My Life

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d as separate cultural entities, recent archaeological research has indicated substantial cultural relation rather than isolation. To distinguish the major characteristics of pre-Columbian civilizations, three general chronological divisions were created. The Pre-Classic, or Formative, period (circa 1500 BC-circa AD300),the Classic, period (circa 300-circa 900),and the Post-Classic period (circa 900-1540). The Pre-Classic period was an age of experimentation and innovation, the achievements of which were expanded and refined by later civilizations. In this early period the Americas were primarily isolated into chiefdoms and small kingdoms that were largely independent of one another in their cultural development. During the Classic period complex empires developed. Their rulers were often priests, rather than the warrior-priests who were the principal administrators of Post-Classic civilizations, and cultures were more readily disseminated or assimilated. The Post-Classic period was characterized by frequent wars resulting from the socioeconomic pressures of increased population and technological development. Pre-Columbian civilizations were primarily agricultural, with corn being developed as the dietary staple in Mesoamerica, and the potato in Andean Peru and Bolivia. Until the relative secularism of the Post-Classic period, religion was also central to the formulation and development of pre-Columbian American culture. Religious ideas and rituals, however, were largely determined by the concerns of agricultural societies for crop fertility. Much pre-Columbian art and architecture, therefore, is involved with...