Two north-south mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental, converge in Mexico in a plateau region called the Mesa Central. Important cultural developments have always taken place in the its intermontaine valleys. At 2,350 m (7709 ft) above sea level, the climate is comfortable with a mean daily high of 22° C (72° F) and a mean daily low of 10° C (50° F). Agriculture is productive, and lake resources added extra food energy to push humankind onto a path toward civilization in this location.
Altitudes in other parts of Middle America vary between sea level and 5,747 m. (18,855 ft) creating a wide variety of temperatures. Rainfall in Middle America also varies widely. Steady easterly trade winds blowing across the Gulf of Mexico deposit large amounts of rain against the eastern escarpment of the Mesa Central and support tropical cloud and rain forest environments. Interior rain shadows make other parts of Middle America, such as the north central plateau of Mexico, into deserts.
The north of Mexico is very dry and supported few native cultures. Although agriculture is difficult in the north, the aboriginal inhabitants cleverly adapted it to these dry environments by making use of what rain runoff there was in the valleys and by using river water for irrigation. Today expanded irrigation in the river systems has greatly improved agricultural productivity in the north.
South of the Mesa Central the land is lower. It continues to be mountainous until one reaches the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a low plain connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific coast. The region between the Mesa Central and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec contains two important culture areas: Morelos where temperature and climate favored commercial agriculture, particularly sugar cane, in the last century, and Oaxaca with less rainfall and a warmer temperature. Oaxaca has large Indian populations today.
The Pacific coast of Central America is exploited for commercial farming. Further south the tropical forests of Costa Rica and Panama have been cut back to create fields for cattle grazing. Cattle are also an important source of income along the Atlantic coast of Mexico, between the Huasteca and Campeche. The Atlantic coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama has a swampy riverine environment.
As well as developing a world-renowned school of Mesoamerican ethnohistory, Mexican anthropologists have studied modern ethnic groups. Manuel Gamio investigated the cultures in the Teotihuacán Valley in the 1920s. Indigenismo, a post-revolutionary movement, led by Gamio sought to integrate the Indian cultures into national life. Gamio became the first director of the international Instituto Indigenista Interamericano (III) in 1942. The III supports research and publishes the anthropological journal América Indígena. In 1948, the government of Mexico created the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI) that looks over the welfare of native groups in that country. Part of work done by the INI has been to study of native cultures and to propagate an appreciation of them. Universities and many other research organizations in Middle American countries have also contributed to cultural anthropological research.
At the turn of the century, the cultural anthropology of Middle American in the U.S. was little more than well-written traveler's reports. Later, a new empirical anthropology began to make itself felt in studies of north west Mexico. Mesoamerica became a prime object of study for a "Chicago" school of anthropology led by Robert Redfield, who studied the central Mexican village of Tepotztlan. Also, traveler's reports of Mayan ruins published in the last century stimulated Mesoamerican archaeology. In the early part of the twentieth century, Mayan archaeology spun off ethnographic research. In the 1930s, Sol Tax investigated the Maya of Guatemala. Other anthropologists in the United States eventually contributed to the cultural anthropology of Middle America. An important early summary was Sol Tax's collection, Heritage of Conquest (Glencoe: Free Press, 1952).
Redfield's work made peasant cultures a legitimate object of study in cultural anthropology, which previously had concentrated on tribal cultures. The character of Mesoamerican peasants was investigated by North American psychological antrhopologists in the 1940s and 1950s. The characterization was never completed because it was difficult to objectively measure the variables involved.
Later research by anthropologists from Mexico and other countries focused on economics and religion. It did much to reveal how economic decisions were made in Mesoamerican villages. Anthropologists explored the connection between religious fiestas and the economy. Fiestas leveled some wealth and promoted egalitarian values. Yet, village society remained stratified both politically and economically. Fiestas traded wealth for prestige but did not destroy the economic inequalities generating the wealth.
Another anthropological issue that is still being debated today is the extent to which native cultures are carrying on Precolumbian traditions. Do they follow modern forms of ancient Indian traditions, or have they been molded extensively by contact with their Spanish conquorers? Most cultural anthropologists today accept the idea that contact with invading cultures has had a profound influence on the development of native cultures since the Conquest.
Modern native people are the survivors of the Spanish conquest. After the Conquest, tributary districts were assigned to Spanish lords. The Spanish Catholic church took on the task of Christianizing and "protecting" the Indians, but they could not protect them from the European diseases that swept over the region and killed over 90% of the native population. The most traditional Indian cultures are found today in villages that withdrew as much as possible from contact with the Spanish. They isolated themselves by speaking only their own language, setting up political systems that resisted control from the outside, and fiercely defending their land. Nevertheless, the colonists took much of the best agricultural land during the years of occupation. Land became commercial property in the last century, and today, the struggle over land continues between the natives and commercial farmers.
