Haucai Cusqui potato harvest
rest from harvesting July Chacra Conaqui Quilla the month of redistributing lands August Chacra Yapuy Quilla Hailly the month to open lands coming into cultivation with songs of triumph September Zara Tarpuy Quilla Coia Raymi Quilla the month for planting; also, the Festival of the Queen October Chacramanta Pisco Carcoy the time to scare birds out of newly planted fields November Chacra Parcay the time to irrigate fields Victor Wolfgang von Hagen John V. Murra
Citation Information
Article Title: Pre-Columbian civilizations
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 11 February 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/pre-Columbian-civilizations
Access Date: August 25, 2019
Additional Reading Archaeological and historical studies
Gordon R. Willey, An Introduction to American Archaeology, 2 vol. (1966–71); and Gordon R. Willey and Jeremy A. Sabloff, A History of American Archaeology, 2nd ed. (1980), provide overviews of all of New World prehistory and place the Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations into the larger cultural–historical setting. See also Leslie Bethell (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 1 (1984). Meso-American civilization General works
The comprehensive, multivolume series “Handbook of Middle American Indians,” especially vol. 2–3, Gordon R. Willey (ed.), Archaeology of Southern Mesoamerica (1965), and vol. 10–11, Gordon F. Ekholm and Ignacio Bernal (eds.), Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica (1971), is indispensable. Summaries of more recent developments are found in Jeremy A. Sabloff (ed.), Archaeology (1981), vol. 1 in the series “Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians.” Historical sources include Francis Augustus MacNutt (trans. and ed.), Letters of Cortes: The Five Letters of Relation from Fernando Cortes to the Emperor Charles V, 2 vol. (1908, reprinted 1977); and Bernal Díaz Del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, 5 vol., ed. and trans. by Alfred Percival Maudsley (1908–16, reprinted as The Conquest of New Spain, 4 vol., 1967). See also Muriel Porter Weaver, The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors: Archaeology of Mesoamerica, 2nd ed. (1981); Walter Krickeberg, Altmexikanische Kulturen, new ed. (1975); Jacques Soustelle, The Four Suns: Recollections and Reflections of an Ethnologist in Mexico (1971; originally published in French, 1967), and Arts of Ancient Mexico (1966; originally published in French, 1966); Suzanne Abel-Vidor et al., Between Continents/Between Seas: Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica (1981); Anna Benson Gyles and Chlöe Sayer, Of Gods and Men: Mexico and the Mexican Indian (1980); Michael D. Coe, Mexico, 3rd rev. ed. (1984); and Joyce Kelly, The Complete Visitor’s Guide to Mesoamerican Ruins (1982). Preclassic and Classic periods
For early prehistory and the beginnings of agriculture, see Christine Niederberger, Zohapilco: Cinco milenios de ocupación humana en un sitio lacustre de la Cuenca de México (1976); and Barbara L. Stark and Barbara Voorhies (eds.), Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations: The Economy and Ecology of Maritime Middle America (1978). General introductions include William T. Sanders and Barbara J. Price, Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization (1968); Richard E.W. Adams, Prehistoric Mesoamerica (1977); Eric R. Wolf, Sons of the Shaking Earth (1959, reprinted 1974); and Mary W. Helms, Middle America: A Culture History of Heartland and Frontiers (1975, reprinted 1982). For a coordination of regional chronologies within the area, see R.E. Taylor and Clement W. Meighan (eds.), Chronologies in New World Archaeology (1978). Books dealing with Olmec civilization include Michael D. Coe and Richard A. Diehl, In the Land of the Olmec, 2 vol. (1980); Michael D. Coe, David Grove, and Elizabeth P. Benson (eds.), The Olmec & Their Neighbors (1981); and Ignacio Bernal, The Olmec World (1969; originally published in Spanish, 1968). For other cultures of the period, see the general works cited above. Late Classic Period
General books on the Maya include J. Eric S. Thompson, The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization, 2nd enl. ed. (1966, reprinted 1977); Michael D. Coe, The Maya, 4th rev. ed. (1987); Norman Hammond, Ancient Maya Civilization (1982); and Sylvanus G. Morley and George W. Brainerd, The Ancient Maya, 4th ed., rev. by Robert J. Sharer (1983). The rise and decline of Maya civilization are discussed in Richard E.W. Adams (ed.), The Origins of Maya Civilization (1977); and T. Patrick Culbert (ed.), The Classic Maya Collapse (1973, reprinted 1983). See also John S. Henderson, The World of the Ancient Maya (1981), an ethnohistory. The transition from Maya Classic to Postclassic culture is examined in Jeremy A. Sabloff and E. Wyllis Andrews V (eds.), Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic (1986). A basic work on Maya hieroglyphic writing is J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction, 3rd ed. (1971). For later research in the field, see David Humiston Kelley, Deciphering the Maya Script (1976); Elizabeth P. Benson (ed.), Mesoamerican Writing Systems (1973); and Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (1986). For the complex subject of ancient Maya religion, J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion (1970), is an indispensable introductory guide. Native and early historical sources include Daniel G. Brinton (ed. and trans.), The Maya Chronicles (1882, reprinted 1969), and The Annals of the Cakchiquels (1885, reprinted 1969); Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiché Maya, trans. from the Spanish work of Adrián Recinos by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus G. Morley (1950, reprinted 1978); Ralph L. Roys (trans.), The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (1933, reprinted 1967); Diego De Landa, Landa’s Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, trans. into English and ed. by Alfred M. Tozzer (1941, reprinted 1978); and Munro S. Edmonson (trans. and ed.), The Ancient Future of the Itza: The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin (1982). Jacques Soustelle, Mexico, trans. from French (1967), deals with the relation of Maya and other ancient Mesoamerican religions. Economic and demographic features are treated in Peter D. Harrison and B.L. Turner II, Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture (1978); and Wendy Ashmore (ed.), Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns (1981). See also Henri Stierlin, Art of the Maya: From the Olmecs to the Toltec-Maya (1981; originally published in French, 1981). Postclassic Period