Geography of Mesoamerica
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Mesoamerica is a geographic region that extends roughly from the Tropic of Cancer in central Mexico down through Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to northwestern Costa Rica, and which is characterized by the particular cultural homogeneity that the indigenous cultures in this region exhibit. As such it is a cultural area, defined by the cultural similarities that have spread between the different cultures of the area through millennia of interaction.
Mesoamerica is located between 10° and 22° northern latitude. It encompasses central Mexico, except for those Mexican states that border the United States and San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Aguascalientes and the north of Sinaloa. It extends south to include the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the Pacific coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica up to the Gulf of Nicoya.
The region comprises a complex combination of ecological systems. Archaeologist and anthropologist Michael D. Coe groups these different niches into two broad categories: lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and altiplanos or highlands (those situated between 1000 and 2000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates, the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall.
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[edit] Highlands
Some of the valleys of the highlands of Mesoamerica have fertile soil suitable for farming. This is true of the valleys of Oaxaca, of Puebla-Tlaxcala, and of the Mexican Federal District. However, the mountainous terrain blocks the passage of clouds, making rain scarce and providing few sources of running surface water. This situation is particularly severe in the hot valley lands of the Mixtec area, perhaps the driest part of the highlands.
The first archaeological researchers in Mesoamerica postulated that the climate was more hospitable in the past. However, as more research was conducted in the area, it became apparent that the climate was not very different than it is today, even though the ecosystems do show a significant degree of decline due to human activity. Many parts of the highlands show evidence of early deforestation, and various species have disappeared from their former habitats.
The highlands of Mesoamerica, while not extraordinarily rich, proved sufficiently fertile to allow the development of the high agricultural cultures of ancient, pre-Hispanic times. In fact, the situation was quite similar to that of other regions of the world where early civilizations thrived, as in the north of Peru, or in the valley of the Indus River in Asia. In these sites, as in Mesoamerica, humans had to to learn to make the most of the resources that were available in their ecological niches. The Mesoamericans of the highlands, as agricultural peoples, learned to store water or divert it from its sources in the mountains to the cultivable lands. Perhaps most characterisitic of the farming techniques of Mesoamerica was cultivation in chinampas, or artificial islands. Chinampas developed in the lakes of the Tarasca plateau, and especially in the Valley of Mexico, where some chinampas still survive in Xochimilco. Further, residents had to learn to keep track of time, for the planting season fell between the dry, hot spring, and the winter frosts—two periods that would threaten a good harvest of their principal crop, maize.
[edit] Lowlands
The situation in the lowlands was very different. On the southeast coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the rains are very abundant. Lush tropical forests full of vegetative species covered a good part of the coastal plain, and presented an obstacle to the development of agriculture. In these areas, both the vegetation and the excess water were a problem. To deal with this, the ancient Mesoamericans invented systems of drainage, remnants of which can still be seen in the Chontalpa region of Tabasco, where the so-called camellones chontales are to be found.
[edit] Cultural Areas
Cultural areas are those inhabited by peoples who have various cultural elements in common. This is not to say that all the peoples in an area share a common ethnicity (indeed, in many cases they do not even share the same language), but this does not prevent various types of interactions among them, such as political, commercial, or some other type of relationship or alliance.
[edit] Central Mexico
One of the most important areas in the pre-Hispanic history of Mexico is known as 'Central Mexico'. This area is composed of moderate to cold valleys in the southern part of the Mexican high plateau and in the north of the Balsas River basin. It is an ecological niche characterized by its temperate climate and absence of significant water sources. The rains arrive between the months of April and September, and are not abundant. This led to the early development of hydraulic projects, among them the building of canals from the rivers–reservoirs in the hillsides for storing water.
The valley of Tehuacán, located in the southeast of this region, is important because there are found the oldest remnants of maize cultivation, and examples of the most ancient ceramics in Mesoamerica. Central Mexico also includes the lake basin of the Valley of Mexico, composed of various lakes and lagoons. Many important peoples thrived near Lake Texcoco, such as those of Cuicuilco, in the Preclassic period; Teotihuacan in the Classic period; and Tula and Tenochtitlan in the Postclassic period.
