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Agriculture in Mesoamerica: products and techniques of pre-Hispanic cultures.

Although a priori would appear that maize was the first agricultural product was grown in Central America, due to the strong influence helped indigenous peoples and that still holds today, does not seem that way. Some researchers, such as the Girard case, saying that agriculture began with other Mesoamerican different crop, cassava (manikot esculenta), along with other roots such as sweet potatoes and jicama. The call came later agricultural trinity: the pumpkin harvest began about 7,500 years ago, and maize and beans 7,000 2,000.

3,500 years ago, agriculture had spread throughout Mesoamerica and its inhabitants had become completely sedentary. The cultures were forced to settle longer in the same places and villages first appeared, they built their houses and temples and produced pottery was baked in ovens. Also in this period intensified other work, making baskets, ropes, nets, textiles, and refined the techniques of grinding stone, which applied equally to necklaces, pipes, etc.

The ethnic group known Popoloca played an important role in the development of Mesoamerican agriculture. According to studies conducted in 1964 by MacNeish, former Popolocas, the proto-Otomanguean, farming culture began 7,000 years ago, which until then was a natural landscape became one cultivated. Along with the roots such as cassava, sweet potato or yam, Chile began to be cultivated, amaranth, avocado, pumpkin, izote, cactus, plum, agave, mesquite, etc. For the eighth century AD Popolocas already knew and domesticated plants and animals all who knew all Mesoamerican peoples eight centuries later, when the English came to the continent.

Popolocas development in the agricultural field was extended to the engineering, build terraces, canals and small reservoirs to jagüeyes way. In addition, they are considered one of the pioneers in the manufacturing towns of Mesoamerican ceramics. For the test of carbon 14 is known to its age dating from between 2,300 and 1,500 BC.

We can not understand what kind of cultures and societies formed the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica without knowing what kind of crops were given mainly. For this study, archaeologists can identify those products grown in various ways or methods. Their findings are based on the study of the areas where they lived and grew, where they found the charred remains of their crops. Similarly draw conclusions on the microscopic analysis of soil samples from the excavations, detecting the pollen produced by specific species of plants. For archaeologists, the phytoliths are an extinct world exposed. These tiny mineral objects produced by certain plants in the place where they grew up and remain on earth, are revealed as a sociological ideology then expose what were the crops that were given at that time past and, therefore, what was the staple diet of the inhabitants.

Until recently, archaeologists claimed that most of the Mayan culture was the kind of slash and burn, but according Holmul no longer thinks the same and it seems that logging and burning are given a smaller scale . The results of new research reveals that most of the cities, both the Preclassic and the Classic, used agriculture intensive, made use of terraces filled with low sludge, which were more fertile, and the use of low drainage, irrigation channels, tree planting, use of trees as huixil (Leucaena-leucocephala) and other substances such as soil fertilizer for nitrogen.

According to Tom Sever, "the Maya could not do well, since water is about 150 meters deep in the Peten, so they depended on rain." Although the rain forest experiences a dry season each year, and trees absorb water from the soil, Sever said that in the Peten region, the Maya made use of rainwater collected in swamps called bajos, which cover 40% of the landscape. Today the rain evaporates before someone uses it, but the excavations and satellite images reveal a network of canals between Cibal or low made by the Maya. Similarly, Sever believes that the channels used to control water reuse and rain, allowing farmers to imagine the old busy all day in intensive agriculture. Have not used these low, it seems almost impossible to be able to keep the dense population of that time in the region of Petén. The Maya had then to 40% more fertile ground than the other 60%, a large contribution to food production.

Also in the Petén lakes, archaeologists have studied pollen samples taken, these studies result in a heavy deforestation around 1,200 years ago, but not caused by slash and burn agriculture, as previously thought Not long ago, but climate change and the production of stucco for their cities. Evaporation and erosion was so fast that destroyed the agricultural system in use for 2,000 years.

Moreover, the Aztecs, who arrived late to the valley had to conform and adapt to living on the islands. They had devised a method by which to produce crops that would the basis of their diet, for it made use of artificial islands, or floating gardens, allowing them to meet their basic food needs of population growth which they lived. Water and associated engineering also proved a valuable weapon in increasing agricultural production and to that cause, or aochpango built many aqueducts, including the most impressive were in the imperial capital, Tenochtitlan. Aztec crop did not differ much from the likes Maya and their preferences were the same in corn, squash, beans, chile, amaranth, cocoa, pepper, snuff, chia, tomatoes and other crops that developed with a single tool called a coa, a stick with a pointed end.

