multistoried
pueblos like Chaco Canyon, and cliff dwellings like Betakin and Mesa Verde are examptes. The Anasazi abandoned the cliff houses in the late-thirteenth century, possibly
b".urr. of a severe drought between L276 and 1299, and because of pressure from the
Navajo and the Apaches. The Anasazi were the ancestols of today's Hopis, Zunis, and
Rio Grande Pueblo peoples.so
in the southeastern mountains of Arizona and southwestern
200
sc and eo 1200. In atl probability, the Mogollon made the first
New Mexico between
pottery in the Southwest. They depended on rain and stream diversions for their farming, a iechnique that influenced the Anasazi or Pueblan culture. From about ,qo 700 on,
the Mogollon in New Mexico were greatly influenced by the neighboring Anasazi.
Acftrding to V6lez-Ib6flez, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, was a Mogollon city. Also
called Paquime, it was a maior trading and manufacturing center on the northern frontier within the Mesoamerican world system, from which Mesoamerican culture was dispersed. A link is made between Casas Grandes and the Mimbres culture of southwestern
New Mexico, a branch of the Mogollon peoples, who produced painted pottely between
eo 800 and 1150 similar to that found in the Casas Grandes area. Other scholars call
paquime an outpost for Mesoamerican traders controlling trade between the Southwest
and Mesoamerica, while still others link it with the Anasazi.
present-day Casas Grandes is set within a vast network of ancient ruins that was once
the heart of one of the Southwest's largest trading centers. The area is still being excavated,
and much remains unknown about this center. Smali villages surrounded the city of
paquime, which evolved into a sophisticated center with an irrigation system that included
darirs, reservoirs, and trincheras (stone ditches). It had warehouses, ball courts, ceremonial
structures, plazas, and steam rooms. By the late-thirteenth or early-fourteenth century, the
area began to stagnate. Climatic change, environmental degradation, sociopolitical conflict, and shifting irade patterns all took their toll on the Mogollan people.s1
The Mogollon lived
Conclusion:
The World Systemin l5l9
W 15
C O N C L U S ION :T H E WOR L D SYSTEMtN t5 t9
Mesoamericawas an interconnectedworld that was integratedand in which eventstaking
place in one social unit affectedthose in another over an extended region. Mesoamerici
was composedof large towns and their dependent rural communities. The rural communities consisted mostly of patrilineal kinship groups; the nobles and other elites lived in
the large centers, exercising authority over the commoners. The forms of government varied, from chiefdoms to fully developed states.In the Valley of Mexico, there were about 50
city-states with rulers or joint rulers appointed by the ,,royal,, lineage as the supreme
authority. They called the supreme ruler a tlatoani, ',he who speaks,,,orin the caseof yoint
rulers, tlatoque.In the highlands of Guatemala the Maya called the ruler ajpop,,,he oi the
mat." The Azteca Empire was a loose coalition of subiect city-states that paid tribute to an
imperial center.
Scholarsare split on whether the Aztecaattempted to impose their culture on their
subject peoples.One thing is certain: There was considerableelhnic diversity among the
people of Mesoamerica.The dominant cultures influenced some,while others remained
segregatedas distinct cultures. Mesoamerica, although influenced by the dominant
world systemsof the Maya, Tolteca,and other cultures, was not under the political control of a single power.
The Core Zones
Mesoamerica,meaning "Middle America,"-located between North and South Americawas divided into multiple core zones, of which Central Mexico was the most prominent.
The exchangesbetr,veenthe core, periphery and semlperiphery were important in determining the flow of luxury goods-cotton garments, iade, cacaobeans, hides, feathers, and
gold ornaments. The core-through conquest, tributary demands, or trade activitiesoften obtained the goods that in great part were a product of its demands.
We have identified the core zonesas Central Mexico, West Mexico, Oaxaca,and the
Maya zone. Tenochtitl6n was the capital of the Central Mexico zone, inhabited by some
200,000 persons. The Azteca empire ruled over approximately 300 city-states and over
another 100 or so client statesthroughout the Central Mexico core zone. The Azteca
appointed administratorsto overseethe states,and in other instancescementedalliances
though marriage between Azteca and other elites. Considerable cultural and linguistic
diversity existedwithin this core.
