"In fact, the conclusion that we were compelled to reach was that in pre-hispanic times farming systems had risen to levels of efficiency and productivity comparable, if not higher, to the most advanced contemporary practices. The legend of mere subsistence farming, or only capable of generating a small surplus, was destroyed". (Ángel Palerm 1990)
The Preclassical was the foundation for the development and subsequent splendor of ancient Mexico. It was almost six millennia of, forging by ourselves, one of the oldest and most important civilizations in the world, of which we are, today, undisputed legitimate heirs.
Contemporary Mexico has its deepest foundations in this formative period. Hence stems our basic diet, nature’s curative wisdom and our way of interacting with it; our unconscious relationship with education; our forms of social organization, are all deeply rooted in those nearly six thousand years of human development.
We cannot deny that this wisdom has been enriched by other peoples and cultures in a globalized world, since 1492. That we have suffered one of the most devastating cultural aggressions in mankind’s history, where the invading colonizers tried to strip us not only of our culture but also of our very condition as human beings. However, in spite of it all, the culture remains and continues to evolve. It is the vital force that guides and orients us although we cannot see or hear it, coming from the remote past. Sometimes it manifests itself in a subtle and almost invisibly, sometimes it is earth-shaking and expands from the inside out. But it is always present in our being.
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