An archaeologist’s hip surgery prompts him to think of the experience of a Puebloan woman who survived a terrible fall centuries ago. As an archaeologist, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what life was like in the past. I’ve also been injured a time or two, and I’ve wondered if any of my nonfatal[…]
Exploring the Aztecs, a Mesoamerican people who built a vast empire in what is today central Mexico from 1428-1519 CE. Introduction The Aztec Empire flourished from 1428 C.E. until 1519 C.E., when it was destroyed by invaders from Spain. The Aztecs told a legend about the beginnings of their empire. Originally a wandering group of[…]
The travel literature, which did not have Brazil as final destination, could have disproportionate and unsuspected repercussions. By Dr. Ângela Maria Vieira DominguesProfessor of HistoryInstituto de Investigação Cientíca TropicalCentro de História de Além-Mar (FCSH/UNL) Abstract As part of a reflection on Atlantic history, I intend to reread the travel literature written by Europeans who stayed[…]
How a symbolic climb changed two men. This is the story of one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo, and of two extraordinary characters of the 19th century: the German explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt and the Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar. Both are said to have climbed Chimborazo, although one[…]
Traditional narratives of Europe as the center of history and culture and myths of discovery are addressed in Chilean historical musicology. Abstract During the past century, Edmundo O’Gorman, Tzvetan Todorov, Enrique Dussel and other scholars pointed out the Eurocentric perspective implied in traditional narratives about the discovery of America, most of which intended to confirm[…]
Exploring an allegorical work reminiscent of the style of the Mexican mural movement. The Chicano History mural (Figure 1) is the first chicanx mural produced for a university.1 Chicano History was painted for the University of California Los Angeles Chicano Studies Research Center Library (UCLA-CSRC). At that time, located on the 3rd floor at Campbell[…]
Religious orthodoxy was critical during this period of the Counter Reformation and was enforced by the Inquisition in Mexico City. Introduction One of the earliest representations of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe, today patroness of the Americas and an important symbol of Mexican national and religious identity, is an engraving printed in 1608. The engraving[…]
This was a ritual device intended to promote agricultural fertility. Introduction Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, in his massive colonial treatise The First New Chronicle and Good Government (or El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno), dedicated an entire chapter to the months of the year and the traditional Inka agricultural activities associated with them.[…]
The Portuguese colonization of Brazil was initially quite different from the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Introduction Although news of Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the Americas had already spread across Europe, the Portuguese stumbled upon Brazil by accident. In 1498, Vasco da Gama successfully sailed from Portugal around the southern tip of Africa to India,[…]
A seminal manuscript tells the Indigenous side of a historic battle. Competing Histories This May marks 500 years since the Toxcatl massacre, in which Indigenous people were killed during a festival that took place in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City). Two competing histories of this event exist. In the Spanish telling, the[…]
Impacts of the Spanish invasion on the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas. Spanish Treasure In the age of piracy on the high seas, sailing instructions were top-secret documents upon which rested the security of the king’s fleet and his treasure. Here, Menéndez de Avilés, governor of Florida, gives Don Cristóbal de Eraso complicated and detailed[…]
Other Mesoamerican cultures also engaged in human sacrifice and built tzompantlis, but the Mexica brought it to an extreme. The priest quickly sliced into the captive’s torso and removed his still-beating heart. That sacrifice, one among thousands performed in the sacred city of Tenochtitlan, would feed the gods and ensure the continued existence of the[…]
Aztec civilization sustained millions of people and developed over thousands of years isolated from European and Asian cultures. Introduction The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. They were a civilization with a rich cultural heritage whose capital, Tenochtitlan, rivaled the greatest cities of Europe in size[…]
Even with the clash of cultures, the Inka (among other peoples) adapted to the new circumstances, as did the European intruders. Introduction On a vibrantly colored keru cup from colonial Peru, exotically dressed figures, apparently a royal Inka couple, stand surrounded by flowers, vivid designs, and even a rainbow. A keru is a ceremonial Andean beaker[…]
