Blogs - Colombiann

Introduction to Mesoamerica/Pre-Columbian Civilizations

There is a lot about pre-columbian civilizations that people can often overlook, especially with the obsession of the Eurasian antiquity era, people don't pay much attention to the Americas antiquity era and even around colonial times. A lot is unknown about these people because it is evident that there isn't much to study from or learn from, however there are tons of books I have read that go into detail with the little information Spanish conquistadors left behind.

When I say left behind, I mean that the Spanish conquistadors did not only pillage cities and loot them, they soon would burn a large portion of these civilizations texts and even force them to convert to the catholic faith and Spanish language. However, various texts have been spared and more are being found to this day, the same goes for numerous cities and remains being found to this day that continue to give us more information on these "barbaric people" that weren't actually barbaric at all.

And to overlook the whole Aztec, Mayan, and Incan focus there were plenty of other pre-columbian civilizations that are overlooked. In fact, even the Mayans themselves are overlooked, they were not a single entity for a long span of time. In further detail, the Mayans were much like the Greeks, with city states that favored the common religion and government type, but would often fight each other and even sacrifice captives of those conquered. Even so, certain city states were very powerful and lesser states aligned with the earlier said powerful ones. Soon these states would form large "countries" but still refer to city councils/governments for guidance with an overall "Halach uinik" or supreme leader to guide them. The Mayans are also portrayed in the movie "Apocalypto" very poorly, as people that were running through jungles killing each other and sacrificing each other, and being overly addicted to their religion.

Regardless, back to my original statement before ranting about the Mayan misconception. There are many civilizations that are overlooked in pre-columbian history, which is also because of the pesky conquistadors burning everything and anything. For example, the Muisca Confederacy is kind of known, not many people can grasp the full picture of their lives and society as a whole. The Muisca were located in modern day Bogota, Colombia, and they actually had two leaders for the confederacy. One for the state of Tunja, and the other for the state of Bacata, which yes, is where Colombia's capital city got the name "Bogota" from. The Muisca are extremely important in the colonial era because of the whole "El Dorado" myth which is actually a ritual the Muisca performed where they would cover themselves in gold dust, and sail on a wooden raft into the middle of Lake Guatavita, with numerous offerings like ceramics, gold, etc on the raft to please their religious deities.

Various other civilizations like the Guarani, Mapuche, Wayuu, Tairona, and so on are also less and less known and even researched. People overlook these civilizations because it is the ignorance that they are "all just more uncivilized tribes" but I bet with extensive research, that opinion would be totally incorrect.

In conclusion, there is still much to learn about many civilizations in the Americas, sadly, some will never be fully understood due to the impact the Spanish had during their colonial reign. The history of various civilizations still do play a role in certain regions of the Americas and hopefully will continue to, because the possibility of losing where certain people groups languages, history, and so on will be a drastic blow to understanding the human race as a whole.

Tune in tomorrow for the next version of this blog with more detail about various civilizations and their traits that are far overlooked. The next version will be focused solely on the Mayans in detail.