The Agriculture of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica comprises most of the lower region of Mexico and upper Central America. It consists of a broad range of ecological environments, from deserts, grasslands, and coniferous forests of the northern and central highlands to the dense tropical jungles and savannahs of the lowlands. Much of its ecological diversity is due to great changes in altitude, which can vary from sea level to nearly 6,000 feet within a few hundred miles. The regions profound differences in terrain fostered intense cultural heterogeneity. In 1519, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, Mesoamerica was the habitation of more than 20 distinct language groups. However the environmental diversity also meant that not a single population could become utterly self-sufficient. Early on, highland and lowland people became reliant upon each other for the most basic commodities,
It is assumed that the disparity amongst rulers and ruled developed with the conjoined social powers by chiefs who controlled society by coordinating agricultural labor and oversee the storage and redistribution of the crop surpluses that ensured group survival against drought. which lead to the establishment of extensive trade. In lieu of always being linked with subsistence, domesticated plants may have first been nurtured as supplementary feasting foods by individuals seeking to enhance their social status as tribal big men. Grains of maize were too small to constitute a staple. , Mesoamerican people were hunters and gatherers until the domestication of plants, especially corn, beans, and squash, which provided them with surplus that allowed year-round settlements to thrive. They could reap as many as three crops of corn a year using a form of agriculture, which still thrives in a suburb of Mexico City. Agriculture permits a society to increase in population, but with population on the rise, it creates a demand for more intensive cultivation. Agriculture spread to the tropical lowlands and other parts of Mesoamerica only much later. Instead they were made into atole, which was to be served on special occasions. But the link between social inequality and agriculture may not have been so fundamental at the outset. A wide variety of agricultural techniques were developed to keep up with the supply and demand. The traditional view, based on investigations in Mexico's Tehuacan Valley, is that agriculture first emerged I n the central highlands sometime between 5,000 and 3,000 B. Similar to most inhabitants of the western hemisphere between 15,000 and 5,000 B. Most historians agree that towns, cities, and other basic cultural attributes associated with civilization emerged form these villages, but the exact nature of the shift to full-time agriculture production remains the subject of considerable debate.
Common topics in this essay:
North America,
Tehuacan Valley,
BC Mesoamerican,
Central America,
Conquest Mesoamerica,
Lake Texcoco,
,
Chiapas Similarly,
year-round settlements,
Mexico City,
central highlands,
storage redistribution,
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