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Chapter III.
The peoples of America before the beginning of European colonization
The peoples of America before the beginning of Euro European colonization
The history of the peoples of the American continent before their meeting with Europeans in the XVI century developed independently and almost without interaction with the history of the peoples of other continents.
Written monuments of ancient America are very scarce, and the available ones have not yet been read.
Therefore, the history of the American peoples has to be restored mainly from archaeological and ethnographic data, as well as from oral tradition recorded during the period of European colonization.
At the time of the European invasion of America, the level of development of its peoples was not the same in different parts of the continent.
The tribes of most of North and South America were at different stages of the primitive communal system, and the peoples of Mexico, Central America and the western part of South America were already developing class relations at this time; they created high civilizations.
It was these peoples who were first subjected to conquest; the Spanish conquerors in the XVI century destroyed their states and culture and enslaved them.
America was settled from Northeast Asia by tribes related to the Mongoloids of Siberia.
According to their anthropological type, the American Indians and, to an even greater extent, the Eskimos who moved to America later, are similar to the population of North and East Asia and are part of a large Mongoloid race.
The development of the vast expanses of the new continent with alien natural conditions, alien flora and fauna presented difficulties for the settlers, overcoming which required great effort and a long time.
The migration could have begun at the end of the Ice Age, when there was obviously a land bridge between Asia and America on the site of the current Bering Strait.
In the post glacial era, the migration could also continue by sea.
Judging by the geological and paleontological data, the settlement of America occurred 25-20 thousand years before our time.
The Eskimos settled along the Arctic coast in the first millennium AD or even later.
The tribes of hunters and fishermen who moved in separate groups, whose material culture stood at the Mesolithic level, moved in search of prey, as can be concluded from archaeological sites, from north to south along the Pacific coast.
The similarity of some elements of the culture of the indigenous population of South America with the culture of the peoples of Oceania gave rise to the theory of the settlement of the entire American continent from Oceania.
There is no doubt that the connections of Oceania with South America in ancient times took place and played a certain role in the settlement of this part of America.
However, some similar elements of culture could develop independently, and the possibility of later borrowings is not excluded.
For example, the sweet potato culture spread from South America to Oceania, the banana and sugar cane were brought to America from Asia.
Ethnographic and linguistic data indicate that the movements of ancient Indian tribes took place over vast areas, and often the tribes of some language families were settled between the tribes of other language families.
The main reason for these migrations was, obviously, the need to increase the land area with extensive farming (hunting, gathering).
However, the chronology and specifically the historical situation in which these migrations took place remain as yet unlit.
1. North America
By the beginning of the XVI century.
the population of North America consisted of a large number of tribes and nationalities.
According to the types of economy and historical and ethnographic community, they were divided into the following groups: coastal hunters and fishermen of the Arctic zone — Eskimos and Aleuts; fishermen and hunters of the northwest coast; hunters of the northern strip of present — day Canada; farmers of the eastern and southeastern parts of North America; bison hunters — prairie tribes; wild seed collectors, fishermen and hunters tribes of California; peoples with developed irrigation agriculture in the southwest and south of North America.
The main type of production activity of the Eskimos was hunting seals, walruses, whales, polar bears and arctic foxes, as well as fishing.
The weapons were darts and harpoons with movable bone tips.
A spear thrower was used.
Fish were caught with fishing rods with bone hooks.
The walrus and the seal provided the Eskimo with almost everything he needed: meat and fat were used for food, fat was also used for heating and lighting the dwelling, leather served to cover the boat, and a canopy was made from it for the inner part of the snow hut.
The fur of bears and arctic foxes, the skins of deer and musk ox were used for the manufacture of clothing and shoes.
The Eskimos ate most of their food raw, which protected them from scurvy.
The name Eskimos comes from the Indian word "eskimantik", which means "eating raw meat".
The peoples of North America before the European conquest
Northwest Coast Indians Typical for this group were Tlingits.
The main source of their existence was fishing; salmon fish was their main food.
The lack of plant food was compensated by the collection of wild berries and fruits, as well as algae.
For each type of fish or marine animals there were special harpoons, darts, spears, nets.
The Tlingit used bone and stone polished tools.
Of the metals, they knew only copper, which they found in its native form; it was forged in a cold way.
