Documents for "Mesoamerican indigenous peoples":

• Arawak linguistic stock of indigenous people who came from South America and, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, occupied the islands of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and other areas of...

• Aztec Indian people dominating central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. Their language belonged to the Nahuatlan subfamily of Uto-Aztecan languages. They arrived in the Valley of Mexico from...

• Bonampak ruined city of the Late Classic period of the Maya , close to Tuxtla , in Chiapas, S Mexico. Discovered in 1946, it consists of a group of temples, one of which is remarkable for a number of very well preserved frescoes, painted in bright, flat colors, depicting in...

• Cakchiquel see Quiché.

• Caribs native people formerly inhabiting the Lesser Antilles, West Indies. They seem to have overrun the Lesser Antilles and to have driven out the Arawak about a century before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The original name by which the Caribs were known, Galibi, was corrupted by the Spanish to Caníbal and is the origin of the English word cannibal. Extremely warlike and ferocious, they practiced cannibalism and took pride in scarification (ritual cutting of the skin) and fasting. The Carib language was spoken only by the men, while the women...

• Chibcha indigenous people of the eastern cordillera of the Andes of Colombia. Although trade with neighboring tribes was common, the Chibcha seem to have evolved their culture in comparative isolation...

• Chichimec general term for the peoples of the Valley of Mexico between the periods of Toltec ascendancy and Aztec ascendancy. Before the 11th cent. the Chichimec were nomadic peoples on the northern fringes of the valley. The Chichimec period (c.950-1300) was one of intertribal warfare and political confusion,...

• Huastec indigenous people of the Pánuco River basin, E Mexico. They speak a Mayan language but are isolated from the rest of the Mayan stock, from whom they may have been separated prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Their culture did...

• Huitzilopochtli chief deity of the Aztec, god of war. He is said to have guided the Aztecs during their migration from Aztlán. Usually represented in sculptured images as hideous, he was the object of human...

• Indians, American see Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the ; Natives, Middle American ; Natives, North American ; Natives, South American.

• Itzá Maya of Yucatán (Mexico) and Petén (Guatemala). Probable founders of Chichén Itzá , which they occupied at various times from c.514 to 1194, they moved (1450?) S from Campeche to Lake Petén. Here, in spite of sporadic attempts by the Spanish to convert or subdue them after the...

• Itzamna chief deity of the Maya. Son of Hunab Ku, the creator, he was believed to be lord of the heavens, day, and night. Thought by the Maya to have been the inventor of writing and books, Itzamna was,...

• Kukulcán see Quetzalcoatl.

• Mitla [Nahuatl,=abode of the dead], religious center of the Zapotec , near Oaxaca, SW Mexico. Probably built in the 13th cent., the buildings, unlike the pyramidal structures of most Middle American architecture, are low, horizontal masses enclosing the plazas. Wall...

• Mixtec Native American people of Oaxaca, Puebla, and part of Guerrero, SW Mexico, one of the most important groups in Mexico. Although the Mixtec codices constitute the largest collection of...

• Monte Albán ancient city, c.7 mi (11.3 km) from Oaxaca, SW Mexico, capital of the Zapotec. Monte Albán was built on an artificially leveled, rocky promontory above the Valley of Oaxaca. Located around an enormous plaza about 1,000 ft (300 m) long and 650 ft (198 m) wide are long, low...

• Natives, Middle American aboriginal peoples living in the area between present-day United States and South America. Although most of Mexico is geographically considered part of North America and although there have been...

• Olmec term denoting the culture of ancient Mexican natives inhabiting the tropical coastal plain of the contemporary states of Veracruz and Tabasco, between 1300 and 400 BC The term is also used to...

• Popol Vuh [Quiché,=collection of the council], sacred book of the Quiché. The most important document of the cosmogony, religion, mythology, migratory traditions, and history of the Quiché, the original Popol Vuh was destroyed by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de...

• Quiché indigenous peoples of Mayan linguistic stock, in the western highlands of Guatemala; most important group of the ancient southern Maya. The largest of the contemporary native groups of Guatemala, numbering over a million, they live principally in the region between Quezaltenango and Chichicastenango. From their origins, as told in the Popol Vuh , the Quiché have retained many ancient traditions, blending them with Western customs to create a distinctive mode of life. Pedro de Alvarado , with the help of the Cakchiquel or Kakchiquel, a neighboring but rival group similar in language and stock, conquered them in 1524. However, the Quiché waged periodic uprisings against both the...

• Tarahumara indigenous people of N Mexico, mostly in Chihuahua state. About 60,000 strong, they live for the most part in the barren wilderness of the Sierra Madre Occidental, subsisting largely by hunting...

• Tarascan Native Americans of the state of Michoacán, Mexico. Their language has no known relation to other languages, and their history prior to the 16th cent. is poorly understood. The polity present at...

• Tenochtitlán ancient city in the central valley of Mexico. The capital of the Aztec , it was founded (c.AD 1345) on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco. It was a flourishing city (with an estimated population of between 200,000 and 300,000), connected with the mainland by three great...

• Teotihuacán ancient commercial and religious center in the central valley of Mexico, c.30 mi (48 km) NE of Mexico City. Once thought to be the great religious center of the Toltec , it is now held to be the relic of an earlier civilization. Teotihuacán is the largest (c.7 sq mi/18.1 sq km) and most impressive urban site of ancient America. The Pyramid of the Sun, the tallest...

• Tezcatlipoca ancient deity of the Toltec in Mexico. Identified with the night sky, the moon, and the stars, and associated with the forces of evil and destruction, Tezcatlipoca shared dominion over humanity with...

• Toltec ancient civilization of Mexico. The name in Nahuatl means "master builders." The Toltec formed a warrior aristocracy that gained ascendancy in the Valley of Mexico c.AD 900 after the fall of Teotihuacán. Their early history is obscure but they seem to have had ancient links...

• Tula ancient city in the present state of Hidalgo, central Mexico. It was one of the chief urban centers of the Toltec. The city is believed to be Tollán, the legendary Toltec capital mentioned in a number of postconquest sources, including Bernardino de Sahagún's Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana ( tr. General History of the Things of New Spain ) as well as in documents in indigenous hieroglyphics known as códices. Archaeological investigations in the ceremonial precinct have revealed impressive architectural remains including pyramidal structures and ball courts. One of the former was surmounted by a temple...

• Tzintzuntzan see Tarascan.

• Yaqui people of Sonora, Mexico, settled principally along the Yaqui river. Their language is of Uto-Aztecan stock. They engage in weaving and agriculture; many work in the cotton regions of Sonora and S...

• Zapotec indigenous people of Mexico, primarily in S Oaxaca and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Little is known of the origin of the Zapotec. Unlike most native peoples of Middle America, they had no...