NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 41 
along the Gulf coast plain, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and 
down along the Pacific coast of Chiapas and Guatemala. It was prob- 
ably from here that village-farming as a mode of life radiated to the 
rest of Mesoamerica, and it was certainly here that Mesoamerican 
civilization first began. 
As the importance of the Gulf coast waned, waves of diffusion be- 
gan coming from a different direction, that is, from the Valley of 
Mexico and its environs, well beyond the borders of our area. From 
the onset of the Classic through the Conquest Period, Mexican prod- 
ucts, Mexican ideas, and even Mexican peoples continued to pour 
into southeastern Mesoamerica and influence events in that remote 
region. 
What, then, of the Classic Maya? Far-reaching claims have been 
made by investigators such as Uhle, Spinden, and Morley that the 
Maya area was a primary center of cultural diffusion for the New 
World as a whole, these unusual people being credited with the do- 
mestication of maize, invention of the calendar and of writing, and all 
sorts of other '^firsts." Recent data indicate that the exact contrary is 
true : the ancient Maya were elaborators rather than innovators, and 
the admittedly great Classic civilization of the Peten lowlands hardly 
exerted any influence at all on peoples beyond the Maya borders. 
If admiration is to be bestowed on any ancient peoples of the New 
World, we would rather see it given to the lowly, quid-chewing col- 
lectors of highland Mexico in the fifth millennium before Christ, who 
first tampered with the evolution of maize and thus made possible all 
subsequent advances in the culture of the American Indian. 
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AvELEYRA Arroyo de Anda, Luis. 
1962. Antigiiedad del hombre en Mexico y Centroamerica ; catalogo razo- 
nado de localidades y bibliografia selecta (1867-1961). Univ. Nac. 
Autonoma Mexico, Cuad. Inst. Hist., Ser. Antrop., No. 14. 
Bernal, Ignacio. 
1958. Monte Alban and the Zapotecs. Bol. Estud. Oaxaquenos, No. 1. 
Oaxaca. 
BoRHEGYi, Stephen de. 
MS. An archaeological synthesis of the Guatemalan highlands (prepared 
for Handbook of Middle American Indians). 
BuLLARD, William R,, Jr. 
1960. Maya settlement pattern in northeastern Peten, Guatemala. Amer. 
Antiquity, vol. 25, pp. 355-372. 
CoE, Michael D. 
1957. Cycle 7 monuments in Middle America: a reconsideration. Amer. 
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