Pre-Columbian Mexico
A score of distinct aboriginal tongues and more than 100 dialects still spoken within the confines of the Mexican Republic are evidence of the presence of numerous races that overran the country at various periods during its prehistoric existence. These early races seem to have had considerable influence upon the traditions, mythology and customs of the people who followed them in the country. From the confused movement of the shadowy peoples of the past stand forth the forms of several more or less distinctly cultured races whose written and traditional records, legends and folklore reach back to the dim border land beyond which all is mythical. Mentioning only the most powerful, and those which figured prominently in the subsequent wars with the Spaniards, will be sufficient, without confusing the memory with a multitude of long Indian names of comparatively insignificant peoples.
The ancient inhabitants of Mexico are divided into two main groups: Mexicans and Non-Mexicans. The former can be arranged in two strata which are linguistically, archaeologically, ethnographically, and chronologically quite distinct from one another. The Toltecs or Nahuas (Chichimeca Mochanecatoca in Sahagun's Hist, de la Cosas de la Nueva España) form the older stratum of the Mexicans. Their language was, or is Nahuat. The latter stratum is formed by the Nahuatlacs, to whom the Aztecs belong. They speak Náhuatl. The Sonoras and the Shoshonees are elder relations of both. Mexicans of both strata immigrated to the Mexican highlands. During the early semi-historical part of this period the great Nahua race, beginning its many years of wandering from the north, crossed the Mexican boundary in the 6th century and continued southward.
The Non-Mexican peoples either also immigrated in archaic times, or are there so long that they may be regarded as autochthonous. To these belong chiefly the peoples of the great Otomi group, further the Mixteco-Zapotecs, Huaves and Mayas, as well as the Totonacs and Tarascs. While the Nahua held the central portion of what is modern Mexico, the Maya and other kindred races occupied the south, stretching from Campeche, Yucatan and Chiapas south and west to the Pacific and into Guatemala, where they established a civilization rivaling that of the Toltecs. Between the Maya on the south and the Toltecs on the north lay the Zapoteca and the Mixteca, almost as far advanced as they in the arts and sciences and the principles of government.
All four peoples were skilled workers in metals and excellent makers of pottery and woven fabrics. They recorded their histories, traditions, religious formulas, tribute rolls and important events in complicated hieroglyphics which varied with the different races. They were good agriculturists, excellent builders and organizers and they maintained extensive and well-apportioned armies and systems of public instruction. All education was in the hands of the priests and administered from the temples, thousands of which, rising from high, truncated, pyramidal structures, covered the land. These temples were specially numerous and of notable magnificence in the Aztec land and Yucatan.
The civilization of this section of North America is not limited by tribal or stock boundaries, but seems to have prevailed throughout the entire region reaching from near the latitude of Tampico, in Mexico, to Nicaragua, notwithstanding the fact that it was occupied by some seven or eight different stocks. Besides the Aztec or Nahuatlan and Mayan, there were also included at the time of the discovery, the Zapotecan stock, located chiefly in Oaxaca; the Tarascan, in Michoacan; the Totonacan, in Vera Cruz; the Chiapanecan, in Chiapas; and the Otomian, of central Mexico, in part. Notwithstanding this diversity, there was such a general similarity in the culture types of the different districts as to make it evident that it was one civilization, having one origin, developed in one age or era, and that the culture of the different stocks were not parallel civilizations which had developed side by side, as maintained by some authors. Nevertheless, there were minor differences in type which were ethnic and indicative of the stock in which they originated.
Many Mesoamerica tribes had highly complex societies. The Olmecs had a genius forscience, philosophy, and art. They were the first astronomers of ancient America, and theyused their observations of the sun and stars to create a precise calendar. The Maya inventeda system of writing using hieroglyphics, and they recorded their history in thousands of books. Their mathematical system was about one thousand years more advanced than that being used in Europe at the same time.
Between 200 B.C. and A.D. 900, Mesoamerica was the scene of highly developed civilizations. Archaeologists have designated this Classic Period as the Golden Age of Mexico. This era was a time when the arts and sciences reached their apex, when a writing system developed, and when a sophisticated mathematical system permitted the accurate recording of time. Religion was polytheistic, revering the forces of nature in the gods of rain, water, the sun, and the moon. The most important deity was Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent and the essence of life, from whom all knowledge derived. Metals came into use only by the end of the period, but despite this handicap, impressive architectural structures in the pyramids at Teotihuacán near Mexico City, the Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajín in the state of Veracruz, and the Temple of the Sun at Palenque in present-day Chiapas were built and survive to this day.
