Misrepresentations of Mesoamerica in Popular Culture
There is an awkward manner by which popular media can distort, manipulate or even reorder facts so that the real becomes surreal. Oftentimes people tend to believe in things they read without an iota of doubt concerning their veracity or validity. When it comes to historical facts, truthfulness is often established through some scientific means or records from the time under investigation. It is no wonder therefore that when there are no records of how a particular phenomenon came to be, scientists will spend so much of their time trying to formulate theories and test-case scenarios that might have led to their origin. Take the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China for instance, it …show more content…
Probably the only thing that they had forgotten to develop was the gun, for this is what marked the difference between the Spanish and the natives when the time of conquest came. The story of how Christopher Columbus laid claim of this vast territory for the monarch in Spain is legendary, the debates that presided the invasion has been the subject of countless debates. However, none of these form the core of this paper. The focus in this part of the series will be on how Mesoamerica has been represented in history since its first contact with the western world and how these people have represented themselves throughout this time. This paper takes the position that by and large, western historians, anthropologists and archeologists have often misrepresented the vast pool of interrelated cultures that existed within the time frame in question. The paper will justify this claim by examining the various arguments and counterarguments that have been provided by various scholars in support of their …show more content…
Archeologist Willey, Ekholm, and Millon reworked the concept in 1964 and made it operational for prehistoric research. Basic agricultural technologies tended to be extensive in the tropical lowlands and intensive in the highlands. This distinction blurred in periods of high populations, when intensive agriculture was practiced in both sorts of zones. Regional crop lists always included varieties of corn, squashes, and beans, but varied wildly in regional plants such as cacao, avocados, tropical fruits, and many sorts of vegetables. Settlement patterns tended to conform to these differing subsistence systems - dispersed in the lowlands and nucleated in the highlands. Stone Age technologies were common to all Mesoamerican cultures. New World cultures lacked the wheel; possessed few useful domesticated animals, and did not use the true arch. Metal was not ordinarily used for utilitarian purposes. Movement of goods and people was largely by canoe or by foot. Organization of society and economy centered on the agricultural village. Aristocratic leadership controlled all affairs of import through civil servants. Merchants, warriors, and artisans formed special social classes ranking above the main class of farmer-laborers. Temple centers in both highlands and lowlands functioned as headquarters for