Early Mesoamerican Societies

The Olmecs were farmers, traders, artists… innovators. The Olmec culture first emerged in the Isthmus region of Tehuantepec. The site of San Lorenzo, which sits on the Coatzacoalcos River, sheds the most light on this mysterious culture. During this time period, The Initail Formative, food surplus sparked an increase in population and career specialization. With the increase of specialization and sedentism came the environment for complex culture.

Throughout time, there are many instances of early civilizations accomplishing breathtaking feats that we find awe worthy even today. These cultures helped shape humanity as a whole, and paved the way for people everywhere. Of these early cultures, one of the most remarkable was undoubtedly the Mayans. The Mayans lived in Mesoamerica, around Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. They were an isolated group of people that thrived on farming and raised crops such as Maize, Beans, and Chili Peppers. They also Fished often and hunted Deer and other woodland creatures.

Mesoamerica have been connected the North and South America culturally and geographically throughout the history. Mesoamerican culture and aspects heavily influenced southwestern United States, being the frontier borderline between North America and Mesoamerica. It is very important to study the relationship between the Mesoamerica and American Southwest because American Southwest contains various elements of Mesoamerican culture and this provides fundamental information about human behaviors, history, interactions, and tradition in America. Our group has selected Agriculture, Architecture, Religion, and Trade as our categories to analyze the relationship between American southwest and Mesoamerica. Fair trade, we will focus on scarlet macaws and how it got traded from Mesoamerica in the American southwest and its significance. For architecture, we will compare the ball courts of Hohokam and that of Mesoamerica. Significance of ball courts and how it got introduced into the American southwest from Mesoamerica will be discussed as well. Religion will be analyzed by focusing on the cosmological beliefs of both groups and the similarities and differences between Mesoamerican cosmology and American southwest cosmology.

                The Olmec culture is found through Mexico City. The spread of their religion influenced a lot of what their art that was found. Symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. Were found Chiapas were the civilizations was formed around 1500 BCE. During this period the first true Mesoamerican writing and language were developed right after the Mayan civilization was formed the Olmec had a huge influence in them. Writing they had a lot of adventures epic poems about the gods that were from religion that were the explanation of the nature they saw, the stars they saw. All the natural situation that happened they wrote it down creating poem influenced by their religion there's different kinds of gods.

However, with the remains of their pieces of tools and other goods across the lands in different villages it can be speculated that some groups of Native Americans had social relations with others, or had mobile groups spread across the lands. For example, the clovis was an instrument used for hunting by the Paleo-Indian groups. The Clovis and Folsom peoples, and has been found in animal and village remains across the land. Judging that their groups traveled a lot this means that they built social connections with other groups. Leaving behind many small villages of fewer people for archaeologists to excavate. Additionally, social constrictions are seen in the people who follow after the Paleo-Indian peoples who focused more on hunting and gathering, but relied heavily more on natural foods such as fruits and nuts. As a result of this gathering technique for food supply, more villages were formed beginning with the archaic peoples. I believe this had led to the evolution of larger populations in native villages as I had read throughout Plog’s book that the villages got bigger with the increased use farming agricultural goods such as maize and beans. Rather than small campsites, villages rose as a result such as the Shabik’eschee peoples in Chaco Canyon. The development of village life led to new cultural customs such as cremation of the dead and preserved

and living in one area for many years, and so it was after a few years

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles offers a surface level depiction of Mesoamerican civilization and culture. It excludes essential information and instead gives a shallow representation that offers implications of a barbaric civilization.

This lovely tribe called the Olmec located in Eastern South America, is the foundation of the mesoamerican culture. Religion was tremendous aspect in the exhibit. The Olmec believed that their gods provided them with many things like maize and rain, so they worshipped them in many ways. These Native Americans showed their thanks by performing religious rituals and gave offerings as well. Some of these rituals took place in special community buildings such as pyramids or ball courts. Religious rituals lead by Shamanism, could vary from playing a simple ball game to possible human sacrifice. The Olmec were not very complex peoples, although one of their more popular gods is the were-jaguar, a human body crossed with a jaguar

The earliest known American civilization emerged around 1300 BCE, along the tropical wet lands of Mexico. This civilization was named the Olmecs, meaning the rubber people, and they arose before the Aztecs and Mayans. The Olmecs were a highly developed civilization with unique beliefs, art and influence.