Commercial hacienda farming in the last century affected the native cultures. The sale of Indian land to rich urban Mexicans and, most often, to foreigners created the hacienda system. The land was falsely declared "unused" by the federal government, which kept the money from the sales and suppressed Indian revolts. Local land-poor natives were forced to work for wages on the commercial farms called the haciendas. Debts for goods bought at the hacienda store (tienda de raya) kept the workers legally bound to their work.
This system of exploitation destroyed some native cultures, while others escaped. Some regions became completely mestizoized, dedicated to commercial farming rather than to subsistence farming. In the early part of this century the reactions of land-poor natives to the hacienda system eventually led to their participation in the Mexican Revolution. Emilano Zapata was the revolutionary hero who used force to restored land to the Indians. In the 1930s, the post-revolutionary Mexican government began to legally restore more of these lands. The restored lands were known as ejidos and were unalienable. On January 3, 1992, Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution was amended to allow them to be sold. The principles for which Zapata had fought were compromised to encourage the further commercialization of agriculture. This did not sit well with some Indians. In 1994, Maya Indians launched an armed uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In nearby Guatemala natives have been fighting over these issues for many years.
Mesoamerican native people identify with their village or municipio more than with a "tribal" group, because, after the Conquest, the larger society did not value their Indian identity and they turned inward toward the village to avoid contact with a predatory colonial system. Early Catholic missionaries backed this defensive response. The classification of villages into larger "ethnic" units today is done primarily on the basis of language. Language indicates common awareness and understanding, but the linguistic classifications do not recreate the earlier political units destroyed by the Conquest nor do they recreate earlier ethic units based on common origin myths. Neither do linguistic classifications necessarily reflect a modern sense of unity among the speakers. Today a new Indian consciousness is gradually emerging. Groups of natives are organizing to represent their interests to governments that are moving slowly toward greater democracy. Indian identity is valued again by many.
The native economies revolve around subsistence agriculture. The traditional crops are maize, beans, chiles, and squash. These are often grown together in a mixed horticultural system. In mountainous terrain, people cultivate the land with a traditional spade (coa). On flatter land draft animals, cows and horses, pull lightweight wooden plows. Irrigation techniques have been used for millennia in many areas. Some depend on terracing and the control of rainwater. Others make use of canals. Some, involve raising fields over a wetland area.
Each ecological zone in Middle America, of which there are many, has its own sequence of planting, cultivation, and harvest. Year after year, natives select the best seeds for each micro ecological zone, resulting in a rich wealth of domestic genetic material. Planting, cultivating, and harvesting are timed to take advantage of seasonal rains. In general, only one crop of maize can be grown each year in highland or arid regions.
The native people also grow some crops for sale. They produce craft objects such as pottery and clothing for sale outside their village. Although these productive activities draw them into a market economy, people still have a strong sense of being peasant subsistence farmers. Sometimes successful commercial entrepreneurs wear native garb and live humbly like their neighbors to avoid envy.
Market networks are part of indigenous culture. Customary traders buy in one market, transport their goods, and sell at a higher price in another.Often the buyers and sellers in the markets will be outsiders. Transportation may be by truck, but, in the more remote mountainous regions, traders still carry their wares on their backs as they did long ago. The markets are linked to national, and eventually international, trade. They tie indigenous people to a modern economy.
The opportunities for wage labor have increased greatly since 1940. Temporary wage-labor migrants from isolated peasant communities first went to other parts of Middle America where commercial agriculture was developing, for example to the coffee plantations in the Pacific piedmont of Guatemala and Chiapas or to the market farms to the east of Mexico City. Later migrations took Indians across the boarder to the United States, where they have contributed to U.S farming and food processing industries.
Today the remnants of these various alliances continue to inhabit the central Mexico. Some of the Indian groups that were involved in the Aztec alliance, such as the Otomí and Mazhaua, live close to Mexico City. The main group left over from the Aztec empire are the Nahua, the direct linguistic descendants of the Aztecs. The Nahua are also called Mexicanos in many places. They inherited this name as the ex-rulers of Mexicayotl, the Mexica (Aztec) domain. The name Aztec comes from their mythical place of origin Aztlán, but when Cortés arrived, they were known then as the Colhua Mexica. Today this linguistic group is known as the Nahua, the name of the Aztec language that they speak. Other linguistic groups such as the Totonac and Tepehua who live near the Gulf coast, the Otomí and Huastec to the north, and the Mixtec to the south, are found near the edges of this old center of power. To the west another system of ancient alliances, the Tarascan has left people who today are known as the Purépecha..
The natives of Oaxaca are the remnants of a densely populated center of civilization that rivaled that of Central Mexico. The main languages spoken to day are Zapotec, Mixtec, Chatino, Cuicatec, and Mazatec. To the west of Oaxaca live a group of Nahua speakers in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
A number of native groups whose culture survived the conquest live in the hills of Northwest Mexico. The Huichol live in the mountains between Jalisco and Nayarit, and the Cora a bit to the west in Nayarit. The Northern Tepehuan live in rugged mountains in southern Chihuahua. The Tarahumara live north of them in the mountains around the Copper Canyon. Cahita groups such as the Mayo are found further west. All these people practice rainfall agriculture and in the past hunted for meat.
