Aridoamerica

Aridoamerica is a term used by Mexican archeologists to describe a region of the southwestern United States and the northern and central regions of Mexico, in contrast to Mesoamerica, which lies to the south and east.

Unlike Mesoamerica, Aridoamerica has a dry, arid climate and geography. Because of the hard conditions, the precolumbian people in this region were mostly nomadic. The indigenous groups that occupied this land came to be known as Chichimecas, meaning barbaric, or uncivilized. The cultivation of maize reached Aridoamerica by about 1000 BC, possibly associated with the diffusion of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic phylum. These sedentary cultures formed the so-called Ancient Pueblo Peoples, sometimes delineated from the mesolithic inhabitants of Aridoamerica by the term Oasisamerica.

Distribution

The current Mexican states that lie in Aridoamerica are:

• Aguascalientes
• Baja California
• Baja California Sur
• Coahuila
• Chihuahua
• Durango
• Nuevo León
• San Luis Potosí
• Sonora
• Tamaulipas
• Zacatecas

The northern parts of:

• Hidalgo
• Guanajuato
• Querétaro
• Jalisco
• Sinaloa

See also

• Uto-Aztecan languages
• Pueblo peoples

References

• Cordell, Linda S. and Don D. Fowler, eds. "Southwest Archaeology in the Twentieth Century. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-87480-825-4.