Hammered copper tiles served as a means of exchange.
Pottery was not known.
Food was cooked in wooden vessels, throwing hot stones into the water.
This tribe had neither agriculture nor animal husbandry.
The only tamed animal was a dog, which was used for hunting.
An interesting way in which the Tlingit received wool is that they drove wild sheep and goats into fenced areas, sheared them and set them free again.
Capes were woven from wool, and later shirts were made from woolen fabric.
Tlingit residents of the year on the ocean.
Here they hunted sea animals, mainly sea otters.
The houses were built of logs cut with stone adze, without windows, with a smoke hole in the roof and a small door.
In the summer, the Tlingit went up the rivers to catch salmon and gather fruit in the forests.
The Tlingit, like other Indians of the northwest coast, had developed an exchange.
Dried fish, ground into powder, fish oil and furs were exchanged for products made of cedar, for spearheads and arrows, as well as for various ornaments made of bone and stone.
Slaves and prisoners of war were also exchanged.
The main social unit of the northwestern tribes was the clan.
The genera, called by the names of totemic animals, were united in phratries.
Individual tribes stood at different stages of transition from the maternal to the paternal gens; among the Tlingit at birth, the child received the name of the maternal gens, but in adolescence he was given a second name according to the paternal gens.
At the conclusion of the marriage, the groom worked for the bride's parents for a year or two, then the young ones went to the husband's family.
The particularly close relationship between the maternal uncle and the nephews, the partial inheritance on the maternal side, the relatively free position of a woman all these features indicate that the tribes of the northwest coast retained significant remnants of matriarchy.
There was a household community (barabora), which conducted a common household.
The development of exchange contributed to the accumulation of surpluses among the elders and leaders.
Frequent wars and the capture of slaves further increased their wealth and power.
The presence of slavery is a characteristic feature of the social system of these tribes.
The folklore of the Tlingit, as well as some other northwestern tribes, paints a picture of a rudimentary form of slavery: slaves were in the possession of the entire tribal community, or rather its subdivision, the barabora.
Such slaves — several people per barabor performed household chores and participated in fishing.
It was patriarchal slavery with the collective ownership of slaves by prisoners of war; slave labor did not form the basis of production, but played a subsidiary role in the economy.
Indians of the eastern part of North America
Tribes of the eastern part of North America — Iroquois, Muskogee tribes, etc. - they lived sedentary, engaged in hoe farming, hunting and gathering.
They made tools from wood, bone and stone, and used native copper, which was processed by cold forging.
They didnot know about iron.
The weapons were a bow with arrows, clubs with a stone pommel and a tomahawk.
The Algonquian word "tomahawk" was then called a curved wooden club with a spherical thickening at the fighting end, sometimes with a bone tip.
The dwelling of the coastal Algonquian tribes was a wigwam a hut made of the trunks of young trees, the crowns of which were joined together.
The dome shaped skeleton formed in this way was covered with pieces of tree bark.
At the beginning of the XVI century, the tribes of the eastern part of North America had a primitive communal system.
The most typical of the entire group of eastern tribes were the Iroquois.
The lifestyle and social structure of the Iroquois were described in the second half of the XIX century by the famous American scientist Lewis Morgan, who reconstructed the main features of their system before colonization.
The Iroquois lived around Lakes Erie and Ontario and on the Niagara River.
The central part of the territory of the present state of New York was occupied by five Iroquois tribes: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk.
Each tribe had a special dialect.
The main source of existence of the Iroquois was hoe farming of the slash and burn type.
The Iroquois grew corn (maize), beans, peas, sunflowers, watermelons, zucchini, tobacco.
They collected wild berries, nuts, chestnuts, acorns, edible roots and tubers, mushrooms.
Their favorite delicacy was maple juice, it was boiled and consumed in the form of molasses or hardened sugar.
In the Great Lakes region, the Indians collected wild rice, which formed dense thickets near the muddy shores.
For harvesting, they went out on boats, moving with the help of long poles.
The women sitting in the canoe grabbed bunches of rice stalks, bent them down with ears of corn and, hitting them with sticks, beat the grains that fell to the bottom of the boat.
A big role was played by hunting deer, elk, beaver, otter, marten and other forest animals.
