List of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

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Various indigenous empires in Central America

The indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean are ethnic groups who lived there before colonization and are therefore the descendants of the "indigenous people" of this region. Politically, they are viewed as indigenous peoples . In some countries in Central America - such as Guatemala - they still make up the majority of the population today. In the Caribbean they were largely exterminated or assimilated .

According to certain cultural criteria (e.g. mode of subsistence , social organization, art forms, family structures, traditional religions ), ethnology has tried to classify the ethnic groups according to so-called cultural areas. The following list follows different models, as the models of North American , Mesoamerican and South American cultures overlap here.

Southwest North America

Mesoamerica North

Mesoamerica South

Circum-Caribbean

"Mixed forms"

The mixing of some indigenous peoples with foreign ethnic groups resulted in some new groups with their own ethnic identity : The best known are the Garifuna (Caribs and West African slaves) on the Caribbean coast of Central America.

literature

  • Norman Bancroft-Hunt : Atlas of the Indian civilizations. Olmec, Toltec, Maya, Aztec. Tosa Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85492-557-3 .
  • Eveline Dürr and Henry Kammler (Eds.): Introduction to the Ethnology of Mesoamerica: A Handbook on Indigenous Cultures , Waxmann, Münster 2019, ISBN 978-3-8309-3804-0 .
  • Wolfgang Lindig , Mark Münzel : The Indians. Volume 2: Central and South America. 3. Edition. dtv Wissenschaft, Munich 1985, original edition 1978.

Web links