Mesoamerica: A Brief Overview
Summary
TLDRProfessor Miguel Gutierrez's presentation delves into Mesoamerica, a region stretching from Mexico to Costa Rica, highlighting its rich cultural and historical significance. It discusses the area's advanced civilizations known for their cities, writing, agriculture, and monumental architecture. The lecture emphasizes Mesoamericans' remarkable achievements in astronomy, calendar systems, architecture, and agriculture, particularly their development of maize. It also addresses the nutritional wisdom behind traditional corn preparation, challenging misconceptions about pre-Columbian life and emphasizing the enduring legacy of Mesoamerican culture in contemporary society.
Takeaways
- 🌍 Mesoamerica is a significant geographic and cultural region comprising parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
- 🏛️ This region is renowned for its advanced civilizations that emerged independently, alongside Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and the Andean Highlands.
- 📚 Mesoamericans demonstrated profound knowledge in various fields such as astronomy, mathematics, and agriculture, contributing significantly to global civilization.
- 🗓️ They developed a highly accurate calendar system, surpassing the Julian calendar used in Europe at the time of the conquest.
- 🌃 Mesoamericans had a deep understanding of astronomy, including observations of axial precession, which is a slow wobble in the Earth's rotation over thousands of years.
- 🏰 The architectural marvels of Mesoamerica, like the pyramids, showcase their advanced engineering skills and alignment with celestial events.
- 🌾 Corn (maize) was domesticated in Mesoamerica around 7,000 to 10,000 years ago through artificial selection, a testament to their agricultural ingenuity.
- 🍲 The Mesoamerican diet was balanced and diverse, which contrasts with the vitamin deficiencies that arose when corn was consumed as a staple without proper preparation in other regions.
- 🔬 The Nixtamalization process, used to make corn more nutritious by boiling it in an alkali solution, was a significant Mesoamerican discovery that enhanced the bioavailability of nutrients.
- 👥 The legacy of Mesoamerican civilizations is still evident today in modern Mexican and Central American cultures, including culinary practices, family dynamics, and spiritual beliefs.
- 🌟 The accomplishments of Mesoamericans challenge the narrative that civilization was brought to the Americas by Europeans, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and celebrating indigenous contributions.
Q & A
What is Mesoamerica and which countries does it include?
-Mesoamerica is a geographic and cultural area that includes all or parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
Why is Mesoamerica considered one of the cradles of civilization?
-Mesoamerica is considered a cradle of civilization because it is one of the places on Earth where civilization first emerged, characterized by large cities, writing, agriculture, public works, and monumental architecture.
What is axial precession and how did the Mesoamericans observe it?
-Axial precession is a slow wobble in the Earth's rotation, taking about 26,000 years for one full cycle. The Mesoamericans observed this by making detailed astronomical observations over many years, which allowed them to notice the minute changes in the night sky.
How accurate were the Mesoamerican calendars compared to the Julian calendar?
-The Mesoamerican calendars were far more accurate than the Julian calendar used by Europeans at the time of the conquest. They could accurately predict the winter solstice, unlike the Julian calendar which had significant inaccuracies.
What is the significance of the architectural achievements of the Mesoamericans?
-The architectural achievements of the Mesoamericans are significant because their massive pyramids and temples are still standing today, showcasing their advanced knowledge of construction and alignment with celestial events.
How did the Mesoamericans contribute to the field of mathematics?
-The Mesoamericans contributed to mathematics by independently developing the concept of zero and demonstrating an understanding of pi in their construction of massive pyramids.
What is the Badianus manuscript and what does it reveal about Mesoamerican medical knowledge?
-The Badianus manuscript is a book written by the Aztecs that outlines dozens of cures for common ailments, identifying medicinal plants and their preparation methods. It reveals that Mesoamericans had a comparable or even surpassing understanding of medicine compared to European doctors of the same time period.
Why did Europeans who relied heavily on corn experience health issues like pellagra?
-Europeans experienced health issues like pellagra due to a niacin deficiency, which was caused by their exclusive consumption of corn without the necessary dietary balance. Additionally, the bioavailability of niacin in corn was not properly utilized due to a lack of alkali cooking methods that were known to Mesoamericans.
How did the Mesoamericans process corn to make it more nutritious?