Especially a lot of prey was obtained from corral hunting.
We fished in spring and summer.
The tools of the Iroquois were hoes and axes made of polished stone.
Knives and arrowheads and spears were made of native copper.
Pottery was developed, although without a potter's wheel.
For the manufacture of clothing, the Iroquois processed skins, especially deer, making suede.
The dwelling of the Iroquois was the so called longhouses.
The basis of these houses were wooden posts driven into the ground, to which plates of tree bark were tied with the help of bast ropes.
Inside the house there was a central passage about 2 m wide; here, at a distance of about 6 m from each other, there were hearths.
Above the hearths in the roof there were holes for the smoke to escape.
Along the walls there were wide platforms, fenced off on both sides by piers.
Each married couple had a separate sleeping room about 4 m long, open only to the hearth.
For every four rooms located opposite each other in pairs, one hearth was arranged, on which food was cooked in a common boiler.
Usually there were 5-7 hearths in one such house.
There were also common storerooms adjacent to the house.
The "Long House" clearly shows the character of the smallest social unit of the Iroquois — ovachira.
Ovachira consisted of a group of blood relatives, descendants of one ancestress.
It was a matriarchal tribal community in which production and consumption were collective.
The land — the main means of production belonged to the family as a whole, the ovachirs used the plots allocated to them.
A man who got married went to live in the house of his wife's ovachira and participated in the household work of this community.
At the same time, he continued to maintain his belonging to his ancestral community, performing social, religious and other duties with his relatives.
The children belonged to ovachira and the mother's family.
The men hunted and fished together, cut down the forest and cleared the soil, built houses and protected villages from enemies.
Ovachira women worked together on the land, sowed and planted plants, harvested crops and stored supplies in common storerooms.
Agricultural and household work was managed by the oldest woman, she also distributed food supplies.
Hospitality was widespread among the Iroquois.
There could be no hungry people in an Iroquois village as long as there were supplies left in at least one house.
All power within ovachira belonged to women.
The head of ovachira was the ruler, who was chosen by women as mothers.
In addition to the ruler, the women of the mother chose a military leader and a "foreman for peacetime".
The latter was called a sachem by European authors, although "sachem" is an Algonquian word and the Iroquois did not use it.
The rulers, sachems and military leaders formed the tribal council.
After the colonization of America began, but before the Iroquois came into contact with Europeans, around 1570, five Iroquois tribes formed an alliance: the Iroquois League.
Legend attributes its organization to the mythical Hiawatha.
At the head of the League was a council, which was composed of the sachems of the tribes.
The council was attended not only by sachems, but also by ordinary members of the tribe.
If an important issue had to be resolved, the League's tribes would gather completely.
The elders were seated around the fire, the rest were placed around.
Everyone could participate in the discussion, but the final decision was made by the League Council; it had to be unanimous.
The voting was carried out by tribes; each tribe, therefore, had the right of veto.
The discussion was held in strict order, with great solemnity.
The Iroquois League reached its heyday in the 70s of the XVII century.
Forest Hunting Tribes of Canada
In the forests of modern Canada, tribes of several language families lived: Athapascan (Kuchins, Chaypewai), Algonquian (part of the Ojibwe Chippewa, Montagnais Naskapi, part of the Cree) and some others.
The main occupation of these tribes was hunting caribou, elk, bear, wild sheep, etc. Fishing and the collection of wild seeds were of secondary importance.
The main weapons of the forest tribes were bows and arrows, clubs, clubs, spears and knives with stone tips.
The forest Indians had dogs that were harnessed to wooden useless toboggan sleds; they carried luggage during migrations.
In the summer, they used birch bark shuttles.
The Indians of the forests of the North lived and hunted in groups representing tribal collectives.
During the winter, separate groups of hunters moved through the forest, almost without meeting one another.
In the summer, groups gathered in the traditional places of summer camps located along the banks of rivers.
There was an exchange of hunting products, tools and weapons, and festivals were held here.
Thus, intertribal ties were maintained, barter trade developed.
Prairie Indians
Numerous Indian tribes lived on the prairies.
Their most typical representatives were the Dakota, Comanche, Arapahee and Cheien.
the Oti tribes showed particularly stubborn resistance to the European colonizers.
