Precolumbian Cultures of Central and South America

ORIGINS

Scholars and researchers agree that European and American civilizations had their origins in influences from the Near East. This means that both continents were populated by members of remote civilizations who, after a long journey, settled on these lands giving rise to the pre-historical periods: the Paleolithic, the Neolithic and the Iron Age.

These early civilizations --which inhabited the valleys of the Nile (Egypt), the Euphrates and the Tigris (Mesopotamia) and the Indus valley (Indostan)-- developed economies based on hunting, fishing and gathering as well as some community systems like matriarchy.

These cultures developed 3,500 years before Christ and, without a doubt, the domestication of plants and animals, the crafting of tools as well as the development of writing they brought about, have been great milestones for all of humanity. It is known that by the end of the fourth millennium before Christ writing was already in use in the three geographic areas mentioned above.

Asia

There are, however, theories that claim the Americas were populated by Asian civilizations. Ancient Asian peoples would have crossed the Behring strait –the place where Asia and America are closest together—and would have settled in the American continent. This theory was supported, among others, by the Spanish chronicler and Jesuit priest José de Acosta, who authored A Natural and Moral History of the Indies.

Within this large set of hypotheses, the theory that the Americas were originally populated by Europeans has been discarded, since --if it were true-- it would be expected for the Europeans to have brought their native foodstuffs, such as wheat and rice, or their agricultural tools. Only indigenous produce such as maize and potatoes were known in ancient America.

The Biblical origin of America

Upon their arrival in America in 1492, many chroniclers (including Columbus himself) were so astounded by the harmony between man and nature as well as the magnitude of these new expanses of land that they thought they had found earthly Paradise. Since then, the hypothesis that America had been originally populated by peoples of Hebrew ascent –more specifically, the ten lost tribes of Israel-- has been widespread.

The Chinese

The German archeologist Max Uhle (1856-1944) found startling similarities between Chinese and Mexican culture, by establishing parallelisms between the Mexican and Chinese calendars. Uhle theorized that oriental peoples would have initially arrived in Mexico and would have moved on to Peru later on.

The Polynesians

The theory claiming the first American inhabitants to be Polynesian is one of the most sound. As an example, in the language of the Maoris (the Polynesian of New Zealand), the sea conch –a musical instrument—is called putoto, while in the Quechua language spoken in Peru and Ecuador it is referred to as pututu. The Maya in the Yucatan peninsula call it jotuto.

Of course, this is but a very small of the linguistic, semantic and phonetic coincidences in the lexicon of cultures seemingly unrelated. Other words like pukara (fort), waka (sacred object) and waki (deity) have the same meaning in Polynesian Maori and in the Quechua spoken in the Andean regions of America.

Taking all of this into consideration, it is most likely that the first American civilizations were the product of pre-existing indigenous strata, which were enriched by the contributions of the Polynesians and other cultures which came together in America. From the beginning of this formative period, maize was the key plant in American civilization, and weaving was one of the trades that reached the most development.

© 2001 The National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland.
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Last update: May 29, 2007.
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