NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 25 
PRINCIPAL FACTORS IN THE CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF 
MESOAMERICA 
The first peopling of Mesoamerica was by hunters who entered 
North America via the Bering Strait and penetrated southward. Some 
of these groups became gatherers and incipient agriculturists, adapt- 
ing to the ecological factors of the postglacial period, which required 
them to seek new sources of subsistence. In the course of time, maize 
was domesticated, forming the basis for the later evolution of Meso- 
american culture and causing an economic revolution. 
After this time, influences from North America gave way to local 
evolution of the Formative complexes. Two traditions became dif- 
ferentiated: that of the Plateau and that of the Gulf coast. The Ol- 
mec of the latter area exerted strong influence over contemporary 
groups, influence that can be discerned as far away as western 
Mexico, the Plateau, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and even Guatemala and El 
Salvador. By the end of the Urban Formative Period, the Olmec had 
contributed to the formation of the cultures that flourished during 
the Theocratic Period of the Regional Developmental Epoch. Their de- 
velopment was spurred by Nahua and Teotihuacan influences, which 
also extended southward. The cultures of Coyotlatelco, Taj in, Toltec, 
and Pipil may have originated from such interplay of influences. 
During the Militaristic Period, the strongest influences are those of 
the Toltec and Mexica, which can be detected as far south as Gua- 
temala and Nicaragua. Toward the end of the previous period. Cen- 
tral American influences began to be felt in Mesoamerica, especially 
on the Pacific coast, in the form of metallurgy, shaft tombs, efiigy 
metates, and caryatid supports. 
Connections with North America reappear toward the end of the 
Theocratic Period, and continue until the following period, with ele- 
ments passing in both directions. A similar interchange existed be- 
tween the Maya region and central Mexico. 
The high degree of cultural development achieved aboriginally 
in Mesoamerica was the result of the discovery of agriculture, and 
particularly the improvement of maize. It is possible to speak of a 
true economic revolution, which gave impetus to technology and to 
the elaboration of social organization as the cumulative effects of de- 
velopment became more pronounced. The presence of thousands of 
archeological sites throughout Mesoamerica suggests that ecological 
differences within the area were not of determining significance after 
the Formative Period, when agricultural technology was sufficiently 
developed to permit the exploitation of varying types of geographical 