This would have been placed in a grave to embody the shaman’s power that would help the deceased make their safe passage from life to death. From the Physical to Spiritual World (the Shaman) An important visual theme in many ancient American art styles is that of transformation: one thing changing into another. Often the[…]
Bolivar has become known as the chief architect of Latin America’s independence. Introduction Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco (July 24, 1783 – December 17, 1830) was a South American independence leader. Credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia,[…]
The Muisca people are considered to have had one of the most developed political systems in South America, after the Incas. Pre-Columbian Era The first humans are believed to have arrived in the area from Central America about 20,000 B.C.E. Circa 10,000 B.C.E., hunter-gatherer societies existed near present-day Bogotá that traded with one another and[…]
The tlacuilo (codex painter) tradition endured the transition to colonial culture. Introduction Aztec codices (singular codex) are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture. The pre-Columbian codices differ from European codices in that they are largely pictorial; they were not meant to symbolize[…]
Aztec culture had complex mythological and religious traditions. Introduction The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. They were a civilization with a rich cultural heritage whose capital, Tenochtitlan, rivaled the greatest cities of Europe in size and grandeur. The nucleus of the Aztec Empire was the[…]
They are remembered for their contributions to religion, architecture, and their famous network of roads through the region. Introduction The Inca civilization (c. 1400-1533 CE) is among the most vital of South America in terms of its cultural influence and legacy. The Inca began as a small tribe who steadily grew in power to conquer[…]
Red handprints can be found on the walls of a number of Maya sites and are associated with the creator god Itzamna. Introduction The Maya sites of San Gervasio (on the island of Cozumel) and Tulum (on the mainland of Mexico in Quintana Roo) are often overlooked for the better-known Chichen Itza or other spectacular[…]
The main legacy of the civilization was its power to inspire, including that of later resistance groups in the area against Spanish rule. Introduction The Inca Empire (called Tawantinsuyu in modern spelling, Aymara and Quechua, or Tahuantinsuyu in old spelling Quechua), was an empire located in South America from 1438 C.E. to 1533 C.E. Over[…]
Introduction The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican culture, noted for having the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its spectacular art, monumental architecture, and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems. Unfortunately, a public fascination with the morbid has meant that for many people in Europe and the Americas[…]
In pre-Columbian times, most of modern Central America was part of the Mesoamerican civilization. Introduction Central America is the region of North America located between the southern border of Mexico and the northwest border of Colombia, in South America. Some geographers classify Central America as a large isthmus, and in this geographic sense it sometimes[…]
By 2000 BCE, many agrarian village communities had been settled throughout the Andes and the surrounding regions. Introduction South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the western hemisphere and mostly in the southern hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by[…]
Examining Mexico’s international strategy of economic development in these turbulent years. Introduction: Latin America’s Development Strategies versus Washington’s Cold War Policies This article is aimed at analyzing Mexico’s attempts to overcome the obstacles that the new international context, shaped by the end of World War II (WWII) and the beginning of the Cold War, posed[…]
In the 18th Century, most travelers and explorers had painters and illustrators at their sides who recorded their adventures. Abstract In the Eighteenth Century, with the boom in the exploration of the Earth, most travellers and explorers had painters and illustrators at their sides who recorded their adventures, even their deaths, the exotic locations they[…]
The site features architecture, from houses to terraces, built by carefully fitting individual stones against each other. A Royal Estate Machu Picchu is often described as “mysterious,” but in fact a great deal is known about its construction and purpose. It was built as a royal estate for the first Inka emperor, Pachacuti Inka Yupanqui,[…]
Over the course of 700 years, the site drew many worshipers to its temple. Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological and cultural site in the Andean highlands of Peru. Once thought to be the birthplace of an ancient “mother culture,” the modern understanding is more nuanced. The cultural expressions found at Chavín most likely did[…]
By Mark CartwrightHistorian Yaxchilan, located on the banks of the Usumacinta River in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, was an important Late Classic Maya centre. The Maya dated the founding of their city to 320 CE, but Yaxchilan flourished between c. 580 and c. 800 CE, benefitting from commerce via the Usumacinta River and trading[…]