Jitendra singh sisodiya

Middle and South America

          Ever since their Asiatic ancestors crossed the Bering Strait into what is today Alaska, at least fifteen thousand and perhaps as many as thirty-five thousand years ago, American Indians have been developing and adapting their cultures to the myriad environments of North, Middle, and South America. By the time the Spanish arrived almost five hundred years ago, a wide range of Indian cultures of varying complexity existed between the Arctic Sea and the Strait of Magellan. Most of the Americas were occupied by various forms of village-farming societies, but there were also simple hunting-and-gathering societies, which stood in stark contrast to the great civilizations of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Despite the cultural sophistication of the notable Middle and South American civilizations, they lacked important technological assets, including gunpowder, and they were highly vulnerable to European diseases, which prevented them from warding off the Spanish conquest of the New World. From 1519 to 1533, the conquistadors defeated both the Aztec and Inca empires and profoundly changed the customs of their people. Prehistoric Middle and South American peoples had produced a variety of beautiful beads, but the most valued were those of jade and gold. Important symbolic reinforcements of the status structure, beads were significant features of Indian societies, and their manufacture and distribution were carefully controlled. With the breakdown of Indian civilizations and the elimination of the elite, jade and gold beads disappeared.

           Beads appear early in the history of Middle and South American cultures. Snail shell beads from southern Mexico date to 7500 B.C. , and a stone discoidal bead from the Mexican Valley of Tehuacan dates to about 3000 B.c. Beadmaking in Middle America developed as farming societies were established and ceremonialism and increasingly complex social and political relationships evolved as part of village life. Much of the evidence for the Middle American beadmaking tradition is found in archaeological sites. Beads appear in substantial numbers beginning with the Pre-Classic period (1500 B.C.) and continuing through the late Post-Classic civilizations of the Mixtec and Toltec up to A.D. 1500. These beads (and their counterparts in South America) are well preserved, for they were buried prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Bead evidence after 1519 is scanty because the products of major jewelry-making cultures like the Aztec and Inca were largely destroyed by the Spanish during or soon after the conquest.

           Until the Spanish arrived, beadmaking was a flourishing industry, particularly among the more complex Middle and South American societies. From the emergence of the Olmec civilization in the thirteenth century B.C. to the collapse of the Aztec and Inca empires twenty-seven centuries later, native craftsmen wrought exquisite gold and jade bead necklaces throughout Middle and South America. Located on the Gulf Coast (present-day Veracruz and Tabasco), the Olmecs (1250 to 400 B.c.) created the first great civilization in Middle America. They produced beautiful beads, particularly of jade, that used motifs similar to the articulation of their stone sculpture. Mayan (A.D. 1-900) craftsmen of southern Mexico and Guatemala also made elaborate beads. Ceramic figurines, painted scenes on pottery, and limestone carvings show Mayan gods and rulers wearing large beads (the tatters' crown jewels). Carved Mayan beads often incorporated motifs identical to those seen on buildings, pottery, sculpture, and paintings. In Peru, the Chavin civilization (1200-300 B.c.) produced elaborate stone sculpture, monumental architecture, and new techniques for textile manufacturing, as well as beads made from hammered sheet gold.

          As cultures grew more complex throughout Middle and South America, the need to identify rank and social position increased. In the early civilizations of Mexico, Guatemala,

OPPOSITE: Bib of shell and stone beads from Chan Chan, capital city of the Peruvian Chimu culture (A.v. 1000-1470). The richly colored disk beads, made from orange spondylus shell, other purple and white shells, and from green mala-chite, have been used to create human and bird figures similar in style to those found on ancient Peruvian textiles. 7b fully appreciate the bib, it should be under-stood it was worn in Chan Chan, where the houses were carved with fantastic animals and birds and painted in bril-liant colors. Width, 43 cm. American Museum of Natural History, New York