The natives of the Atlantic coast of Central America traded with the English, supported colonies of escaped slaves and pirates, and generally failed to integrate well with the Spanish-speaking colonial governments on the Pacific side of Central America. The Miskito people are descendants of Indians and fleeing African slaves and now live along the coast of Atlantic Honduras and Nicaragua. Their name is probably derived from "musket," since they were armed by English traders who regularly visited the coast in the last two centuries. Representing an enclave of Anglophone influence in Central America the Miskito were employed even in this century by the United States against the revolutionary Spanish-speaking government of Nicaragua; however the Sandinista government is now bringing them peacefully into Nicaraguan national life.
Other Central American natives such as the Emberá and the Kuna in Panama are outside the core Mesoamerican area. The Kuna became politically active in seeking native rights for themselves and other Middle American Indians. Their way of life depends on fishing, hunting, farming, handicrafts, and seeking work in the cities. The lesser known native groups of Central America are the Bokotá, Boruca, Cabecar, Catio, Chorotega, Guaymí, Jicaque, Lenca, Matagalpa, Monimbo, Paya, Subtiaba, Sumo, Teribe, and Wounan. Some of these natives no longer speak their aboriginal language.
The majority of mestizo cultures seem to have resulted from a frontier-like cultural contact between entrepreneurs and natives. The entrepreneurs sought new economic opportunities in trade and agriculture in rural areas once controlled only by natives. The natives were not destroyed as they were in the western United States but were turned into a lower laboring class for the entrepreneurial activities. As a result of their "frontier" origins, often related to cattle ranching, mestizo cultures have some common features. The people are economically oriented toward trade in the national market economies and have social links with people in towns and cities. Mestizo cultures are socially stratified. The status of the family is often based on the time of arrival of a family in a "frontier" region. A high value is placed on defending one's social position. This is sometimes conceptualized in the idea of machismo, manliness. Men are expected to defend their family's status and honor. However, to those who recognize the established hierarchy, much friendliness can be shown. Loyalty to the family is very important. Families operate as mini-corporations employing their members and sharing the profits. Work is highly valued.
Regional Mestizo cultures have their own arts and symbolic cultures. For example the culture of the cattle ranchers of the Gulf Coast of Mexico includes a type of music with humorous lyrics called Huasteca music, beer drinking, horse racing, cock fighting, kidney soup, etc. Many of the cultural elements in mestizo cultures come from a cattle-ranching background.
Mestizo cultures are changing as the economic conditions that give rise to them change. Education is becoming one of the important pathways to economic mobility. Mestizo families seek the best education for their children, often sending them to cities to attend better schools. Children aspire often to more middle-class urban occupations than to the rural enterprises that brought original wealth to their families. Becoming mestizo is also a pathway for social and economic mobility for Indians.
Urban cultures in Middle America are highly stratified. There are distinct residential areas for the lower, middle, and upper classes. Oscar Lewis coined the term "culture of poverty" to describe the lower-class culture of modern Mexico City, the largest city in Middle America and one of the largest in the world with 15 million inhabitants in 1990. What Lewis meant to convey was that modern cities generate a rock-bottom poverty culture that has more similarities than differences between large cities of the world. The culture of poverty in Mexico City is an optimistic culture of people migrating from the countryside and seeking to improve their standard of living with wage employment. The new immigrants live in sanitary conditions no better than they experienced in the countryside, but they have new wage labor and educational opportunities. Dwellings are one-room rented family units, often with a single bathroom shared among half a dozen families. Indian languages and customs are respected only in the home. Kinship ties among urban immigrants are stronger than in the countryside and form a safety network that helps them cope with the transition to the urban environment. The immigrants also maintain close contact with their home villages and often return. There is considerable reverse migration back to the home village. One should not regard urban migration in Middle American as a single one-way trip.
Life in Mexico City for the lower classes is not costly. The Mexican government has subsidized food, and transportation. The lower class men and women may have laboring and service jobs. Piece work may be taken home by children to add to the family income. Small manufacturing business thrive on the availability of cheap labor.
The city also has its middle and upper classes. The middle class can be defined as owners of small businesses, higher salaried workers, and professionals catering to middle-class needs. Examples of business are a taxicab, a dry-cleaning store, a furniture store, a factory making paper bags, a toy shop, etc. As the businesses make more profits the owners rise in the hierarchy of economic stratification.
The upper classes consist of the owners of the larger businesses, the professionals catering to them, and wealthy politicians. Much of the wealth is invested in land or other stable forms not subject to inflation. Children of the upper classes attend private schools. The urban upper classes socialize primarily within their own group. The few studies of this group indicate that there is often a breakdown of family ties and that they suffer quite a bit of psychological stress. In many cases a family's wealth has been generated rapidly within one generation, and managing it wisely is very stressful for the family. As do members of the upper classes in other cultures, the Middle American upper classes regard themselves as somehow better than everyone else.
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