The Aztecs used different techniques for crops such as slashing, which was to clear the land, and terraces on a hillside acreage held by a small wall. The floating gardens, used in the valley of Mexico, had a sophisticated system that allowed farmers to take the floor of the lake areas intensively. Among all crops, especially two of them were different from those pertaining to food, cotton, whose production was the mainstay for the manufacture of their clothes, and maguey, to prepare a ceremonial drink, intoxicating called pulque.

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The first transition: from gathering to agriculture.

Among the theories that demographers argue there is a meeting point that no one who Mailing, all support the biological repercussions they had on individuals and societies, in paragraph health and increased fertility, discoveries and cultural events that have affected technological development. A determining factor in population growth and demographic change. Buorgois-Pichat (1969) argues that certain facts as important as the discovery of fire, the invention of agriculture and the steam engine, scored three different demographic transitions of great repercussion in the world population. Similarly, Livi Bacci (1990) argues that the spread of agriculture allowed the population is multiplied several times to increase the maximum food resources that nature offered to the hunter gatherers.

However, according to Lourdes Marquez Morfin and Patricia Hernández Espinoza in the demographic transition and the emergence of agriculture in Mesoamerica, in this first demographic transition marked agriculture as a cultural process of great importance for population growth There are two theories. Two gaps open by demographers that lead to a point of dispute or disagreement in terms of health, but not in fertility and the increase of the population. One of them, the classic, on the assumption that increased food or nutritional contribution allowed to accelerate the growth of the population, supported by agricultural and declining mortality. In contrast, the second theory argues that sedenterarización to which the population evolved was a sudden change in diet, reduced food quality, and increased risk of transmitting infectious diseases, increased contact density and can also would increased mortality.

However, from one to another theory, that sharing is facilitated settling parenting and decreased the time between births, which allowed the population growth. On this issue, Livi-Bacci said that agricultural development would have increased mortality, but even more encouraging increased fertility of the population. However, there are other dissenting voices in these two theories, like Robert McCaa (2002), he believes that " agriculture was not sustainable machinery of the demographic changes in the prehistory of America because there is evidence that some groups experienced horticulturalists in fecundity increases.

However, archaeological evidence is clear on the period between 8,000 and 4,000 BC, and depending on the region, there was a change in the subsistence economy tipped to produce agricultural products, while retaining the combination with the findings in hunting, fishing and gathering. Amelagos Cohen (1984) argue that by producing more food and have surpluses could food to sustain a larger number of people, just so they could keep the grains and seeds for other periods shortages, drought or other environmental problems.

Agriculture allowed a greater amount of food for more people and there are arguments by researchers to argue that to be better nourished and healthier in a reduction in premature mortality in older age and elevated the productive potential, allowing the population to grow and multiply. However, it is doubtful whether, in addition to quantity, with agriculture also exceeded food quality. It is shown that the two groups, hunter-gatherers and farmers, have different eating habits. The first diet was more balanced than that of seconds, according to Brown and Konner (2,000), consisted of a sufficient amount of protein (34%), carbohydrates (45%), fat (21%), vitamins and minerals. By contrast, food-based agriculture was supported mainly carbohydrates, in the case of Mesoamerica in the grain of corn. Added to this, the sedentary lifestyle changed the nomadic lifestyle and with it the kind of health and infectious diseases they suffered.

In Mesoamerica, the development of agriculture had spread fully 3,500 years ago, during the Preclassic period. There was of gradually, and separately in different regions. In those that have been investigated so far, especially in Mexico, in the Basin of Mexico, the Zapotec region and the Maya area population is estimated low, albeit with a steady growth since the early period to the terminal (1,500 to 0 BC), continuing until the end of the Classic (0 to 900 AD). According to Martínez Muriel (1993), during the Preclassic were developed many villages with a few hundred people, but it is in the Middle Classic, where the data are apparently higher population in cities such as Teotihuacan, the Basin of Mexico , Tikal in the Maya area and Monte Alban in the Valley of Oaxaca.

This time interval was important technological development in farming and the domestication of plants, so much so that in the classical period we had a total dependence on grains such as corn and beans. Sustained impact in small villages led to overcrowding were forming neighborhoods where dozens of people were staying organized in families. The times were engaged in subsistence had been left behind and went on to develop various activities and tasks and get new food for socio-economic patterns developed. The weather was favorable and allowed the growth of crops, resulting in greater longevity of adults and increased time to conception in women. In short, decisive factors for the growth of the Mesoamerican population.

