Indigenous Peoples of Central America - Mesoamerica, Lacandon People, Boruca People, Garifuna People, Lenca People, Mixe, Bribri People (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 40. Chapters: Mesoamerica, Lacandon people, Boruca people, Garifuna people, Lenca people, Mixe, Bribri people, Kuna people, Embera-Wounaan, Ch'orti' people, Xinca people, Jakaltek people, Maleku people, Jakaltek language, Pech people, Indigenous peoples of Panama, Sumo people, Tolupan people, Abya Yala, Guatusos, Yasika, Nonoalca. Excerpt: Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Spanish: ) is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries. Prehistoric groups in this area are characterized by agricultural villages and large ceremonial and politico-religious capitals. This culture area included some of the most complex and advanced cultures of the Americas, including the Olmec, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Mixtec, Totonac and Aztec among others. Location of Mesoamerica within the Americas.The term Mesoamerica-literally, "middle America" in Greek-was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff, who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region that included southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, western Honduras, and the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. In the tradition of cultural history, the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as a culture area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (i.e., diffusion). These included sedentism, agriculture (specifically a reliance on the cultivation of maize), the use of two different calendars (a 260-day ritual calendar and a 365-da...