The economic systems of early American societies were very similar. One of these societies, the Mayans, lived in southern Mexico and northern Central America from the 3rd to the 10th century CE, and they relied on the trade of goods such as obsidian and crops such as cacao beans. Another American civilization was the Aztec civilization. They were located in the Valley of Mexico around the 13th to 16th century CE, and they used slash-and-burn farming to plant crops to trade. The Inca Empire existed from the 13th to the 16th century CE along the Pacific coast of South America near the Andes Mountains. The Inca used terrace farming and irrigation to grow crops such as corn. The economies of these early American civilizations were heavily

The ancient Olmec civilization is one of the greatest civilizations in Mesoamerica. In the 1900s the Olmec were known as a cultural group of people who shares customs, beliefs, and history in Mesoamerica. The Olmec name means “rubber people”. Olmec name was given to their production of rubber by tapping rubber trees. The Olmec were also used in reference to the artistic style of things they created, such as, art, sculptures, and architectures. One of the most recognized aspect of the Olmec are their colossal heads known as helmet heads. Many characteristics features of the Mesoamerican culture originated in the lowland in the Olmec civilization.

Through ice-free corridors and water logged routes, Paleoindians travelled from Alaska to Siberia to enter the New World. Over their travels, they discovered new tools, hunting methods and traveling/living techniques. Paleoindians in both North and Central America typically lived in bands of up to 50 people. They were makers of fire and creators of diverse stone tool technology. They had the same physical features in both areas, including hair colour and texture, skin tone, blood types and dentition marks. (Rivals & Semprebon, 2012, pg. 1608). These similarities are immediately noticeable when analysing an archaeological site, but others such as the original Paleoindian stone toolkit being present in each region, similar hunting methods and travel techniques become evident throughout the scrutiny of North and Central American sites.

The Olmeca for example were very creative and known as the Mother culture of Mexico because of the inclusion and mixing of other cultures through Mesoamerica civilization. Being that they were very diverse in culture they adopted many different insight and left many mathematical and calendars as well showing the sophistication, intelligence and creativity that the common history books forget about. The Olmecs in the end passed their traditions ad knowledge to the other societies and mysteriously vanished. Then the chapter goes on to tell us about the Mayans and their contribution to society. They too settled and created a city that prospered however like the others its decline started with disease, revolt and warfare however they were very successful I perceiving there hieroglyphics thats talked indigos antiques and sciences that were written on stone slabs and paper but where eventually burned because they believed it was fake.

Massive temples hidden in the jungles of the Yucatan, mysterious stone stelas, and cryptic calendars eluding to advanced knowledge of the stars and mathematics are just some of the artifacts originating from the “Classic Maya” period (200 CE-900 CE). However, these popular items should not be the only defining characteristics of a society that dominated the Mesoamerican region for nearly a millennia. Dynastic lines, similar to those found in European houses, were important elements during this period in places like Palenque, Tikal, and Calakmul. Additionally, the Maya experienced violent and consistent warfare between localized powers and the backbone of their society, agriculture, suffered through several multi-year droughts. These factors

The Mesoamerican people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere developed independently from the rest of the world by natural barriers set by oceans to both the east and the west. From the time period spanning from 1200s BCE to 1500s CE, the Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs lived on the isolated land for centuries, establishing their distinctive scientific and academic achievements. At the other side of the globe in Mesopotamia, a civilization in the form of a city-state called Sumer also incorporated achievements similar to that of the Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs. The extensive use of irrigation was found in all four groups of people that became a vital part of their life, providing water to crops in locations not necessarily directly next to a water