PREIS TORIC MAN IN: THE NEW: WORLD 
have come from the Amazon Valley, as did manioc, or 
cassava, from which tapioca is made. 
This Archaic culture—we can hardly speak of it as a 
civilization—eventually spread over a somewhat wide area. 
At length, probably sometime after 1000 B.c., it began to 
develop certain well-marked local varieties which gradu- 
ally assumed higher forms. 
THE CIVILIZATION OF THE Mayas 
It is still too early to say where the first marked local 
variation took place. We find, for example, rough stone 
buildings of extremely early date on the Peruvian plateau, 
and there are other very ancient remains elsewhere; 
but we may safely say that the civilization developed 
by the Maya Indians of south- 
ern Mexico and Guatemala was 
among the first. They, like all 
other native American peoples, 
lacked several things without 
which we could hardly imagine 
a true civilization getting along 
at all. They had, for example, 
no work animals, no metal tools, 
and no wheeled vehicles of any 
sort. Yet even without these 
aids, the Mayas made remark- 
able progress. 
It would be a mistake to think 
of them, however, as a wholly : 
civilized people. The MEE 2 Fic. 104. Maya sacred design 
who did most of the hard work, — of the Feathered Serpent. 
lived pretty much as their ances- distended ae see Spates 
tors had lived, with very few of 
the luxuries or even comforts of life. Only a small upper 
class, composed of priests and war leaders, supported in 
leisure by the toil of the common people, had time to evolve 
a higher civilization. The Spaniards found it easy to 
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