The Tarascoheld sway over the West Mexico core zone. The Tarascozone, more centralized and militaristic than the Azteca,held a tighter grip over its city-states.But, the
Tarascodid not have the sameimpact that the Aztecadid on Mesoamerica.
The Oaxacacore zone was lessintegrated than the previous two zones.Consisting of
50 small kingdoms, the dominant languageswere Zapotecaand Mixteca. However, as in
the other zones,multiple languagescoexistedwith the dominant languages.At the time
of the Spanish invasion the Mixteca statesenioyed considerableunity, forged by intermarriage between the ruling families. Trade took place within and outside the core.
Intermarriage also occuned between the Mixteca and Azteca,who had significant cultural exchange.
The Maya core zone structurally resembled that of Central Mexico. Maya language
and culture dominated the zone, although there was little unity between the highla;d
and the lowland core states.Moreover, Mayahad multiple dialectsand non-Maya speakers also lived within the zone. The city-statescompeted with one another and some,like
Quich6, incorporated approximately 30 tribute-paying provinces. The smaller zones
16 W CHAPTER 1
NotJust Pyramids, Explorers, and Heroes
within the main core zone were densely populated and trade and warfare
existed
between them. Tensions also existed between many Maya and the Azteca cores.
The Semi-Peripheral Zones
The semi-peripheral zones, regions that mediated between the core and the periphery,
were important to the exchange network, especially when dealing among competing
core states. They assimilated much of the trade and the religion of the core and the
periphery. Casas Grandes, in what is now the state of Chihuahua, had been one such
semi-peripheral region (although it did not exist at the time the Spaniards arrived). The
Mexican state of Tabasco on the Gulf Coast was also an important semi-peripheral zone.
Many of these regions were port-of-trade societies, and centers such as Xicalanco were
quite cosmopolitan. They organized the governing classes, comprised of merchants, into
political councils, in which women could reach high positions of authority. The south
Pacific coast region is less well known. The Azteca and Quich6 Maya vied for control of
the Xoconusco area, which ultimately became a tributary province of the Azteca. The
Caribbean coast, including the Yucat6n peninsula and the Central American isthmus,
was another important semi-peripheral zone. Among the most important of these semiperipheral centers was the island of Cozumel, which was run by merchants who invested
in massive temples, shrines, and palaces. These port towns bordered the Caribbean all
the way to Panama.
The Mesoamerican Periphery
The zones of the Mesoamerican periphery actively participated in the economic, political,
and cultural life of the Mesoamerican world. However, the people in the periphery played a
subordinate role. They were unequal, and often subiect provinces. The periphery should
not be confused with frontier zones, from which the Azteca originally came. The periphery
extended to Mexico's northwest, from Colima to CuliacS:n and well into Sonora. In the
northeastern part of what is now Mexico, the Huaxteca played a peripheral role. Its people
had no writing system, and tension existed betlveen them and the Azteca. Southeastern
Central America was also a peripheral zone, occupied mainly by people speaking Pipil,
which is closely related to Nahuatl. The Lenca language was also spoken in this peripheral
zone. This peripheral zone was especially rich with diverse peoples, who interacted with
the Maya and were organized into simple city-states or chiefdoms.
It is important to note that contact also existed with what is now the U.S. Southwest.
This contact varied, but was most intense with the descendants of the Hohokam and
other sedentary populations. Distance played a role in how much influence the core had.
Frontier people such as the Azteca were eventually integrated into the core. The main
point is that the diverse peoples of Mesoamerica were unified under a vast, well-defined
world system, in many ways more distinct than the European world system.
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Book Notes
27. Scheleand Freidel,ForestofKings,221_305.
28. Meyer, Sherman, and Deeds,Cottrseof Mexican
r
H isto r y,1 4 .T h o m a sO' T o o ie ,.,Ra d aUsed
to
Discover Mayan Ifiigation Canals,,,Washington
P o s/,Ju n e
3 , t9 8 0 .