-The Mesoamericans processed corn by boiling it in an alkali solution, known as nixtamalization, which made the vitamins and minerals in corn more bioavailable, preventing deficiencies that were seen in populations that did not use this method.
What is the significance of the development of corn in Mesoamerica?
-The development of corn in Mesoamerica is significant because it represents one of the earliest and most successful examples of artificial selection in agriculture, transforming a wild grass into a staple crop that has become a major food source worldwide.
Why is it important for modern descendants of the Mesoamericans to know about their ancient civilizations?
-It is important for modern descendants to know about their ancient civilizations to understand their cultural heritage, contributions to global civilization, and to counter negative narratives that underestimate or dismiss their historical achievements.
Outlines
🌏 Introduction to Mesoamerica
Professor Miguel Gutierrez introduces the topic of Mesoamerica, a region encompassing parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Mesoamerica is highlighted as a cradle of civilization, with a history of advanced societies characterized by urban development, writing systems, agriculture, public works, and monumental architecture. The presentation aims to correct common misconceptions and emphasize the region's significant contributions to global civilization, suggesting that further research or coursework is necessary to fully appreciate the depth of Mesoamerican accomplishments.
🔭 Mesoamerican Achievements in Astronomy and Mathematics
This section delves into the Mesoamerican civilization's advanced knowledge of astronomy, including their observation of axial precession, a phenomenon that takes approximately 26,000 years for the Earth to complete. The Mesoamericans' calendars were more accurate than the Julian calendar, even surpassing the Gregorian calendar in some aspects. The discussion also touches on the impressive architectural feats, such as the alignment of structures with celestial events, and the mathematical prowess of the Mesoamericans, who independently developed the concept of zero and had an understanding of pi, essential for the construction of massive pyramids.
🌾 The Transformation and Cultural Significance of Corn
The paragraph discusses the domestication and development of corn (maize) in Mesoamerica, a crop that does not grow wild and was artificially selected and bred by the ancient Mesoamericans from a small grass-like plant called teocinte. The process of transforming corn into various food products, such as tortillas, is explored, emphasizing the use of lime (calcium hydroxide) in the preparation process, which increases the nutritional value of corn. The narrative also contrasts the balanced diet of the Mesoamericans, which prevented vitamin deficiencies, with the unbalanced diet of Europeans who relied heavily on corn, leading to health issues like pellagra and kwashiorkor.
🍲 The Role of a Balanced Diet and Nixtamalization in Mesoamerican Culture
This section highlights the importance of a balanced diet in Mesoamerica and the process of nixtamalization, which involves boiling corn in an alkali solution to make its nutrients, including niacin, bioavailable. The contrast is drawn between the Mesoamericans' health and the vitamin deficiencies that affected Europeans who consumed corn without this preparation. The paragraph challenges the idea that the use of lime in nixtamalization was accidental, suggesting that the Mesoamericans were observant and analytical in their food preparation, leading to a significant nutritional discovery.
🌱 Challenging Misconceptions and Recognizing Mesoamerican Contributions
The paragraph addresses the distorted image of ancient Mesoamericans perpetuated by media and the importance of recognizing their scientific, intellectual, and cultural contributions. It emphasizes the active role Mesoamericans played in shaping the world while maintaining a respectful relationship with their environment. The paragraph also discusses the broader implications of acknowledging Mesoamerican achievements, including combating negative stereotypes and the myth of European civilization being the sole contributor to global progress. It calls for a reevaluation of the narrative surrounding colonization and the importance of understanding the pre-colonial greatness of Mesoamerica.
🏺 The Living Legacy of Mesoamerican Civilizations
The final paragraph invites reflection on the enduring legacy of Mesoamerican civilizations in contemporary culture. It suggests that many elements of modern Mexican or Central American culture have roots in ancient Mesoamerican practices, from cooking and family interactions to language, prayer, and festivals. The paragraph concludes by encouraging an exploration of these cultural ties and a celebration of the living Mesoamerican heritage that continues to influence the present day.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mesoamerica
💡Axial Precession
💡Mesoamerican Calendars
💡Monumental Architecture
💡Artificial Selection
💡Niacin Deficiency (Pellagra)
💡Nixtamalization
💡Reciprocal Relationships
💡Decolonization
💡Living Culture
Highlights
Mesoamerica is a geographic and cultural region that includes parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
The region is one of the cradles of civilization on the planet, with a history of high civilization and continuous human habitation.
