Pan-Caribbean

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The concept of a "pan-Caribbean" culture area refers to recent proposals by an international group of archaeologists to the effect that contacts among Pre-Columbian peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Antilles, Central America, and northern South America may have been more extensive than heretofore acknowledged. A pan-Caribbean perspective seeks to emphasize the importance of considering information from the a broad area, one characterized as "the American Mediterranean," in evaluating issues of mobility, exchange, linguistics, ideology, art, material culture, and identity. The pan-Caribbean area was one whose peoples interacted regularly with those of Mesoamerica, the Isthmo-Colombian area, and Amazonia, creating a context that had significant effects on culture change throughout a large portion of the Americas.