29. The use of radar technolog)' and photographs
taken by satelliteshas revisedestinates basedon
newly discoveredevidence.,,Science/Medicine:
Developments in Brief; NAS,{ ImagesAid in Mavan
Research,"Ios A ngelesTimes,Varc'tr t, tqSZ.
30. Vilma Barr, "A Mal'an engineering legacy-Coba;
includes related article on acid rain effeats,,,
MechanicalEngineering-CNtE772, rro. Z (Feb
7990): 66ff. Alison Bass,"Agdculture: learning
from the past," Teclutology,Review
SZ Quly 19Sa):
71ff Carmack et aI-, TlrcLegacy,63.
31. Carmack et al., TheLegacy-,61.
Morell, ,,Lost
Languageof Coba," {Sfl FrankJ. Greene,,,Smile_
you mav be on candid sateilite,,,TheSanDiego_
Un io n - T ib wr c.
\fa v 1 0 , 1 9 8 6 .,,Sa te llirdei scovers
Lost \{a!.an Ruins," The No.ryyork Times,June 79,
1984. "\\hat killed the Mayan: War or weather?:A
global n'eakeningof the ties,,,| 18,no. 2.l U.5.
Netls& II'orkl Report g:urre72, 7995): IOff.
32. Scheleand Frcide| ForestofKings,32I_2.
Or-erpopulation rras one of the major problems.
As tie population greh it becamemori difficult
to eke out a li\ing. The best farmland rested
under man-vof t]le nen{y built buildings in places
li](e Ya:i-Pacrshere the ballcourt area alone had
over 1,500 stuuctures.An estimated 3,000 people
per squarekilometer bved there. Delorestation
also led to other problems such as erosion and it
affected climate and rainfall.
33. Meyer, Sherman. and Deeds,Cottrseof Mexican
Hislon. | |. Carmacket al., TheLcgacy,57, 60, 77.
34. Carmack et al-, TheLegao,,33. , Kenneth Hirth,
"Xochicalco: urban grollth and state fomation
in Central \{e-rico." kience Z2S (Aug 10, 1984):
579.
35. Joyce Marcus and Kent \'. Elannery,Zapotec
Civilizatiorts:Hgrt Lrban Societu
Etolvedin Mcxico's
OaxacaVallq'tLondon: Thame and Hudson,
1996),12,20, 84. Carmacket at.,TheLegacy,TJ,
91. Matt Kr)'sta], "Conquest and Colonialism:
The Mixtec Case," Htuttrtrt\.[osaic26, no. 1 (1992):
55.
36. MaartenJansen, "The SearchFor History In
Mixl.ecCodices," Ancieilt\lesonntericn,
i t lq90r:
9 q - t0 9 .
3 7. Carmack et al., TheLegaq.,7 l. JacquesSoustelle,
Ddil)/ Lile of lhe Attecs on t]p Ere of the Spnnish
Conquest{Stanford,CA: StanJordL'nir-eisitvpress.
19 6I ) .
38. SeeRichard Townsend, I/re.,lz1ec(Thames&
Hudson, 1992).The concept of Aztlan is contro_
versial today among right-wing scholarsand
nativist groups who claim that it is an example of
C h ica n ose n tim e n tto r e ta keth e So u th west.-The
truth be to1d, it just saysthat the Azteca came
from a place called Aztlan, which has been docu_
mented to have existed. It is not a matter of faith,
and it is a processof deductive reasoning, based
on early maps.Journalist Roberto Rodrizuez and
P a tr i\iaGo n za le sh a ved o n e se r io u sr e se arch
i nto
i t\ e xiste n ceT. h e Azte cap r o b a b lyd id co me l rom
t h e So u th we st.A wid e r r ie w o f in d ig e n ouscul l u r e co m e sfr o m a n u n d e r sta n d in so f th e corn
culture that bonded the peoplesof the Amedcas.