Mesoamerican civilizations were characterized by large cities, writing, agriculture, public works, and monumental architecture.
Mesoamericans had a vast understanding of astronomy, including observations of axial precession.
They developed an accurate system of timekeeping, more precise than the Julian calendar used in Europe at the time of the conquest.
Mesoamerican architecture, such as pyramids, is impressive for its precision and alignment with celestial events.
The Mayans independently developed the concept of zero and had an understanding of pi.
The Badianus manuscript by the Aztecs outlines numerous cures for common ailments, showing a comparable understanding to European medicine of the time.
Mesoamericans domesticated and developed key crops like chiles, avocados, tomatoes, corn, cacao, and beans.
Corn, or maize, was developed through artificial selection by ancient Mesoamericans from a wild grass called teosinte.
Tortillas, a staple in Mesoamerica, are made from a simple recipe of corn, water, and lime (calcium hydroxide), not citrus lime.
The process of nixtamalization, boiling corn in an alkali solution, increases the bioavailability of nutrients in corn.
Europeans who relied heavily on corn without the nixtamalization process suffered from vitamin deficiencies like pellagra.
Mesoamericans maintained a balanced diet, preventing the vitamin deficiencies seen in populations that consumed corn exclusively.
The legacy of Mesoamerican civilizations is still evident in modern Mexican and Central American culture, including cooking, family interactions, and festivals.
Understanding the contributions of Mesoamericans is crucial for decolonization and recognizing the value of indigenous peoples.
Mesoamericans should be proud of their ancestry, which includes significant contributions to global civilization and culture.
Transcripts
hello this is professor miguel gutierrez
and this presentation is on mesoamerica
what is mesoamerica it's a geographic
region and cultural area which includes
all or parts of mexico guatemala
belize el salvador honduras nicaragua
and costa rica this region has been the
site of
thousands of years of high civilization
and tens of thousands of years
of continuous human habitation this
region is also very important on a
global level
because it is one of the cradles of
civilization on the planet
what that means is that along with other
cradles of civilization like
egypt mesopotamia china india
and the andean highlands it is one of
the places on the planet where
civilization first emerged
these first civilizations were
characterized by among other things
large cities writing agriculture public
works
monumental architecture etc in this map
of mesoamerica
indicated by the green shading you can
see that the largest part of mesoamerica
is in modern day mexico
even though it does not include all of
mexico
mesoamerica runs from central mexico
southward through most of central
america but not including
panama here is a short and very limited
list of just some of the accomplishments
of mesoamericans in the last several
thousands of years there's way too many
to go into any significant details in
this short powerpoint
these aren't necessarily the most
impressive accomplishments or the ones
of the greatest magnitude
but just a few things to keep in mind
when we consider the character
of mesoamerican civilization if you're
interested in knowing more about the
items on the list or countless more
please consider doing your own research
or taking a course on this
we could easily talk for the rest of the
semester just on this topic
these are just a few examples that point
to a much larger
understanding of the world first
much has been said about mesoamericans
and their vast understanding of
astronomy
one of the things that have caught my
attention is that mesoamericans
apparently had made observations on what
today is referred to as
axial precession which you can think of
as a wobble
in the earth's rotation like a top that
is running out of energy and starts to
slowly wobble on its axis
this wobble is not easy to see in fact
it takes about 26 000 years for the
earth to complete one full circle
one entire wobble if you will
at this rate you could see a very minute
change in the night sky over the course
of many
many years a circle has 360 degrees so
that would mean that the night sky would
seem to shift just
one degree over 72 years it would take
an entire lifetime
for the sky to barely change that's not
generally perceptible unless
you are really doing some hardcore
observations and calculations
you would also have to devote massive
amounts of time thought
and energy into developing observatories
instruments
records and schools so that each
generation could build on the work of
others
similarly the mesoamerican calendars
used some of the observations from
astronomy
to formulate an astonishingly accurate
system of time keeping
throughout thousands of years in fact
the calendars used by the native people
of mesoamerica were far
more accurate than the julian calendar
which was the one being used by the
europeans
at the time of the conquest in the late
1400s and 1500s
when you consider that even the
gregorian calendar which is the one that
we use today
is still inaccurate because it's off by
about six hours each year
