This handsomely illustrated book offers a panoramic view of ancient
Mexico, beginning more than thirty thousand years ago and ending with
European occupation in the sixteenth century. Drawing on archaeological
and ethnohistorical sources, the book is one of the first to offer a
unified vision of Mexico's precolonial past.
Typical histories of Mexico focus on the prosperity and accomplishments
of Mesoamerica, located in the southern half of Mexico, due to the
wealth of records about the glorious past of this region. Mesoamerica
was only one of three cultural superareas of ancient Mexico, however,
all interlinked by complex economic and social relationships.
Tracing the large social transformations that took place from the
earliest hunter-gatherer times to the Postclassic states, the authors
describe the ties between the three superareas of ancient Mexico, which
stretched from present-day Costa Rica to what is now the southwestern
United States. According to the authors, these superareas-Mesoamerica,
Aridamerica, and Oasisamerica-cannot be viewed as independent entities.
Instead, they must be considered as a whole to understand the complex
reality of Mexico's past and possible visions of Mexico's future.