CHaApTerR III 
THE LESSER CIVILIZATIONS 
HE influence of the Mayan civilization when at its 
height (400 to 600 A. D.) may be traced far beyond 
the limits of the Mayan area. Ideas in art, religion, 
and government that were then spread broadcast 
served to quicken nations of diverse speech and a series 
of divergent cultures resulted. Most of these lesser 
civilizations were at their best long after the great 
Mayan civilization had declined, but one or two were 
possibly contemporary. It will be the aim in the 
present chapter to emphasize the indebtedness of these 
lesser civilizations to the Mayas as well as to com- 
ment upon their individual characters. 
We will first proceed northwest into Mexico and then 
southeast into the Isthmus of Panama. ‘The environ- 
ment under which the Mayas developed their arts of 
life continues in narrowing bands westward along the 
Gulf of Mexico and southward across the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec. The most westerly Mayan city of im- 
portance seems to have been Comalcaleco. But there 
is also a large ruin near San Andres Tuxtla and it may 
be significant that the earliest dated object of the Mayas 
(the Tuxtla Statuette) came from this region. In other 
words, the cradle of Mayan culture may have been in 
this coastal belt where arid and humid conditions exist 
side by side and where the figurines of the archaic type 
are found together with those of the Mayas. Unfortun- 
ately, the archeology of this part of Mexico has been 
little studied and we are compelled to go farther up the 
coast, to the Totonacs or farther inland to the Zapotecs 
before we can find material for study. 
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