which adds up to a whole day off every
four years
that's what a leap year is supposed to
fix it's amazing that the mayans were
able to devise a calendar
thousands of years ago that could
accurately predict the winter solstice
in
our age in fact some of you might
remember that people were freaking out
about the world possibly ending back in
december 21st
of 2012 because of misinterpretations of
the mayan calendar
those of you that have ever been to any
of the temples or pyramids in mexico or
central america
know that the architecture of the
mesoamericans is pretty mind blowing
just consider that these massive
pyramids are still standing and in
fairly good shape today
when you also consider what it takes to
plan and construct these buildings
especially without draft animals like
horses and cattle which the
mesoamericans did not have
it becomes even more impressive also
these buildings and cities are precisely
aligned with some celestial happening
which coincide
symbolically with mesoamerican religions
just about every aspect of these
buildings has a special meaning behind
it
if you have not seen any of these in
person i would encourage you to go and
see them
the picture that you have here is
teotihuacan which was built about 2000
years ago and it's an incredibly
impressive city of course
all of the evidence and the
accomplishments in astronomy the
calendar and architecture
all definitively mean that the
mesoamerican civilizations
were phenomenally well versed in complex
mathematics
it's not possible to do the
above-mentioned feats and not
have a far-reaching understanding of
math just as really basic examples
it's fairly common knowledge that the
mayans came up with the concept of zero
independently of other world
civilizations
mathematicians have also pointed out
that in order to successfully compute
the dimensions of the massive pyramids
the ancients must have also had an
understanding of pi
3.14 those of you that have said that
mexicans can't do math
you should reconsider
one example in the area of medical
science is in a book called the
baviano's manuscript
seen here is a page from that book the
book was written by the meshikas or the
aztecs as they are frequently referred
to
the book itself has an amazing story in
the book
the authors outlined dozens of cures for
common ailments
they not only identify the medicinal
plant but also tell you how to prepare
the plant
so you can use it for the intended cure
some of the analyses of the book's
contents
have concluded that in the field of
medicine the mesoamericans had at the
very least
a comparable understanding to european
doctors of that same time period
they say that it's at least if not
surpassing european understanding of
medicine
at that time finally
in the area of agriculture we have a lot
of foods that you are familiar with like
the ones shown here
chiles aguacates gitomates and
tomatillos
corn calabasitas cacao chocolate
beans and these are just a few
just a very short list of the plants
that were domesticated and developed in
mesoamerica
for thousands of years mexicans and
central americans have been enjoying
these items which
they created for hundreds of generations
this has been in their culture in
mesoamerican culture for
thousands of years i'm going to focus on
one crop in particular which is very
important in mesoamerican culture
which is corn so when i refer to corn
maize or maize i'm talking about the
same crop
i'd like to start by telling you a
couple of stories about corn
and the first question that we have to
address with this crop is where in the
world does corn grow
wild and the answer to that is kind of a
phenomenal answer which is
nowhere corn doesn't grow wild anywhere
just about every plant that you can
think of grows naturally somewhere
on the planet but not corn and so if it
doesn't grow
naturally in the wild then we have to
shift the question
where and when was it developed and by
who
in other words this crop was created by
someone or a group of people
at a point in history it was developed
in what is today called mexico sometime
around
seven to ten thousand years ago but how
did that happen
how do these people actually create a
new crop
and the general answer is that first and
foremost
thousands of years ago the ancient
mesoamericans had an
intimate and robust understanding of
botany biology
genetics and everything that goes along
with that including mutations
and they also had an understanding of
what today we call artificial selection
artificial selection is when human
beings select
for desired traits they see certain
characteristics which they like in a
species
and then try to pass on those
characteristics on to future generations
of the species
it's the way humans have derived
countless domestic dog breeds from wild
wolves
it's different than natural selection
where nature simply runs its course and
where certain traits are selected for
naturally without human intervention
those traits are adaptations which gave
a species an
advantage in their natural habitat
so in the case of corn this is not a
plant that developed naturally on its
own
human beings around 10 000 years ago
started selecting certain traits in this
plant
and consequently they developed it into
what it is today
so what was their starting point their
starting point is a plant called
tiocinte or tiocinte this plant still