Despite belonging to different language families, the prairie Indians were united by common features of economic activity and culture.
The main source of their existence was bison hunting.
The bison provided meat and fat for food, fur and leather for clothing and shoes, as well as for covering huts.
The prairie Indians hunted on foot, ( Only in the second half of the XVIII century. the Indians tamed the horse.
Once brought by the first colonists from Europe, these animals, partially feral, formed herds of so called mustangs.
The Indians caught and circled them.)
with dogs, using a bow and arrow.
The hunt was collective.
Individual hunting was prohibited.
Those who violated the ban were severely punished.
The prairie Indians did not know metal, they used stone axes and hammers, flint knives, scrapers and arrowheads.
The battle weapons were bows, spears and maces with a stone top.
They used round and oval shields made of bison skin.
Most of the prairie tribes lived in a conical tent made of buffalo hides.
In the camp, which was a temporary settlement, tents were placed in a circle — it was more convenient to repel sudden attacks of enemies.
A tribal council tent was being erected in the center.
The prairie Indians lived in tribes divided into clans.
At the time of the arrival of Europeans, some tribes still had a matriarchal organization.
Others have already made the transition to the paternal family.
California Indians
The Indians of California were one of the most backward groups of the indigenous population of North America.
A characteristic feature of this group was extreme ethnic and linguistic fragmentation; the tribes of California belonged to several dozen small language groups.
The Indians of California knew neither settlement nor agriculture.
They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering.
The Californians invented a way to remove tannin from the flour of acorns and baked cakes from it; they also learned how to remove poison from the tubers of the so called soap root.
They hunted deer and small game with a bow and arrow.
Corral hunting was used.
The Californians had two types of housing.
In summer, they lived mainly under canopies made of branches covered with leaves, or in conical huts made of poles covered with bark or branches.
In winter, semi underground domed dwellings were built.
Californians wove waterproof baskets from young tree shoots or roots, in which they cooked meat and fish: water poured into the basket was brought to a boil by immersing hot stones in it.
The Californians were dominated by a primitive communal system.
The tribes were divided into exogamous phratries and clans.
The tribal community, as an economic collective, owned a common hunting territory and fishing grounds.
The Californians retained significant elements of the maternal family: the great role of women in production, the maternal account of kinship, etc.
Indians of the southwest of North America
The most typical of this group were the Pueblo tribes.
Archaeological data allow us to trace the history of the Pueblo Indians to the first centuries of our era.
In the VIII century, the Pueblo Indians were already engaged in agriculture and created a system of artificial irrigation.
They planted corn, beans, pumpkin and cotton.
They had developed pottery, but without a potter's wheel.
The ceramics were distinguished by the beauty of the form and the richness of the ornament.
They used a loom and made fabrics from cotton fiber.
The Spanish word "pueblo" means a village, a community.
The Spanish conquerors named this group of Indian tribes after the villages that struck them, which were one common dwelling.
The pueblo's dwelling consisted of a single mud brick structure, the outer wall of which enclosed the entire village, making it inaccessible to attack from outside.
The living quarters descended in ledges into the fenced yard, forming terraces, so that the roof of the lower row served as a courtyard platform for the upper one.
Another type of pueblo dwellings are caves dug in the rocks, also descending by ledges.
Up to a thousand people lived in each of these villages.
In the middle of the XVI century, during the invasion of the Spanish conquerors, the pueblo villages were communities, each of which had its own territory with irrigated lands and hunting grounds.
The cultivated land was distributed among the genera.
In the XVI—XVII centuries, the maternal family still prevailed.
At the head of the family was the "oldest mother", who, along with the male military leader, regulated intra natal relationships.
The household was conducted by a consanguineous group consisting of the female head of the group, her single and widowed brothers, her daughters, as well as the husband of this woman and the husbands of her daughters.
The household used the plot of ancestral land allocated to it, as well as the granary.
Spiritual culture of the Indians of North America
The dominance of tribal relations was also reflected in the religion of the Indians — in their totemic beliefs.
The word" totem "in the Algonquin language literally meant "his kind".
The totem was considered to be animals or plants, after which the genera were named.
Totems were considered as if they were relatives of members of this genus, having a common origin with them from mythical ancestors.