The ancient Mexicans believed in a future life which was graded according to the manner of death, and among the Zapotecs they had elaborate funeral ceremonies and sacrificed slaves to assist the shades of important persons on their journey to paradise. They had greater and lesser deities. The principal god of the Aztecs was Teotl, who was worshiped as a supreme being. Next to Teotl, Tezcatlipoca, a wizard god, was venerated as the soul of the world, who rewarded the righteous and punished the unrighteous.
There were gods of the hunt and chase, of play, flowers, wine, merchants, trickery, lust, and so forth, while each trade and occupation had its own patron deity. The religious rites were elaborate and prescribed with minuteness. The multiplicity of gods required a great number of priests and priestesses, who were almost as highly venerated as the deities they served. There were degrees of priesthood and religious orders and fixed and movable festivals. The great teocallis, or god houses, were commanding edifices of stone, built on high truncated pyramids with annexed buildings. Their idols were many and hideous, smeared with the blood of human and animal sacrifices.
The great beneficent god among the Nahuasw as Quetzalcoatl , called Kukulcan by the Mayas, the great feathered serpent deity. He seems to have been an early Maya god taken over by the Nahua at a time when they were profoundly influenced by the ascendant Maya civilization. He invented the arts and taught the people wisdom by his laws. According to his various attributes he appears under different names, as do many other gods of the Mexican pantheon. Tlaloc was the god of rain, and among the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, the terrible war god, was patron and protector.
The three most important Classic sites were Teotihuacán (in central Mexico), Monte Albán (to the south in the state of Oaxaca), and the Mayan complexes (in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, as well as in the nearby countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize). The fall of Teotihuacán around A.D. 650 effectively transferred the center of power from central Mexico to the Mayan city states of the Yucatan Peninsula. The lowland Mayan culture flourished from A.D. 600 to A.D. 900 when it abruptly declined.
The exact causes of this rapid fall remain unknown, but archaeologists speculate that it might have been because of one or a combination of factors: bad harvests, plague, drought, ecological problems from overpopulation, or pressure from more warlike neighbors. Whatever the factors may have been, they provided the groundwork for the next phase, the Post-Classic period, which would be a radical change from the Classic.
The Classic collapse encompassed important demographic transformations affecting the biology of human populations. It is also in accordance with the paleoenvironmental evidence reflecting climatic changes at this epoch. Tree ring and lake sediment records indicate that some of the most severe and prolonged droughts to impact North America and Mesoamerica in the past 1000-4000 years occurred between AD 650 and 1000, particularly during the eighth and ninth centuries, a period of time that coincides with the Terminal Classic Period. Based on the similarities of the climatic (severe drought) and demographic (massive population loss) events in Mesoamerica during the sixteenth century, drought-associated epidemics of hemorrhagic fever may have contributed to the massive population loss during the end of the Classic period.
The main characteristic of the Post-Classic period was a sudden surge of militarism. The population underwent great turmoil and numerous migrations; people moved everywhere and anywhere they could find allies to fight their common enemies. Wars ceased to be waged for territorial expansion and became a means for exacting tribute and for capturing prisoners to be sacrificed to the gods. For the first time, architecture centered on defense and fortification. Numerous civilizations rose and fell during this period, including the Toltec in central Mexico and the Zapotec and Mixtec in southern Mexico.
The destruction by the Spanish of an incalculable number of native American codices was an immense historical loss. In an attempt to rectify the situation the Spanish had Indians produce new codices dealing with a wide selection of historical and cultural subjects. They could not replace those that were destroyed, however, because the subjects were now presented from a new point of view: 16th century European, rather than native American. Of approximately 500 codices relating to ancient Mexico that are extant, only 16 were produced before the Conquest. Currently, an important trend is the widening distance between epigraphers and iconographers on the one hand, and "dirt" archaeologists on the other. One aspect of this is sharp disagreement over the appropriate attitude toward objects without provenience. Many Mesoamericanists who focus on iconography and/or epigraphy argue that any significant object should be recorded and published, even when the circumstances surrounding its acquisition are mysterious. An increasing proportion of field archaeologists feel that it is unethical to have anything to do with objects without pedigrees since analyzing and (especially) publishing them legitimizes not only collecting, but also commercial dealing, looting, and the destruction of sites that provide the raw material for the antiquities market in the first place.
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