[edit] Maya Region
The Maya region is one of the largest in Mesoamerica. Some authors divide it into two parts: the Yucatan Peninsula, in the north, and the Tierras Altas ("Highlands"), in the south. The first area comprises, in addition to the Yucatan Peninsula, the Guatemalan Petén and Belize. It is an area of low-lying lands with a hot climate, battered by the hurricanes and tropical storms of the Caribbean. It is a limestone plateau, slightly elevated toward the south, where the Mayan mountains interrupt the plain. It lacks surface water, though the soil is very porous, and cenotes (water-filled sinkholes) are abundant. The other region, the Tierras Altas, comprises the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas. It is a region of cold-to-temperate climate, with abundant rains. The slopes of these mountains are covered by heavy vegetation that impedes the development of agriculture. The Mayan Tierras Altas are not protected from the influence of the Caribbean cyclones, and storm destruction is frequent in the region.
The first important cultural developments in the Maya region occurred in the southern part. The first ceramics, produced in the Belizean region of Cuello, appear to indicate that the development of earthen pottery in the Maya region was derived from South American traditions. Centuries later, the first population centers developed, later becoming the cities of the Classic period. Among them were Kaminaljuyú and Tikal, the latter being the largest of the Maya cities between the third and eighth centuries CE. The fall and abandonment of these great cities is the result of a combination of factors: internal wars, ecological disaster, climate change, and migrations from the north of Mesoamerica. Thus the center of Maya culture moved to the Yucatán. In this region would flourish the later cities of Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, and Tulum, among many others, that, in reality, grew to be small rival states.
[edit] Oaxaca
The Oaxacan region has been one of the most diverse since the Mesoamerican epoch. It is a completely mountainous territory, marked by the Sierra Madre del Sur and the Mixteca shield. It includes a portion of the Balsas River basin, characterized by its dryness and complicated geographical relief. Its river beds are shallow and of small capacity. In this sense, it appears much like Central Mexico.
There were two principal scenarios in the cultural history of the Oaxacan people. On the one hand, the Central Valley of Oaxaca saw the development of the Zapotec culture, one of the most ancient and well known of the Mesoamerican region. This culture was developed by the chiefdoms that controlled the arable land (which was very fertile, albeit dry) of the small valleys of Etla, Tlacolula, and Miahuatlán. Some of the first examples of great architecture in Mesoamerica were in this region, for example, the ceremonial center of San José Mogote. The hegemony of this center in the Valley region passed into the hands of Monte Albán, the Classic capital of the Zapotec. The fall of Teotihuacán in the 8th century CE permitted the great heights achieved by the Zapotec culture. However, the city of Monte Albán was abandoned in the 10th century CE, and gave way to a series of regional centers that fought among each other for political dominance.
The other principal scenario was that of the Mixtec region, which lies to the west of the Central Valley. The Mixtec region has also been occupied since prehistoric times. It has an extremely mountainous terrain of variable altitude, rising to more than 3000 meters. The climate varies from mountainous and temperate to tropical and dry, and rain is generally scarce. There is little running surface water, and presently, a good part of the area has become alarmingly deforested, a result of the ground-clearing agricultural practices of the ancient inhabitants of the region.
By the Preclassic period there were already important population centers in the region, such as Yucuita and Cerro de las Minas. However, the Mixtec capitals did not reach the magnitude of their Zapotec neighbors. The summit of the Mixtec culture was reached in the Postclassic period, when Lord Ocho Venado de Tutupec y Tilantongo embarked on a campaign of political unification of the Mixtec city-states, and came to occupy the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.