The beliefs of the Indians were permeated with animistic ideas.
The more developed tribes had a rich mythology; from the host of nature spirits, the supreme spirits were distinguished, to whom the control of the world and the destinies of people was attributed.
Shamanism dominated the cult practice.
The Indians knew the starry sky, the location of the planets well and were guided by them in their travels.
After studying the surrounding flora, the Indians not only consumed wild plants and fruits for food, but also used them as medicines.
The modern American pharmacopoeia borrowed a lot from traditional Indian medicine.
The artistic creativity of the North American Indians, in particular their folklore, was very rich.
In fairy tales and songs, nature and the life of the Indians were poetically depicted.
Although the heroes of these legends were often animals and forces of nature, but their life was drawn by analogy with human society.
In addition to poetic works, the Indians also had historical legends that were told by the elders at meetings.
Among the Iroquois, for example, when approving a new sachem, one of the elders told the audience about the events of the past.
During the story, he was sorting through the bundles of white and purple beads, carved from shells, fastened in the form of wide strips or sewn in the form of a pattern on strips of fabric.
These stripes, known to Europeans by the Algonquian name wampum, were usually used as ornaments.
They were worn in the form of belts or shoulder straps.
But wampum also played the role of a mnemonic tool: while telling, the speaker ran his hand along the pattern formed by the beads, and as if he recalled distant events.
Wampum was also transmitted through messengers and ambassadors to neighboring tribes as a sign of authority, served as a kind of symbol of trust and an obligation not to break promises.
The Indians developed a system of conventional signs with which they transmitted messages.
By signs carved on the bark of trees or made up of branches and stones, the Indians gave the necessary information.
Messages were transmitted over a long distance with the help of bonfires, smoking during the day, burning with a bright flame at night.
The peak of the spiritual culture of the Indians of North America was their rudimentary writing pictography, picture writing.
Dakota made chronicles or calendars drawn on leather; the drawings conveyed in chronological order the events that occurred in a given year.
2. South and Central America, Mexico
Vast areas of South America were inhabited by tribes with primitive technology, belonging to various language families.
Such were the fishermen and gatherers of Tierra del Fuego, the hunters of the steppes of Patagonia, the so called Pampas, the hunters and gatherers of eastern Brazil, the hunters and farmers of the forests of the Amazon basin and the Orinoco.
The peoples of South America before the European conquest
Ognezemeltsy
The Ognezemeltsy were among the most backward tribes in the world.
Three groups of Indians lived in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago: Selknam (she), Alakalufs, Yamana (Yagans).
The Selknam lived in the northern and eastern parts of Tierra del Fuego.
They hunted the guanaco llama and collected the fruits and roots of wild plants.
Their weapons were bows and arrows.
On the islands of the western part of the archipelago, alakalufs lived, engaged in fishing and collecting shellfish.
In search of food, they spent most of their lives in wooden boats, moving along the shores.
A smaller role in their life was played by hunting birds with a bow and arrow.
Yamana lived by collecting shellfish, fishing, hunting seals and other marine animals, as well as birds.
Their tools were made of bone, stone and shells.
A bone harpoon with a long belt served as a weapon for sea fishing.
Yamana lived in separate clans called Ukur.
This word denoted both the dwelling and the community of relatives who lived in it.
In the absence of members of this community, their hut could be occupied by members of another community.
The meeting of many communities was rare, mostly in the case when the sea washed up a dead whale on the shore; then, provided with food for a long time, the yamana held festivals.
There was no stratification in the Yaman community, the oldest members of the group did not use power over their relatives.
A special position was occupied only by healers, who were credited with the ability to influence the weather and cure diseases.
The Pampa Indians
By the time of the European invasion, the Pampa Indians were wandering hunters on foot.
( In the middle of the XVIII century, the inhabitants of the Pampa Patagonians began to use horses for hunting. )
The main object of hunting and a source of food were guanacos, which were hunted with a bola — a bundle of belts with weights attached to them.
The Pampa hunters did not have permanent settlements; they erected tents made of 40-50 guanaco skins on temporary camps, which served as housing for the entire community.
The clothes were made of leather; the main part of the costume was a fur cloak, which was tied at the waist with a belt.
