BEGINNING OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION IN MESO-AMERICAN TROPICAL FOREST

Abstract

Our scientific study on the origin of pre-Columbian civilization in America can not be satisfied only with the discussions of the brilliant remains of the old city-states, as well as with the researches on the new empires such as Inca, Aztec and Younger Maya. A vital point is to know how the ‘urban revolution’ of the Florescent period (circa A. D. 300-A. D. 1000) succeeds to the preceding basic culture of the Formative period (ca. B. C. 1000-A. D. 300), which is characterized by maize horticulture; true waeving; plain, incised pottery; hand-modeled femal figurines; somewhat dispersed settlements; a ceremonial center with simple mounds. During the Formative period no remarkable changes are found in the way of life of Indian farmers, but towards the end of it there are some changes to be seen in ceremonial centers. That is the appearance of stepped pyramids supporting temples of perishable materials, funerary architecture, and stelae with calendrical inscriptions. And the fact that they are arranged surrounding plazas and courts is not to be passed unnoticed. This makes us recognize the culture of the later Formative period (ca. B. C. 400-A. D. 300) as civilization in bud which it about to bloom. Many archaeological sites of this period are found in ‘Nuclear America’, mostly in Meso-America and the Central Andes. Meso- America is composed of Central Mexico, Guatemala and Northern Honduras, ea chincluding several sites. Among them, those which are located in the lowland jungle along the Atlantic are grouped into the following four regions. 1. Ulua-Yojoa region in Northwestern Honduras……Sites: Playa de los Muertos, Los Naranjos and Yarumela. People: the Circum-Caribbean. 2. Peten-Uaxactun region in Guatemala and Mexico……Sites: Uaxactun, Santa Rosa Xtampak and Yaxuna. People: the Maya. 3. Veracruz-Tabasco region along Gulf of Campeche……Sites: Tres Zapotes and La Venta. People: the Olmec. 4. Panuco-Tampico region in the southmost part of Tamaulipas and its vicinity……Sites: Pavon and Tancol. People: the Huastec. Viewed from the angle of cultural form, these ceremnial centers show a transitional stage to the Florescent period, and in the aspect of cultural style each of them manifests al local distinctiveness which is to be fulfilled in the succeeding period in spite of mutual influences upon one another. As a matter of course each bud of civilization is autochthonous at its native place and at the same time their growths are in parallel with each other. Such circumstances in the iungle being found in the highlands and on the coast along the Pacific as well, the births of civilizations are not uncommon in this period. But it is strange enough that the tropical cradle-land of civilization lacks in the so-called necessary conditions to start the urban revolution of the Old World, such as riverine plain, irrigation, levee works, use of wheel, plow cultivations, domestication of draft animals and tools of metal. In contrast to these deficiencies, the following items can be counted here as the first and essential conditions of giving birth to civilization; the cultural inheritance of the early Formative period, fairy intensive ‘milpa’ agriculture, moderately dense population, differentiation of professions and classes in society, appearance of priesthood, technology of stone masonry and stone carving, political pattern of incipient state with organized multicommunities, religeous cult and public ceremony. In the explanation of the beginning of civilization, the will-power of the incipient state which aims at gaining political and religeous effects, ought to be recognized as one of the main forces of the cultural activites.