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Corn: deity in Mesoamerican cultures

Clearly, when we refer to the history of the Mesoamerican peoples and their culture, we do from the point of view of the past, speak of cultures as the Olmec, Mayan or Aztec, is about the present, more alive today. Refer to these people is to do the idiosyncrasies of almost all Central American countries today, because in all the flame is of those ancient cultures that once flourished and magnificent as any in any other anywhere in the world, in a young earth, generous and fertile, but also cruel as far as nature is concerned.

An example, or the most obvious example is corn and everything that moves around. Where once the corn was the center of life of all Mesoamerican civilizations, do not believe he lost his total ownership and ceased to be with the passage of time or with new fashions and customs brought by the new times, no substituents which globalization has contributed to dethrone achieved as the primary basis for feeding the peoples of Mesoamerica.

different issue is the on religious faith, spiritual beliefs of the Mesoamerican modern societies have adapted themselves to these times, in which flows were imposed foreign monotheistic or exported, to the detriment of native or native, mostly animist and how empathetic and practices are me, because if there is something I share with the Hispanic cultures is the communion between nature and man, accepting to be part of it and thanking and fearing the same time dependence. No doubt, intelligent people, grateful and respectful of their habitat, environment and natural resources.

Still, there are currently many indigenous peoples who maintain their ancestral beliefs about corn in a constant struggle with the West that even syncretic, not just imposed on their gods, because they themselves do not no longer the life of the Indian. Believe in the God of rain, thunder or corn is like believing in its existence, it is they who will surrender, on which it depends for continued existence. No other spiritual God will ever get completely eradicate their animistic beliefs to their deities, so long as indigenous peoples continue to subsist in extreme poverty absolute. In the visible world of indigenous land plays a prominent role, viewing it as a living entity and worshiped as the Mother Earth. The same applies to corn, is its food, is his life, and few things are more important for the human being's existence.

One of those people who still believe in animism is the Kekchi, of Mayan descent, believe in your god Tzultaká (hill), they still believe he is alive and continues to assist them in growing their precious grain : corn. His beliefs are based on the hill is alive, that contains within it a god whose name is Tzultaká, the owner of the hill and all it contains, inside and outside. The hill is the one who gives the corn planted on it, trees, animals and birds that live and fly, all life around the mountain is provided by Tzultaká. He is the one who works, the broker, which it calls the Father God.

The village has a document fabulous Quiché, the Popol Vuh, which collects the mythology of the creation of man by the gods, mentioned in the stories of the highlands of Guatemala. It tells how the gods created all life on earth, that once the animals created heaven and earth called these creatures that invoke saying their names, but Gods only heard screams, cries and gurgles. The gods were not satisfied by what he heard and decided, as punishment, sending the animals to the forests and ravines, turning them into meat for food. After the failed first attempt decided to create a better than met their expectations and desires of men. But this first attempt to create man does not appear that they went well, as using an inappropriate material, created the earth and dissolved, devoid of force and motion and unable to reproduce. Tried again, but this time with wooden bunting, and likewise the first gaps were created, in this case could speak, move and reproduce, but their meat was no blood or substance and had no soul or mind, which made them wander the earth aimlessly. Faced with so much disappointment, the gods decided to destroy all creation, and again they discussed trying to find clarity of thought necessary. So they sent the coyote, the wild cat, the parrot and the crow chocoyo bring the yellow corn and Cayalá Paxil. Once ground the corn dough made with nine drinks, which created the blood and flesh of the first man and first woman, and this time they were satisfied because they had created wonderful creatures can reproduce, recognize, praise and fed with their offerings.

According to Mayan mythology, corn was given to men by the gods to eat, but it is he who must be cultivated. Corn grows in the ground but needs care, take care, feeding the same corn to magnify themselves and provide their benefits. To-nacayo is what they called maize Huastecapan the ancient inhabitants of the first who cultivated it, and the Aztecs became tsintli name calling, referring to the food of the gods or teosintli. Nahua mythology also points to emerged corn as the body of a god. In the Historie du Mechique, early colonial document, are: "God called Piltzintecuhtli, Xochipilli it, had a son to Cinteotl. (...) The child god sank into the earth to produce different vegetables useful to man. Her hair is so out of cotton, of a plant called huauhtzontli ear, the nose of chia fingers, sweet potatoes and the rest of the body many other fruits. In his most outstanding is the god your given name, Cinteotl (god ear). "(López Austin, 2003).

