Meso-America (-2000 to 1519) is the civilization of ancient Mexico, the common civilization of the Maya, Aztecs, Olmecs and others. It is one of the six cradles of civilizations, along with those of Egypt, Iraq, India, China and Peru.
- Location: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras.
- Size: 25 to 38 million people (1500).
- Cities: Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, La Venta, Tikal, Palenque, Chichen Itza, Tula.
- Languages: Nahua, Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan languages.
- Religion: Worship of gods and goddesses through human and animal sacrifice and through bloodletting. Temples stood on top of mounds or, later, pyramids. The shamans of old became priests. Use of sweat lodges. Some leaders used religion as an excuse to go to war or rule empires (since they produced a steady supply of humans to sacrifice). Best-known gods: Quetzalcoatl, the old Olmec god, and Huitzilopochtli, the main Aztec god.
- Economy: Based on maize, which could produce twice as many calories per hectare than wheat and could be grown year-round in Mexico. Trade networks stretched south into Central America and north into what is now the south-western US.
- History:
- Palaeo-Indian (c. -18,000 to -8000): The first people, bands of hunter-gatherers, shamans, spears.
- Archaic (-8000 to -2000): The first farmers. Maize grown by -5000.
Formative Preclassic (-2000 to +200): Chiefdoms and villages. Olmecs invent pottery, writing, zero, a solar calendar, the 260-day religious calendar, the Long Count, ball games and Meso-American civilization. The Olmecs make huge head statues and work in jade. The Maya and Zapotecs take on Olmec ways. The Olmecs were amazing, but they do not seem to come from Africa or outer space.
Classic (200 to 900): Kings and state-level societies. The Maya, Zapotecs and Teotihuacan reach their height. Teotihuacan has 150,000 people, the world’s largest city outside of China. It builds the world’s third largest pyramid. Priests and irrigation become more important. Barbarians called Chichimecas come down from the north. In time they will become the Aztecs, Toltecs and Tarascans of the Postclassic period:
Postclassic (900 to 1519): City-states and empires. Toltecs, Mixtecs, Tarascans and Aztecs reach their height. Use of copper. Merchants and trade become more important. War becomes more common, leading to the rise of empires.
In 1519 the Spanish conquistadors arrived. Many Meso-Americans died in the war of conquest that followed, but way more died of Eurasian disease, particularly smallpox.
The spread of farming in North America before 1500.
Elements of Meso-American culture have spread to:
- Native Americans north of Mexico before 1500, stuff like farming, the Three Sisters (maize, beans, squash), tobacco, sweat lodges, adobe and maybe mound building.
- The West after 1500: turkey, peanut butter, rubber balls, chewing gum, chocolate, vanilla, cigarettes, tobacco, maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, chili peppers, guava, papaya and “Mexican food” (tamales, tortillas, tacos, burritos, etc).
In some ways Meso-America was more advanced than the West. It had the number zero 1400 years earlier and the Olmec calendar is still better than any Western calendar. The Maya could support 325 people per square kilometre nearly 1400 years before the Netherlands did. In 1500, Meso-American medicine was about as good as Western medicine and life was less harsh.
Westerners thought they were better, at first mainly for moral reasons: they did nor practise human sacrifice (just genocide) and their queer people were in the closet.
– Abagond, 2016, 2018.
Sources: mainly “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” (2011) by Rodolfo Acuña.
See also:
- Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2016
- A brief history of North America
- history
- Palaeo-Indian
- Preclassic
- Classic
- Postclassic
- Colonial
- genocide
- Cahokia
Abagond, didn’t the Mesa-americans also introduce the use of cotton for clothes? Or was that already in use in Africa and Asia?
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The Olmecs were amazing, but they do not seem to come from Africa or outer space. – Abagond
Come on Abagond! So, … what is your opinion regarding where the Olmecs came from? There are Olmec heads with braids and even some with an Afro. These are the images that are usually hidden. Their deceptive acts are what make it a much easier task for a certain group of people to re-write history and then present to the world His-Story.
That’s right, the history of black people is so gloriously wonderful, that a certain group of people will do almost anything for our true history and contributions to the world must be continually covered up or swept under the rug. In a sense, I understand the level of frustration, hatefulness and envy of white people but they do not have a choice.
They do not have a choice but to do what they do (distort history), because if not, people will begin to see that collectively, they are not demigods, they do not have a monopoly on morality and they certainly aren’t an intellectually superior people either.
In all likelihood, the world will begin to see them, whites, collectively for who they truly are. We must metaphorically cast down the corrupt lens of white people that most of us use to the view the world. That they are something other than being saintly, a culture of people steep in perpetual aggression towards us over a few millennials and only then will we see that these people are unprincipled from the very root of their soul, that’s if they ever had one to begin with.
Abagond, do not fall into their snare.
https://www.google.com/search?q=olmecs+with+braids&biw=1227&bih=698&tbm=isch&imgil=Wacsl3F0WEBdBM%253A%253BX4RgkubvS8KTOM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.ancientagenda.com%25252Fapps%25252Fforums%25252Ftopics%25252Fshow%25252F13245673-olmec-astronomy&source=iu&pf=m&fir=Wacsl3F0WEBdBM%253A%252CX4RgkubvS8KTOM%252C_&usg=__km-YjJp-uryXXXRwk5c17I-T_Fc%3D&ved=0ahUKEwi3pe_vxfzPAhWni1QKHRRbBu4QyjcIKQ&ei=ccQSWPeoGqeX0gKUtpnwDg#imgrc=Wacsl3F0WEBdBM%3A
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Dr. Ivan Van Sertima (Ancestor) said that the Olmec civilization was an indigenous Meso-American civilization. He also said that some Africans (of high status) were part of that civilization, which one can clearly see in the Olmec colossal heads and statuettes. The unearthed colossal heads (all of them) are good examples but the one without a helmet (“El Negro) is a better example. The hair texture is clearly black African (Afro-textured hair):
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@ Abagond
“Native Americans north of Mexico before 1500, stuff like … maybe mound building.”
I didn’t know there were alternate theories about the mound building. Do some researchers believe it started independently up north?
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Learning that Africans were dispersed all over the world in this regard Spanish speaking countries. I am wondering if the Olmec heads were African? The phenotypes look African. Just a thought, I have read on different websites that it’s a possibility that they could be African.
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I was watching a live documentary that revealed several tribes across the world. To my surprise, one of the groups located in either Central America or South America resembled that of “Black” people.
@Mary Burrell
There are also people in places like Sri Lanka who look phenotypically “African”, but they may not be genetically so to speak.
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The Olmec heads are from 900 BCE if not earlier, so it’s unlikely that Africans were involved in their creation. Some Central Americans do resemble West Africans in certain ways, probably because of the similar tropical environments that they evolved to suit. Full lips and broad noses help to release heat, since the mouth area contains lots of blood vessels and we expel hot air through our nostrils.
However, West Africans also made some amazing sculptures of heads:
This one is even more elaborate:
Imagine the artists who made those sculptures. They would have had to be intelligent observers and highly skilled craftspeople. Most of them lived between 1400 and 1200 BCE, even earlier than the Olmec head sculptors.
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