Mesoamerica | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: Subhajit Sahu
Date: 01/01/2019

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica


00:04:32 1 Etymology and definition
00:07:31 2 Geography
00:08:42 2.1 Cultural sub-areas
00:09:45 2.2 Topography
00:12:30 2.3 Bodies of water
00:14:25 2.4 Biodiversity
00:15:09 3 Chronology and culture
00:16:26 3.1 Paleo-Indian
00:17:00 3.2 Archaic
00:17:46 3.3 Preclassic/Formative
00:20:43 3.3.1 Preclassic gallery
00:20:52 3.4 Classic
00:21:01 3.4.1 Early Classic
00:23:09 3.4.1.1 Early Classic gallery
00:23:17 3.4.2 Late Classic
00:24:31 3.4.2.1 Late Classic gallery
00:24:39 3.4.3 Terminal Classic
00:26:44 3.4.3.1 Terminal Classic gallery
00:26:52 3.5 Postclassic
00:30:38 3.5.1 Postclassic gallery
00:30:47 3.6 Chronology in chart form
00:30:57 4 General characteristics
00:31:07 4.1 Subsistence
00:33:53 4.2 Political organization
00:35:09 4.3 Economy
00:36:24 5 Common characteristics of Mesoamerican culture
00:36:36 5.1 Architecture
00:36:45 5.2 Calendrical systems
00:39:05 5.3 Writing systems
00:42:01 5.4 Arithmetic
00:43:11 5.5 Food, medicine, and science
00:44:10 5.6 Mythology and worldview
00:46:07 5.6.1 Sacrifice
00:47:04 5.6.1.1 Autosacrifice
00:48:25 5.6.1.2 Human sacrifice
00:49:56 5.6.2 Ballgame
00:51:18 5.6.3 Astronomy
00:52:36 5.6.4 Symbolism of space and time
00:55:31 5.7 Political and religious art
00:56:55 5.8 Music
00:57:04 6 See also



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SUMMARY
=======
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in North America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, and within this region pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, and the second in the Americas along with Norte Chico (Caral-Supe) in present-day Peru, in the northern coastal region.
As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. Beginning as early as 7000 BCE, the domestication of cacao, maize, beans, tomato, avocado, vanilla, squash and chili, as well as the turkey and dog, caused a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal grouping to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition, a vigesimal numeric system, a complex calendric system, a tradition of ball playing, and a distinct architectural style, were diffused through the area. Also in this period, villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms with the development of large ceremonial centers, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian, jade, cacao, cinnabar, Spondylus shells, hematite, and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization did know of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these technologies became culturally important.Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Mexico and extended inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas, Guatemala and Oaxaca laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica, especially along the Pacific coast.

This formative period saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya, with the rise of centers such as El Mirador, Calakmul and Tikal, and the Zapotec at Monte Albán. During this period, the ...