Mesoamerica

(noun)

A region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, within which pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.

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(proper noun)

A pre-Columbian cultural region extending from the southern part of Mexico to an area that comprises some parts of the countries of Central America.

Related Terms

Examples of Mesoamerica in the following topics:

  • The Mixteca-Puebla Tradition

    • The Mixteca-Puelba tradition of artistry originates from the pre-Columbian Mixtec peoples from the region of Puebla, Mesoamerica.
    • One of the major indigenous civilizations of Mesoamerica, today they inhabit the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla in the La Mixteca region.
    • The work of Mixteca artisans was well-regarded throughout ancient Mesoamerica.
    • Using vast trading networks, the Mixteca-Puebla style of art spread from Cholula, a city located in the center west of Puebla, to other areas in the Valley of Mexico and eventually to Mesoamerica.

  • Cultures of Mesoamerica

    • Mesoamerica was dominated by 3 cultures in the Pre-Classical (up to 200CE) to Post-Classical periods (circa 1580 CE): the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec.
    • Mesoamerica is a region in the Americas that extends from central Mexico to northern Costa Rica.
    • There are three cultures that dominated the pre-columbian history of Mesoamerica: the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations.
    • The Maya had the most advanced hieroglyphic writing in Mesoamerica and the most sophisticated calendrical system.
    • The Maya were among the most advanced cultures of Mesoamerica.

  • The New World

    • Indigenous visual arts traditions in the Americas span thousands of years, representing cultures from Mesoamerica to the Arctic.
    • The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North America, Mesoamerica, and South America as well as Greenland.
    • An example of such a cultural area is Mesoamerica, where millennia of coexistence and shared development among the peoples of the region produced a fairly homogeneous culture with complex agricultural and social patterns.
    • Indigenous visual arts traditions in the Americas span thousands of years, representing cultures from Mesoamerica to the Arctic.

  • Codices of the Mixtec

    • The Mixtecs were one of the most influential ethnic groups to emerge in Mesoamerica during the Post-Classic.
    • Chocolate or cacao was one of the most expensive and luxurious products in Mesoamerica, and cacao beans were used as currency.

  • Architecture of the Aztecs

    • Founded in 1325, it became the largest city in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica until it was captured by the Spanish in 1521.
    • The small natural island was perpetually enlarged as Tenochtitlan grew to become the largest and most powerful city in Mesoamerica, with the Aztec civilization coming to dominate other tribes all around Mexico.

  • Experiments in Latin America

    • Upon his return to South America, he advocated a different type of abstraction that merged contemporary trends with the spiritual art of the past - particularly that of Mesoamerica .

  • Teotihuacan

    • Nevertheless, its influence continued as other centers throughout Mesoamerica and as far south as the highlands of Guatemala borrowed and transformed its imagery over the next several centuries.

  • Ceramics in Early South America

    • The Nazca, like all other Pre-Columbian societies in South America including the Inca, had no writing system, in contrast to the contemporary Maya of Mesoamerica.