appears throughout mesoamerica today
but if you would see it today you would
just think that it looks like some sort
of grass
which is true the ocean is a grass corn
is a grass so thousands of years ago the
ancient mesoamericans ran into this
plant
and they saw some potential in it to
develop it into something different
and in this insert on the right you can
see what a quote unquote corn cob
would have looked like it's incredibly
small
but if you start selecting for certain
traits and pay close attention to
mutations
you can little by little over the course
of thousands of years start to modify
this plant
and so here you have on the left what
the ocean looks like compared to a u.s
quarter
and modern corn on the right with a
modern corn cob in relation
to a u.s quarter this is actually the
same plant that has been developed and
subjected to artificial selection for
thousands of years
to the point where you have an almost
unrecognizably different looking plant
the most common way of consuming corn in
mesoamerica for thousands of years and
even today is not by eating elotes not
by eating corn on the cob
but by consuming corn products such as
tortillas
so what are the ingredients for
tortillas
well we can guess that the main
ingredient is of course
corn and of course you would have water
and there's only one more ingredient
tortillas
for thousands of years have only really
had three ingredients
and i'm fascinated by how many people
don't know what they are
i get a lot of wrong guesses when we do
this in class people
incorrectly guess that it has flour or
sugar or salt or lard
lard as we know today would not have
been available to the ancient
mesoamericans because they did not have
domesticated pigs
pigs cows horses and other livestock
were introduced to the americas by
europeans in the late 1400s and 1500s
so no they do not have manteca they do
not have lard
the third ingredient is lime in spanish
they refer to this as
cal now when i say lime i'm not talking
about a citrus lime
make sure you do not think that lemons
are part of the recipe here
i'm talking about this chemical called
calcium hydroxide
the consistency when you touch it is
just like a chalky powder so those are
the ingredients for making tortillas
you boil the three together and it turns
into a new product called
nista mal you can't just call it corn
anymore
it's something different it's nishtamal
now these are really groundbreaking
ideas the mesoamericans had a very long
time ago
they create corn their own crop and then
they develop
all these methods of growing it
cultivating it harvesting it
cooking it processing it and making all
kinds of foods out of it
in the picture on the right you have
what's called a metate it's a grinding
stone where you grind the boiled corn
and come up with this
masa this nishta mal masa
this is one of the foundations of
mesoamerican cooking
what can you make out of this masa you
can make all kinds of stuff
you can make tortillas obviously
gorditas pupusas and all of the other
similar foods
you can slightly modify the masa for
tamales you can make atoles which are
the corn based drinks
and a whole lot more so here's another
element of the story about corn
corn outside of the americas has a very
interesting story
nobody on earth had ever seen corn
outside of the americas until 1492
when christopher columbus gets lost and
arrives by accident in the americas
he gets off his boat and he sees all
kinds of things that he had never seen
before
and one of them is this crop called mice
so he takes it back to europe and it
eventually becomes very popular over
there
europeans grow it eat it and find corn
so valuable as a food source to the
extent that many people especially poor
people
came to rely on corn as a primary source
of food
however something went awry
among populations that heavily relied on
corn they started getting these diseases
and from the descriptions that we have
of their symptoms modern nutritionists
know exactly what they're referring to
but just think for a second why would
people outside of the america start
getting sick from
eating a lot of corn because this
question boggled european doctors for a
while
we can take some guesses as to why
they're getting sick maybe the soil in
europe is not adequate to grow corn
maybe europeans are displaying a food
allergy to a food product that they have
never had before
well what we know today is that what
they were experiencing
are actually vitamin deficiencies the
picture on the right is called polagra
which is a niacin or vitamin b3
deficiency
shown here by inflammation of the skin
that looks like sores
and the one on the left is kwashiorkor
which is a protein deficiency
especially among children when they get
enough calories but not enough protein
and they show these protruding bellies
among other symptoms
these diseases happened and still happen
to some extent
in many places where there were people
who heavily relied on corn
as their primary food but these diseases
generally were not
happening in mesoamerica which is odd
that the people in the americas who have
so many corn dishes and consume so much
corn would be fine
and other people will eat a lot of corn
and get sick
why are they getting sick there's two
main reasons
the first one is a balanced diet when
nutritionists and doctors tell you about