The Patagonians lived and roamed in small groups of blood relatives, uniting 30-40 married couples with their offspring.
The power of the leader of the community was reduced to the right to give orders during transitions and hunting; the leaders hunted along with others.
The hunt itself was of a collective nature.
Animistic beliefs occupied a significant place in the religious beliefs of the Pampa Indians.
The Patagonians inhabited the world with spirits; the cult of deceased relatives was especially developed.
The Araucanians lived in the southern part of central Chile.
Being under the influence of the Quechua tribes, the Araucanians were engaged in agriculture and bred llamas.
They developed the manufacture of fabrics from the wool of the guanaco llama, pottery and silver processing.
The southern tribes were engaged in hunting and fishing.
The Araucanians became famous for their stubborn resistance to European conquerors for more than 200 years.
(In 1773, the independence of Araucania was recognized by the Spaniards.
Only at the end of the XIX century. the colonizers took possession of the main territory of the Araucanians. )
Indians of Eastern Brazil
The tribes of the group that lived on the territory of Eastern and Southern Brazil — Botocuda, Canella, Cayapo, Shawants, Kaingang and others, smaller ones, were mainly engaged in hunting and gathering, making transitions in search of game and edible plants.
The most typical for this group were botocudes, or boruns, which before the invasion of European colonizers, they inhabited the coast, and later were pushed into the interior of the country.
Their main tool was a bow, with which they hunted not only small animals, but also fish.
Women were engaged in gathering.
The shelter of the Botocudes was a barrier from the wind, covered with palm leaves, common to the entire nomad.
Instead of dishes, they used wicker baskets.
A kind of decoration of botocudes were small wooden disks inserted into the slits of the lips — "botoka" in Portuguese.
Hence the name of botocudes.
The social structure of the Botocudes and their close tribes is still poorly studied.
It is known, however, that in their group marriage, the relationship between the sexes was regulated by the laws of exogamy.
The Botocudes maintained a maternal kinship account.
In the XVI century.
The" forest Indians " of Brazil resisted the Portuguese invaders, but it was suppressed.
Indians of the Amazon and Orinoco Rainforests
During the initial period of European colonization, numerous tribes belonging to different language groups, mainly Arawaks, Tupi Guarani and Caribs, lived in the north eastern and central part of South America.
They were mostly engaged in slash and burn agriculture and lived sedentary.
In the conditions of the tropical forest, the main material for the manufacture of tools and weapons was wood.
But these tribes also had polished stone axes, which served as one of the main objects of intertribal exchange, since there were no suitable stone rocks on the territory of some tribes.
Bone, shells, and the shells of forest fruits were also used for making tools.
Arrowheads were made of animal teeth and sharpened bone, bamboo, stone and wood; the arrows were feathered.
An ingenious invention of the Indians of the tropical forests of South America was the arrow throwing tube, the so called sarbakan, which was also known to the tribes of the Malacca Peninsula.
For fishing, boats were built from tree bark and single tree dugouts.
We wove nets, nets, tops and other gear.
The fish was beaten with a spear, shot at it with bows.
Having achieved great skill in weaving, these tribes used a wicker cot hammock.
This invention, under its Indian name, has spread all over the world.
To the Indians of the tropical forests of South America, humanity also owes the discovery of the medicinal properties of the bark of the cinchona tree and the emetic root of ipecacuanha.
The tribes of the tropical forests were engaged in slash and burn agriculture.
Men prepared plots, built fires at the roots of trees and cut down the trunk with stone axes.
After the trees dried up, they were felled, the branches were burned.
The ash served as fertilizer.
The landing time was determined by the position of the stars.
The women loosened the ground with gnarled sticks or sticks with the shoulder bones of small animals and shells impaled on them.
Cassava, corn, sweet potatoes, beans, tobacco, cotton were grown.
The forest Indians learned to purify cassava from poison by squeezing the juice containing prussic acid, drying and frying the flour.
The Indians of the Amazon and Orinoco basin lived in tribal communities and led a common household.
Among many tribes, each community occupied one large dwelling that made up the entire village.
Such a dwelling was a round or rectangular structure covered with palm leaves or branches.
The walls were made of posts intertwined with branches, they were covered with mats and smeared.
