 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
MEXICAN HISTORY - PERSPECTIVES
Origin Theories of Mesoamerican Civilizations
By Ronald A. Barnett. ©2005 R. A. Barnett
His Bio -Ever since the discovery of "lost" cities in the jungles and rain forests of Middle America, theories about the origins of Mesoamerican civilizations have proliferated at a great rate and there is no end in sight. Books, articles, Internet postings about the supposed origins of the Olmecs, the Maya, the Aztecs and others have turned into a profitable business for some and a source of confusion for others. What sense can we make of it all?
First let us define our terms. "Middle America" is a geographical-geological term that includes some nine major cultural areas, such as Western Mexico, the Basin of Mexico, Oaxaca, the Maya Lowlands and Highlands. This is the general area occupied by the modern nation states of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and by Belize. "Mesoamerica" is a cultural term defined in a 1943 article by Kirchoff that describes the area characterized by a common cultural basis and common traditions. Geographically, it extends from central Mexico to central Honduras and western Costa Rica, more specifically from the Soto La Marina River in Tamaulipas and the Fuerte River in Sinaloa southward. Some 50 cultural traits were listed, although this classification has its limitations. Among these features are the ritual flying game, certain forms of self-sacrifice, ball courts with rings, and hieroglyphic writing, to name only a few. This now includes western Mexico, which for a long time was regarded as outside the Mesoamerican sphere of influence.
Comparisons between the Old and the New Worlds were inevitable from the beginning of European contact with the indigenous peoples of Middle America. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, chronicler of the Spanish invasion of Mexico, described in glowing terms the wonders of Tenochtitlan. The Aztec capital was even compared with the European Venice, as if the Aztecs were incapable of such civilized achievements on their own. The Spaniards were much less impressed with the remnants of Classic Maya civilization. But even here the architecture and the monuments were attributed to the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Chaldeans - anyone but the Maya. The search for the origins of Mesoamerican civilizations was on.
For historical reasons, more attention tends to be focused on the Aztecs and the Maya than on other equally important indigenous peoples of Middle America. Classic Maya civilization came to an end centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards, but the Maya left splendid architectural and monumental reminders of their past glory. In spite of the almost total destruction of the Maya hieroglyphic codices by the fanatical Spaniards, recent advances in the decipherment of the Maya script have opened up new chapters in the history of the Maya. Aztec civilization was brought to an abrupt and violent end by the Spanish Conquest. But shortly after the destruction of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the Franciscan Sahagun and other religious and secular chroniclers and historians recorded Classical Nahuatl, as well as many Aztec traditions and ceremonies. Although the basic purpose of the religious writers was to destroy all vestige of the native culture, they preserved much of it in spite of themselves. Consequently, we have much more actual documentary evidence for the Aztecs and the Maya than for most other cultural groups in Middle America.
The history of Mesoamerican research is filled with colourful characters endowed with vivid imaginations. The early explorers were not trained archaeologists and so perhaps may be excused for their unbridled enthusiasm and wild speculations. The late 19th century writer Augustus Le Plongeon convinced himself that the ancient Maya had not only sprung fully developed from the Lost Continent of Atlantis but that they then carried the Maya culture back to the Mediterranean area. Another early explorer, Count Frederick Waldeck, saw pre-Columbian elephants everywhere in ancient Maya ruins. He therefore concluded that the Maya must have known about elephants from their ancestors, who, of course, must have come by ship from Africa or Asia with prior knowledge of elephants. Waldeck was so adept at discovering elephants that he sketched them where no one else can see anything resembling an elephant. On his theory, the trunk-like stone nose of the rain god, Chac, on the facade of the famous Codz-Pop or Palace of Masks at Kabah, Yucatan, was transformed into an elephant's trunk. Likewise, some recent "alternative" historians see a man of "Asian" features and the heads of two elephants with turbaned mahouts leaning on them on Stela B, a stone monument at Copan, Honduras, dated to A.D. 731. . . .
Subscribe and always read all the complete articles . . .
Series Index . . .
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
For MexConnect.Com LLC & Conexión México S.A. de C.V. © Mexico Connect 1996-2008 |
||||||||
= Subscribers only