the importance of a balanced diet
that's not just a loose suggestion that
is very
important if you completely cut a
vitamin or mineral out of your intake
you can get terribly sick and it could
possibly even lead to your death
as popular as corn has been in
mesoamerica
the people there were not consuming
exclusively corn
mesoamericans have this phenomenal
variety in diet
and they've had a tradition of that for
thousands of years and we still do today
if you would go to my grandma's kitchen
on any given day she's 96 years old in
mexico
there's always a variety of dishes she's
not rich by any means
she lives in a rural place in the
countryside in the rancho
but there's always frijoles tortillas
along with several other mostly
plant-based dishes like nopales or papas
or whatever
a balanced diet is heavily embedded in
the culinary practices of mesoamerica
so first and foremost these people in
europe were not eating a balanced diet
they were consuming mostly or
exclusively corn
that's not good you can take the most
nutritious thing on the planet
but if that's all you eat you're gonna
get sick the second reason of why people
outside of the americas got sick but not
mesoamericans
is an ironic story i mentioned that one
of the diseases common among people that
eat
almost exclusively corn is called
pellagra
caused by a niacin deficiency well it
turns out that corn has niacin
in it along with a whole bunch of other
vitamins and minerals
so how are you suffering from a niacin
deficiency
when all you eat is corn which has
niacin in it
and the answer to that is
bioavailability which means that the
niacin inside of the corn is there
but your body for some reason can't
absorb it and it goes right through you
so why wasn't that happening in
mesoamerica
you remember this slide the ancient
recipe for tortillas
it turns out that the way to make those
vitamins inside of corn available to
your body is by cooking the corn in an
alkali solution you have to change the
ph of the water in which it's boiling
the ryzen ph in essence unlocks
the nutrients and now your body can use
them how do you change the ph of water
to make it more alkaline
well an easy way is by adding cal lime
so when europeans started cooking corn
they decided to skip a step
they were cooking corn but they were not
making nista mal
they were doing this and that little
omitted step made a
big difference in the people's health
they were losing out on all the
nutritional value corn had to offer
even today there's a word in english as
odd as it might sound
nice stamolization no joke this is a
real word
next symbolization refers to boiling
corn in an alkali
solution it's somewhat of a standard in
the modern food production industry for
tortilla chips and stuff like that
to boil corn and cal because it's much
more nutritious that way
but let's not forget this is the
technology that mesoamericans
discovered and developed thousands of
years ago and so we have a very pressing
and provocative question
how and why did the ancient
mesoamericans come to put gal
in the nista mal there's a lot of
articles out there that speculate that
this was all an
accident i don't quite agree with that
at some point it may have been an
accident but eventually it became
standardized all throughout mesoamerica
and extended to other parts of the
americas as well
when an accident happens and you're not
really paying attention it just remains
an accident but when an accident happens
and you are observant
receptive and analytical it becomes a
discovery
so if there was an accident made at one
point these people were savvy enough to
figure out that there was some value to
it
to say it was a mistake downplays the
countless interventions by our ancestors
in developing this very
important discovery the story
is a lot longer than this and i have a
lot more to say on this topic and the
development of nistaman
if you're interested in talking more
about this just ask me in class
but suffice it to say for now that what
this all suggests
is a people that really valued
exploration
scientific endeavors their own nutrition
and that they had lots of time to
experiment and look for ways for
bettering and developing themselves
so let's look a bit at who exactly were
the mesoamericans
we have a huge challenge today in the
united states in the 21st century
overcoming the idea that most of us have
about what it must have been like to
live in mesoamerica
500 or a thousand years ago when we
think about these ancient mesoamericans
we think of
like the movie apocalypto or any other
similar depiction
we think of butt naked indians running
through the jungle trying not to get
eaten by a jaguar
or trying not to get killed by other
indians they must have had a
horrible existence we have really got to
start thinking differently
because the evidence that we have says
that that's not what was generally
happening in mesoamerica
but through movies and other media
representations that's all we really see
of these people so yeah let's get rid of
that
the evidence we have is of people that
have placed a high premium on scientific
exploration
intellectual development critical
observation creativity
adaptation and hard work so yes we have
a very distorted image
of the ancient mesoamericans if you are
mexican or central american
if that's your ancestry then that also