In this collective dwelling, each family had its own hearth.
Hunting and fishing grounds were in the collective possession of the community.
The products obtained from hunting and fishing were divided among everyone.
Most of the tribes before the invasion of Europeans were dominated by the maternal family, but there has already been a transition to the paternal family.
Each village was a self governing community with an elder leader.
Among these tribes by the beginning of the XVI century.
there was not only a union of tribes, but also a common intra tribal organization.
The artistic creativity of the described Indian tribes was expressed in dances performed to the sounds of primitive musical instruments (horns, pipes), in games that imitated the habits of animals and birds.
The love of jewelry was manifested in the coloring of the body with a complex pattern using vegetable juices and in the manufacture of elegant headdresses made of colorful feathers, teeth, nuts, seeds, etc.
Ancient peoples of Mexico and Central America
The peoples of the southern part of the northern continent and Central America have created a developed agricultural culture and a high civilization based on it.
Archaeological data, finds of stone tools and the skeleton of a fossil man, indicate that man appeared on the territory of Mexico 15-20 thousand years ago.
Central America is one of the earliest areas of culture of corn, beans, pumpkin, tomatoes, green pepper, cocoa, cotton, agave, tobacco.
The population was placed unevenly.
The areas of settled agriculture — in central Mexico and in the highlands of southern Mexico were densely populated.
In areas with a predominance of shift agriculture (for example, in Yucatan), the population was more dispersed.
Large areas of northern Mexico and southern California were rarely inhabited by wandering tribes engaged in hunting and gathering.
The history of the tribes and peoples of Mexico and Yucatan is known from archaeological finds, as well as from the Spanish chronicles of the conquest.
The archaeological period of the so called Early Cultures (before the third century BC) was the time of the Neolithic, the period of gathering, hunting and fishing, the time of the domination of the primitive communal system.
During the period of Middle cultures (III century BC— IV century AD), agriculture appeared in the form of slash and burn, shifted During this period, differences in the level of development of tribes and peoples of different parts of Mexico and Yucatan begin to make themselves felt.
In central and southern Mexico and in Yucatan, class societies had already emerged during this period.
But the development did not stop there.
On the verge of our era, the peoples of these regions of America rose to a higher level.
Maya
The Maya are the only people in America who have left written monuments.
At the beginning of our era, the first cities of the state began to form in the southern part of Yucatan, to the northeast of Lake Peten Itza.
The oldest known monument — a stone stele in the city of Vashaktun is dated to 328 AD .
A little later, cities appeared in the valley of the Huomacinta River Yashchilan, Palenque and in the extreme south of Yucatan — Copan and Quirigua.
The inscriptions here are dated to the V and the beginning of the VI century.
Since the end of the IX century, dated inscriptions have been broken off.
Since that time, the oldest Mayan cities have ceased to exist.
The further history of the Maya developed in the north of Yucatan.
The main type of production among the Maya was slash and burn agriculture, the forest was cleared with stone axes, and thick trees were only cut down or stripped of their ring shaped bark; the trees withered on the root.
The dried and fallen forest was burned out before the onset of the rainy season, which was determined by astronomical observations.
Just before the rains began, the fields were sown.
The land was not cultivated in any way, the farmer only made a hole with a sharp stick and buried corn and beans in it.
The crops were protected from birds and animals.
Corn cobs were tilted down to dry in the field, after which they were collected.
On the same plot, it was possible to sow no more than three times in a row, as the harvest was increasingly reduced.
The abandoned plot was overgrown, and after 6-10 years it was burned out again, preparing for sowing.
The abundance of free land and the high productivity of corn provided farmers with considerable prosperity even with such a primitive technique.
The Maya received food of animal origin from hunting and fishing.
They didnot have any pets.
The birds were hunted with the help of throwing tubes that shot clay balls.
Military weapons were also darts with flint tips.
The Maya borrowed the bow and arrow from the Mexicans.
They also received copper hatchets from Mexico.
There were no ores in the Maya country and metallurgy could not have arisen.
From Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Peru, art objects and jewelry were delivered to them — precious stones, shells and metal products.
The Maya made fabrics from cotton or agave fiber on a loom.
Ceramic vessels were decorated with convex modeling and painting.