39. Carmacket al.,Tlte Legocy.
iZ-28. RossHassig,
Trade,Tribute,dnd TtonsDortdtion:
ThL,SixteenthCenturyPolitical Economyof the Valleyof Mexico
(Norman: University of Oklahoma press,19g5).
40. Miguel Le6n-Portilla, El Destino de la palabraile la
oralidady losLodices
mcsoamericans
ola escritura
alfatiticos (M6xico DF: Fonda de 1acultura, 1996),
45. Mi guel Leon-l .orti l l a,
Tol tccayotl
dsp{tosd( l a
.ulturo ndhuotl(Mexico DF: Fondo de ia Cultura.
I995r. p6rnnn" D unbarOrti z,..A bori gi nalpeopi e
and imperialism in the Western hemisphere,,,
Monthl yR cvi rw44. no. 4 (S eptember
1992):l tf.
.1l. Carmacket al., fh( Lcgacy.t24.
42. Inga Clendinnen, Los Aztecas:LInaIntert)rehKi'n
(Mexi co
D .F.:E di rori altatri a, I99b),205-277,ol
Aztecs:an ifiterpretation(New york: Cambridge
U ni ver)i tyP rers.l 99l ). Ibi d,209.l reneS i l verbl att,
"Lessonsof Gender and Ethnohistory in Mesoameri ca,"E l hnohi story
42,no.4 rFal l1995;:o43.
43. June Nash, "The Aztecs and the ldeolosv of Male
Dominance," Slgrs4, no. 2 (lg79):34;:62.
44. Nash, "Aztecs and Ideology of Male Dominance,,,
355-6,359.
45. Clendinnen, LosAztecas:una Interpretacion,
Z2S,
makesthe poi nt that i t i s unknow n i n w hat context the transvestite was portrayed-in a comedy
or drama or perhaps a cult. Meyer, Sherman, and
Deeds,Courseof MexicanHistory,64.Carmacket
aI., TheLegacy,116.Soustelle,Daily Life ofThe
Aztecs,lol-2.
46. Clendinnen, LosAztecas:una Inter\rehrcion.
| 55-89. Meyer,S herman,and D eed:,C orttsc
of
MexicanHistory,7O.
47. Carlos G.Y61ez-Ib6fiez,BorderVisions:Mexican
Culturesofthe SouthwesternLlnitedStates(Tircson:
University of Arizona Press,1996) 2O-3, 29.
48. Nearly two dozen large towns were constructed in
or about what is now Phoenix. V6lez-Ib6fiez,
BorderVisions,2O-55.
49. Daniel B. Adams, "Last ditch archeology; native
racesof Phoenix," Science€3 4 (Dec 7983): Zgff.
50. ThomasE .S heri dan,"The l i mi ts oI pow er:the
pol i ti calecol ogyof i he S pani shE mpi rei n the
Greater southwe st," Antiq uity 66 (799Z): 1.56.
51. Sheridan,"Limits of Power,"30-156.
CHAPTER 2
1. Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giriidez, ,,Cyclesof
Silver: G1oba1Economic Unity through the MidEighteenth Centlly," Iournql of World Hktory 73.2
(20O2r 3qI -427
2. Jane S. Gerber,TheI e:,u
s of Spain:A History of the
Scphardic
Lxlr{ienft {New York: FreePress,19921,
3. The Jews lived not as isolated individuals but as
organized communities in Spain.
3. Gerber, fhe lew: ofSpoin, I}-la.
4. W. Montgomery Watt and piefie Cachia,A History
ofislamicSpainrGardenCity, New york: Anchor
B ooks,1967),40.
5. Watt and Cachia, A History of Islamic Spain. See
R obertA . Wi l l i ams,j r., "C ol umhus'sLegacy:Law
As An Instrument of Racial Discdmination
Against Indigenous People'sRights of SelfDetermination," Arizona lou:4111
of Intemational
dnd Comparotiv(Law 8, no.2 ( | o9 I ): 5 | -75.
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