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Corn: the basis of the Mesoamerican civilizations

Currently no have no doubt, it is clear where the first settlers of the Americas, as well as the steps that followed those Asian men, nomadic hunters who followed the path of large prehistoric mammals after crossing the Bering Strait. Too many years and events have happened since then to the memory of the men kept alive the historical heritage through oral tradition. You probably already have passed the 30,000 years since then, from the Pleistocene epoch, in the era of ice ages. 9,000 years later, the direct descendants of the early hunters settled in Mesoamerica. 21,000 years ago used the stone and obsidian fire, arrived with dogs. Still do not know if I used the bow and arrow to hunt or just missiles, although it seems apparent that wove ropes and fishing nets. Their lives are developed in a context archaic wild or in a transition period that would usher in the era of civilization with the birth of pottery and agriculture.

3,500 years before our era, in Mesoamerica, the man enters a new phase with the birth of agriculture and open the path of inactivity. Villagers consume and cultivate different kinds of avocados, seeds of mesquite, amaranth, pears, peppers, squash, beans, plums, cosahuico, several species of acacia and corn, the staple food and food which would bear fruit all Mesoamerican cultures and civilizations.

Huastecapan The ancient settlers were the first domesticated and cultivated corn, they called to-nacayo, which means "our flesh", supported by a caption that said the man was made by the gods only corn. Its cultivation dates back more than 7,000 old, and although its origin is a mystery, we know that is a hybrid born of the Euchlaena Iuxurians (which the Aztecs called tsintli, referring to gods or teosintli), a wild herb , and Tripsacum spp, or Gamma Grass, whose mixture is derived from Zea luxurians, which is found only in Guatemala and Nicaragua. Zea Mais Is the variety for cultivation of maize. Guillermo Bonfil Batalla said: "Corn is a human plant, cultural in the deepest sense of the term, because there is no intelligent and timely intervention of the hand is not able to reproduce itself. Rather than tame, the corn plant was created by human labor. "

For all Mesoamerican cultures corn has had an important relevance to the point of relating it to their own gods and make it the main axis around which moved and evolved civilization. While in ancient Europe were cultivated wheat and barley, and in China, Japan and India rice in America Olmecs corn growing around the Middle Preclassic. To the Maya maize was the most important thing, besides being the basis of their daily diet was the cause of their astronomical and calendrical breakthroughs, which was supported religious faith and its architecture and the material with which the gods shaped their muscles and bones. Everything revolved around him, was the epicenter of the Maya world.

Being primarily farmers and depend on subsistence crops, especially maize, which became the reason for studying the events in the changing seasons, giving the utmost importance to the entry and exit of the rains. As your calendar, one of the most brilliant achievements of mankind, was due originally to the need to know the precise time when they had to dismount, contact, planting and harvesting.

religiosity also Maya was conceived around the cultivation of corn and the deities that govern its growth: the rain gods, the gods of wind, sun gods, guardians of the milpa and plant growth, which they built large temples. Morley says "corn was the daily bread of pre-Columbian American Indian and continues to this day ". R. Girard, in Origin and development of ancient civilizations of America, 1977, also tells us that " in the heart of the region inhabited by the Mam, who are ethnological and linguistically, the oldest Mayan and indigenous in the country they inhabit, there is a place called paxil. Mam maintain the tradition that was born here in the corn, meaning that it was then first cultivated ". Likewise, in the Popol Vuh and the Annals of the Cackchiquel, highlighted that maize was discovered on Paxil, for the fertility of their lands.

sacred plant went spreading to new territories and taking it as such by subsequent cultures. Likewise, the Aztecs made corn the center of daily life and the foundation of their culture. Aztec mythical stories also conceived the corn as the main character, giving gifts and became gods. Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, in "General History of New Spain," said the superstitions which also had the corn is, in the appendix to the fifth book entitled "From the superstitions they used these natural" states: "corn before it throw in the pot to cook have to wheeze about it as giving encouragement to keep track of firing. They also said when corn was spilled on the ground, via which it was forced to take it, and that they took did not insult the corn, and corn was complaining to God, saying, Lord, punish me this was poured and I took it, or Dad hungry because I despise ... "