Intensive exchange trade was conducted within the Maya country and with neighboring peoples.
In exchange, agricultural products, cotton yarn and fabrics, weapons, stone products — knives, arrowheads, mortars were received.
Salt and fish came from the coast, corn, honey, fruits from the central part of the peninsula.
Slaves were also exchanged.
The universal equivalent was cocoa beans; there was even a rudimentary credit system.
Although fabrics and vessels were made mainly by farmers, there were already skilled artisans, especially jewelers, stone carvers, embroiderers.
There were also merchants who delivered goods over long distances by water and by land, with the help of porters.
Columbus met off the coast of Honduras a dugout boat from Yucatan, loaded with fabrics, cocoa and metal products.
The inhabitants of the Maya village formed a neighboring community; usually its members were people with different ancestral names.
The land belonged to the community.
Each family received a plot of land cleared of forest, after three years this plot was replaced by another.
Each family collected and stored the harvest separately, she could exchange it and exchange it.
Apiaries and plantings of perennial plants remained in the permanent ownership of individual families.
Other jobs hunting, fishing, salt extraction — were carried out together, but the products were shared.
In the community in the Maya kingdom, there was already a division into free and slaves.
The slaves were mostly prisoners of war.
Some of them were sacrificed to the gods, others were left as slaves.
There was also the enslavement of criminals, as well as debt slavery of fellow tribesmen, the debtor remained a slave until he was redeemed by his relatives.
Slaves performed the hardest work, built houses, carried luggage and served the nobles.
The sources do not allow us to clearly determine in which branch of production and to what extent slave labor was mainly used.
The ruling class was the slaveholders the nobles, the highest military and priests.
The nobles were called almshen (literally - "the son of the father and mother").
They owned plots of land on the rights of private property.
The rural community performed duties in relation to the nobles and priests: the community members cultivated their fields, built houses and roads, delivered various supplies and products to them, in addition, maintained a military detachment and paid taxes to the supreme power.
There was already a stratification in the community: there were richer and poorer community members.
Mayan hieroglyphs.
A page from the Dresden Codex, one of the three surviving Maya manuscripts
The Maya had a patriarchal family that owned property.
To get a wife, a man had to work for her family for a while, then she went to her husband.
The supreme ruler of the city state was called halach vinik ("great man"); his power was unlimited and hereditary.
Ha lach viyik's advisor was the High priest.
The villages were ruled by his viceroys — batabs The position of the batab was for life; he was obliged to obey the halach vinik implicitly and coordinate his actions with the priests and two or three advisers who were with him.
The batabs supervised the performance of duties and had judicial power.
During the war, Batab was the commander of the detachment of his village.
In the Mayan religion, by the beginning of the XVI century, ancient beliefs receded into the background.
By this time, the priests had already created a complex theological system with cosmogonic myths, compiled their own pantheon and established a magnificent cult.
The personification of the sky the god Itsamna was placed at the head of the host of the celestials together with the goddess of fertility.
Itsamna was considered the patron of the Maya civilization, he was credited with the invention of writing.
According to the teachings of the Maya priests, the gods ruled the world alternately, replacing each other in power" This myth fantastically reflected the real institution of the change of power by birth.
Mayan religious beliefs also included primitive figurative ideas about nature (for example, it rains because the gods pour water from four giant jugs placed in the four corners of the sky).
The priests also created a teaching about the afterlife that corresponds to the social division of Maya society; the priests assigned themselves a special, third heaven.
Divination, prophecies, oracles played the main role in the cult.
Drawing of a bas relief depicting a leader and slaves.
Palenque
The Maya developed a number system; they had a twenty digit account, which arose on the basis of counting on the fingers (20 fingers).
The Maya made significant progress in astronomy.
The solar year was calculated by them with an accuracy of one minute.
Maya astronomers calculated the time of solar eclipses, they knew the periods of rotation of the Moon and planets.
In addition to astronomy, the priests were familiar with the rudiments of meteorology, botany and some other sciences.
The Mayan calendar was in the hands of the priests, but it was based on the practical division of the year into seasons of agricultural work.
The main units of time counting were the 13 day week, the 20 day month and the 365 day year.
The largest unit of chronology was the 52 year cycle— the "calendar circle".
Summer
