The Isthmo-Colombian Area is defined as a
cultural area encompassing those territories occupied predominantly by speakers of the
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
at the time of European contact. It includes portions of the
Central American
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Cen ...
isthmus
An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...
like eastern
El Salvador, eastern
Honduras, Caribbean
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
,
Costa Rica,
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
, and northern
Colombia.
Cultural area study and theory
It is a portion of what has previously been termed the
Intermediate Area, and was defined in a chapter by John W. Hoopes and Oscar Fonseca Z in the 2003 book ''Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia''.
[Quilter & Hoopes 2003]
The concept draws upon multidisciplinary perspectives, including linguistic reconstructions by Costa Rican anthropological linguist
Adolfo Constenla Umaña and observations on
Chibchan
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
by Costa Rican anthropological geneticist
Ramiro Barrantes Mesén. It is currently being refined through ongoing studies of the
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
.
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
,
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
,
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
,
ethnography, and
ethnohistory
Ethnohistory is the study of cultures and indigenous peoples customs by examining historical records as well as other sources of information on their lives and history. It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups that may or may n ...
of this part of the Americas. This includes more recent study of the relationships between this area and the
Antilles
The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...
within a
Pan-Caribbean framework.
Cultural area archaeology
Archaeological knowledge of this area has received relatively little attention compared to its adjoining neighbors to the north and south, despite the fact that scholars such as
Max Uhle
Friedrich Max Uhle (25 March 1856 – 11 May 1944) was a German archaeologist, whose work in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia at the turn of the Twentieth Century had a significant impact on the practice of archaeology of South America.
Biogra ...
,
William Henry Holmes
William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 – April 20, 1933), known as W. H. Holmes, was an American explorer, anthropologist, archaeologist, artist, scientific illustrator, cartographer, mountain climber, geologist and museum curator and ...
,
C. V. Hartman, and
George Grant MacCurdy
George Grant MacCurdy (April 17, 1863 – November 15, 1947) was an American anthropologist, born at Warrensburg, Mo., where he graduated from the State Normal School in 1887, after which he attended Harvard (AB, 1893; AM, 1894); then studied in ...
undertook studies of archaeological sites and collections here over a century ago that were augmented by further research by
Samuel Kirkland Lothrop,
John Alden Mason
John Alden Mason (January 14, 1885 – November 7, 1967) was an American archaeological anthropologist and linguist.
Mason was born in Orland, Indiana, but grew up in Philadelphia's Germantown. He received his undergraduate degree from the Unive ...
,
Doris Zemurray Stone,
William Duncan Strong William Duncan Strong (1899–1962) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist noted for his application of the direct historical approach to the study of indigenous peoples of North and South America.
Early life and education
Strong was bor ...
,
Gordon Willey
Gordon Randolph Willey (7 March 1913 – 28 April 2002) was an American archaeologist who was described by colleagues as the "dean" of New World archaeology.Sabloff 2004, p.406 Willey performed fieldwork at excavations in South America, Central A ...
, and others in the early 20th century. One of the reasons for the relative lack of attention is the lack of research by locals themselves into the ancestral monuments and architecture characteristic of communities such as those found in the neighboring culture areas of
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...
and the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
areas, and a long history of
ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead o ...
perceptions by Western scholars of what represented civilization.
Sites and landmarks
There are a large number of sites with impressive platform mounds, plazas, paved roads, stone sculpture, and artifacts made from
jade,
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
, and
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
materials. These include
Las Mercedes,
Guayabo de Turrialba,
Cutrís, and
Cubujuquí in Costa Rica and Pueblito (in
Tayrona National Natural Park) and
Ciudad Perdida
Ciudad Perdida (Spanish for "lost city"; also known as Teyuna and Buritaca-200) is the archaeological site of an ancient city in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of Colombia, within the jurisdiction of the city of Santa Marta. This city is beli ...
in the
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...
of
Colombia. Research at sites such as
Rivas, Costa Rica helps to document the configurations of large settlements in the centuries prior to the
Spanish Conquest
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...
. Some of the best-known Isthmo-Colombian sculptures are the
stone spheres of Costa Rica
The stone spheres of Costa Rica are an assortment of over 300 petrospheres in Costa Rica, on the Diquís Delta and on Isla del Caño. Locally, they are also known as bolas de piedra (literally stone balls). The spheres are commonly attributed t ...
. Another area that has provided valuable archaeological information is the
Gran Coclé region in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
, largely coinciding with the modern-day
Coclé Province
Coclé () is a province of central Panama on the nation's southern coast. The administrative capital is the city of Penonomé. This province was created by the Act of September 12, 1855 with the title of Department of Coclé during the presidenc ...
.
Indigenous peoples
The Isthmo-Colombian Area was and is still home to a wide variety of indigenous peoples. A large number of them were speakers of
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
. These include (but are not limited to) the
Pech, the
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...
, the
Maleku, the
Bribri
The Bribri are an Indigenous people in eastern Costa Rica and northern Panama. Today, most Bribri people speak the Bribri language or Spanish.
There are varying estimates from government officials of the group's population. Estimates of the to ...
, the
Cabécar, the
Guaymí, the
Naso, the
Kuna, the
Kogi
Kogi State is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the west by the states of Ekiti and Kwara, to the north by the Federal Capital Territory, to the northeast by Nasarawa State, to the northwest by Niger State, to th ...
, the
Motilon, the
U'wa, and the
Muisca
The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...
.
See also
*
Costa Rican jade tradition
Jadeite is presumed one of the most precious materials of Pre-Columbian Costa Rica. It, along with other similar-looking greenstones (e.g. chalcedony, serpentine, and green jasper) were cherished and worked for years. Jadeite was used to deco ...
*
Intermediate Area
Notes
References
*
*{{cite book , author=Quilter, Jeffrey and John W. Hoopes, editors , year=2003 , title=Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia , url=https://archive.org/details/goldpowerinancie0000unse , format=Online text reproduction , location=Washington, DC , publisher=Dumbarton Oaks , isbn=0-88402-294-3 , url-status=dead , url-access=registration , access-date=2019-09-08 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327125942/https://archive.org/details/goldpowerinancie0000unse/ , archive-date=2019-03-27
Pre-Columbian cultural areas
History of Central America
Cultural landscapes