means you have a very distorted view
of yourself these are not
passive people these are people that are
taking a very
active role in shaping the world while
still maintaining a respectful and
reciprocal relationship with all of
creation
and i must emphasize the key words here
are reciprocal
relationships it's a bit beyond the
scope of this
presentation but this is consistent with
native america in general
that native american religions and
spiritualities native american
worldviews and philosophies
very much emphasize relationships where
you give
and you receive where you reciprocate
where you are in balance in your
relationships
the ancient mesoamericans even though
they were acting on the world and
creating all of these different plants
and foods and structures and so on
at the very forefront of their
understanding of their place in the
world
is reciprocal relationships with all of
creation
so perhaps the most important question
is why should we care
why should we even look at this idea of
mesoamerica today
here's a few really quick points at the
beginning of every semester
when we do in-person classes i ask
students
what reasons do mexicans central
americans and the so-called latinos have
to be proud of themselves
what are some points of pride for them
the most popular answer is a very
redundant answer where people say
mexicans should be proud because they
come from a proud people
well that doesn't tell me anything give
me a specific
thing that's special about your group of
people
and it's fascinating and tragic that
most mexicans and central americans that
i've talked to
don't seem to be aware that they come
from people that first
invented civilization on the planet
that's something we should all know and
a pretty good reason to be proud
we are coming from cultures that have
been in development for thousands of
years
these civilizations made contributions
way beyond native america
they contributed to humanity in general
when you just think about foodstuffs
that are important everywhere in the
world
how many of those came from mesoamerica
a whole bunch
tomatoes the squash family pumpkins
calabasitas chiles corn
chocolate vanilla beans these were all
domesticated by mesoamerican
ingenuity and these are all
contributions to the
world this is extra problematic when the
modern descendants of the ancient
mesoamericans don't know about these
achievements
because in the united states we are
bombarded with a narrative that says
that mexicanos and centro americanos
have no valuable contributions to the
united states or to anyone
that we don't do anything good for this
country besides take welfare
and other nonsense like that there are
some politicians
like republican steve king from iowa
who has repeatedly attacked mexican and
central american
immigrants and said that non-whites have
not contributed to civilization
if somebody tells you that your people
have never contributed and
are not valuable and you don't know
about this mesoamerican stuff
you might be tempted to believe them or
at least don't know how to defend
yourself
the ridiculous irony is that steve king
was a representative for
iowa the leading corn producer in the
united states
it's sometimes even called the corn
state king and his republican friends
must be under the
delusion that white men created corn
we have to know about these
contributions and accomplishments
generally
and finally there is a nasty and
tenacious attitude
that europeans brought civilization to
the americas
that they civilized the mexican centro
americanos and other
indigenous peoples that is flatly wrong
there were already civilizations here in
the western hemisphere for
thousands of years before it was
happening in europe
but if you choose to believe this myth
in any way shape or form
that is you believe that europeans
civilize the native people here
then you at some level believe that
colonization
was a good thing so if you want to have
an
honest conversation about colonization
and decolonization
you have to first acknowledge the
greatness and the impressive nature of
mesoamerica and native america overall
you had to understand who you were
before you were colonized
otherwise there is no decolonization
otherwise colonization doesn't sound so
bad
because these good europeans civilize
these backwards but naked indians
remember that europeans came for our
goods
not for our good
for the last slide just a question for
you to consider
in what ways can we still see the legacy
of ancient mesoamerican civilizations
as a living culture today you should not
assume that mesoamerican culture died
under cortes and the conquistadores in
1521
not true there there's
many many elements that for thousands of
years
have been prevailing here in north
america and they're still here with us
today
you should make it a point to understand
what those things are
many of the core elements of what we
consider modern
mexican or central american culture are
actually rooted in ancient mesoamerican
practices
whether it's the things you cook and the
way you cook them
or the way you interact with your
families the things you say the way you
pray the festivals you celebrate
many of those things point to a
mesoamerican living
culture that is still here with us today
thank you
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