Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America

The Chorotegan Culture

Passing south and east from the Mayan area we find remains of a rich and in many ways peculiar art, consisting mostly of pottery and stone carvings, to which the name Chorotegan is applied. This name means Driven-out People. It was first used in connection with several tribes of the Chiapanec-Otomi stock dispossessed of a fertile area about Lake Nicaragua by the intrusive Mexican-speaking Nicarao. The Chorotega were not, however, totally dispossessed since they continued to hold the Peninsula of Nicoya in Costa Rica as well as other pieces of territory. In an archæological sense the name Chorotegan fittingly can be extended to eastern parts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, since the inhabitants of this stretch of land were also dispossessed some time before the coming of the Spaniards. Or perhaps they voluntarily migrated northward towards the end of the Toltec rule and are to be identified with the Otomi, Tlappaneca, and Mazateca of southern and central Mexico. The Tlappaneca and Otomi are definitely associated with introduction into Mexico of the peculiar cult of Xipe, God of the Flayed. This cult was clearly of southern origin and indeed still survived at Nicaragua at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The Mazateca were found in transit by Cortez, in the southern part of the Peninsula of Yucatan, living in palisaded villages. Similar palisaded villages once flourished in Honduras. The wild South American tribes who replaced the eastern Chorotega exhibit a cultural non-conformity with the archæological remains of the region they now occupy.

Close analysis shows that many of the decorative motives in Chorotegan art were developed from those of the Mayas. The serpent and the monkey furnish the majority of the designs that are surely Mayan but each of these is carried so far away from the original that only an expert can see the connections. The arms and legs of the monkeys are lengthened and given an extra number of joints while the heads degenerate into circles. The tongues of the serpents are elongated and bent downward at the end. All the open spaces are treated with scallops or fringes of short lines.

There is also in Chorotegan art a crocodilian motive that may be peculiar to the Isthmian region although it has Mayan affinities. The jaguar is also important in this ancient art. Among the most interesting vases are those that have a modeled head projecting from one side (jaguar, monkey, or bird) and two of the three legs of the vessel modified into animal legs. On these elaborate vessels there are bands of painted decoration mostly concerned with the crocodile.