Cultural Horizons of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican civilization is a complex network of different cultures. As seen in the time-line below, these did not necessarily occur at the same time. The processes that gave rise to each of the cultural systems of Mesoamerica were very complex and not determined solely by the internal dynamics of each society. External as well as endogenous factors influenced their development. Among these factors, for example, were the relations between human groups and between humans and the environment, human migrations, and natural disasters.
Historians and archaeologists divide Mesoamerican history into three periods, each of which is described below. It is important to note that the dates mentioned are approximations, and that the transition from one period to another did not occur at the same time nor under the same circumstances in all societies. In fact, some authors have challenged the Euro-centric vision of this chronology, which is very analogous to that of Ancient Greece.
Read more about this topic: Mesoamerican Chronology
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or horizons:
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
“She had been getting ready for her great journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her, but she had been whipped like a cur dog, and run off down a back road after things.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)