[edit] Guerrero
Guerrero has traditionally been considered part of Western Mexico. However, recent discoveries have reoriented the divisions of the Mesoamerican cultural areas, and in the works of recent authors, Guerrero is regarded as an independent cultural area. The Guerrero region occupies approximately the area of the southern Mexican state of the same name. It can be divided into three regions with different characteristics: in the north, the Basin of the Balsas River, whose current is the defining characteristic of the regional geography. The Balsas Basin is a low-lying region, with a hot climate and scarce rainfall, whose dryness is mitigated by the presence of the Balsas River and its numerous branches. Central Guerrero corresponds to the Sierra Madre del Sur, a region rich in mineral deposits but poor in agricultural potential. Lastly, the southern part of the region consists of the Pacific coast, a wide coastal plain, full of mangroves and palms, battered by hurricanes from the south.
Guerrero was the site of the first pottery traditions in Mesoamerica. The most ancient remains have been found in Puerto Marqués, near Acapulco, and are about 3500 years old. During the Preclassic period, the Balsas Basin became an area of vital importance for the cultural development of the Olmec, who left signs of their presence in areas such as Teopantecuanitlán and the grottos of Juxtlahuaca. Later came the development of a sculptural tradition known as Mezcala, characterized by its geometrization of the human form. During the Postclassic period, the greater part of Guerrero remained under the domination of the Mexica, and only the Tlapanec lands of Yopitzinco remained independent.
[edit] The West
The Western Region is one of the least known areas of Mesoamerica. It is an extensive region that comprises the slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, a part of the Sierra Madre del Sur y and the middle and lower basin of the Lerma River. The foothills of the mountain were covered by forests of pine and oak, but forestry in the area has reduced its size. The land is suited to cultivation due to its fertility and abundant water resources, especially in the coastal plain of Sinaloa, the Bajío, and the Tarascan Plateau. The climate varies from cold in the mountains, in the east of Michoacán, to tropical along the coast of Nayarit.
This region was inhabited by Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples, such as the Cora, the Huichol, and the Tepehuano. The incorporation of these peoples into the sphere of Mesoamerican civilization was very gradual, and it is presumed that the first ceramics developed in this region were linked to traditions of the Andean people of Ecuador and Perú. The changes that clearly affected the rest of the region are less observable in the West, and for that reason, the cultural traditions of the Preclassic period, such as those of the Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit, or those of the Tumbas de Tiro survived well into the Classic period (150-750 CE). The best known of the western societies is the P'urhépecha, or Tarascan, which rivaled the power of the Mexica during the 15th century CE.
[edit] The North
The North of Mesoamerica formed part of the cultural superarea only during the Classic era (150-750 CE), during which Teotihuacan's apogee, and population growth, favored migration towards the north and commerce with distant Oasisamerica. The region is flat, compressed between the mountain ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental. The climate is dry, if not desert-like, with scarce vegetation, for which reason agriculture was only possible through the canalization of surface water currents (especially the Pánuco River and the Lerma tributaries) and the storage of rain water. The excessive dependence on good weather led the people of the North to abandon the region in the middle of the 8th century after enduring a prolonged drought and invasions of Aridoamerican people.
The centers of population in the North were dependent on the network of commerce that was established between Teotihuacan and the Oasisamerican societies. Sites such as La Quemada in Zacatecas, and La Ferrería in Durango served as forts to guard the commercial routes. When agriculture and the social system collapsed in the North, the occupants of the region migrated towards the West, the Gulf, and the Center of Mexico.
[edit] Centroamerica
The area known as Centroamerica occupies the Pacific coasts of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. The climate of this region is tropical, with important geological activity, and includes the great Mediterranean lakes of Central America: Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua. As in the case of the northern region, Centroamerica formed part of the Mesoamerican world only temporarily. It is customary to count the Centroamerican peoples as part of the transition zone between the Andean world and Mesoamerica. Their first contact with the center of Mesoamerica occurred in the Preclassic period, as indicated by the Olmec influence in the area. However, in the Classic period relations were interrupted and Centroamerica received significant cultural influences from the Colombian Altiplano. The development of metallurgy in Centroamerica, for example, occurred much earlier than in the rest of Mesoamerica. During the Postclassic period, the area was again part of the Mesoamerican sphere, and was invaded by the Pipil and Nicarao, both speakers of Nahuatl, a dialect of the language of the Mexica.
