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Welcome to WikiProject Mesoamerica, a WikiProject which has been set up to improve the content, coverage and organization of articles related to Mesoamerica and its historical cultures and civilizations.
Sounds interesting- what is there to do?
A number of things:
Review the materials on this page for background information
Use the "Navigation" panel at the left here to find your way around; see also the Project structure description.
Resources such as Guidelines, References and Citation resources are being built to help editing on these topics- see also the Catalogues of articles, categories, templates, images and lists to be worked on.
The Article listing contains a reasonably up-to-date- list of all identified in-scope articles.
Purpose:WikiProject Mesoamerica (or WP:MESO for short) is intended to provide a common forum for Wikipedia editors interested in improving and maintaining articles related to Mesoamerica, with a primary (but not exclusive) focus upon the pre-Columbian history and achievements of Mesoamerican societies.
Activities for discussion on this forum include: identifying in-scope articles and topics, discussing ways to improve article standards and topical coverage, coordinating and prioritising improvement efforts, developing standards and guidelines designed to achieve consistency between related articles, documenting article coverage by topical areas, rating articles by appropriate standards, organising the articles by meaningful categories and links, and sundry other activities to be further refined.
Project structure: WP:MESO has three main pages:
Project Definition (background, description and resources),
Project Activities (open tasks, to-do lists, collaborations and sub-projects),
Project Catalogue (inventory and survey of articles, lists, templates, categories, and an assessment of their current status).
Each is composed of a number of subpages. These main pages contain relevant navigational links and views their subpages' contents. Taken together, they are intended to function somewhat similarly to a Portal, in that the mainpages provide a common access points for associated documentation, activities and discussions. All of the actual detailed work and documentation takes place on the Project's separate subpages, however the main aspects of this work can be viewed directly and all at once from the main pages. Note that what appears in a particular window or box here may be a summary of more extensive material, which can be seen in full using the links and 'edit' tags provided.
Although diverse, Mesoamerican peoples and their cultures share a number of common traits, which contribute to the region's definition as a specific field of study. With several thousand years' worth of intertwined history, shared cultural aspects and political interactions, articles on Mesoamerican-related topics will have a great deal of common reference and similarity in subject matter.
A primary motivation in establishing this WikiProject stems from the large degree of interrelatedness of Mesoamerican topics and history. By providing interested editors with a central forum to discuss issues and ideas for improvement, the need to disperse discussion relating to common themes across multiple talk pages is avoided (note, however, that discussion on relevant talk pages is of course still encouraged, particularly where major changes are being considered; the Project's workspace is intended to complement, and not replace, editor best practices).
The goals of this WikiProject are to:
[A]- improve and maintain Mesoamerica-related articles and other materials: fact checking, prose checking, expanding, ensuring currency of information, providing reliable citations and references, NPOVing, bringing more selected articles up to Featured article status, via Peer review or Good article processes if necessary;
[B]- expand wikipedia coverage of Mesoamerica-related topics: identify gaps, check for completeness of coverage, start new articles, expand entries on little-known or neglected, but still notable, subjects;
[C]- apply sensible organisational structures to articles: Within articles, similar articles can have a similar structure, coverage and presentation. Across articles, maintaining categories, lists and links so related articles are easier to locate;
[D]- ensure consistency of information and terminology across articles: where similar facts and data are cited or mentioned in several different articles, they should as far as possible be consistent and not contradict. Terminology and the orthography used for names and places should be consistently applied;
[E]- propose and establish guidelines for editing: produce materials to assist others in understanding any guidelines or standards;
[F]- develop tools and resources for others to use in article production: such as templates, navboxes, infoboxes, 'what to include' checklists, diagrams, base maps, image catalogues, useful and commonly used references;
[G]- facilitate coordination and collaboration: between Projects, interwikis and editors, establish priorities, where possible avoid duplication of effort, apply WP:AGF, WP:CIVIL, WP:CON, WP:NPA, and others.
The scope of this WikiProject is proposed to include articles, lists, categories, templates, and the like, with some direct relevance to the Mesoamerican region (with a particular focus upon the pre-Columbian period, but also extending where relevant to other eras and subjects).
Items within this scope will address (one or more) aspects grouped under the following high-level topics or themes (which may cross-reference or overlap with one another as well):
Mesoamerican Geography– regions, locations, natural history, environment, biota, domesticated plants and animals, exploited animal, vegetable and mineral resources, climate, hydrology, geology
Mesoamerican Archaeology– chronologies, horizons and complexes, site descriptions, structures, monuments, pottery and other artefacts, external connections and influences
Mesoamerican History– by time periods, by culture/civilization, of events, of individuals, historical documents and post-colonial accounts,
Mesoamerican Cultures and Civilizations– descriptions of the peoples and their , locations, histories, polities, interactions, accomplishments, society, beliefs, influences, experiences in colonial and post-colonial eras, continuity of heritage to the preset day
Mesoamerican Languages– descriptions of individual languages- phonology, typology, grammar etc., language families, historical and contemporary distribution, lingua francas, use in historical texts, words derived from the indigenous languages
Mesoamerican Writing and Inscriptions– history, development and distribution, relationships, per literate or proto-literate culture, epigraphy, individual inscriptions/texts and their meanings, symbols and glyphs, inscriptional types (monumental, pottery, codices, etc) decipherment and history/status of decipherment
Mesoamerican Society– shared and distinct cultural practices, polities and governance, social structures and order, "daily life", commerce and trade, education, warfare, costume and dress, gender roles, population trends
Mesoamerican People– biographies of notable personages, rulers and dynasties, roles and titles, (includes also notable non-Mesoamerican figures of the conquest and colonisation eras, eg. the conquistadores, and post-colonial, contemporary or near-contemporary figures important to subsequent history)
Mesoamerican Science and Technology– "cognative" achievements, such as writing and inscriptions, mathematics, astronomy, calendars; "technical" or "applied knowledge" achievements, such as medicine, metallurgy, architecture/construction, navigation, agriculture
Mesoamerican Arts– visual arts and decorative styles, iconography, media, cross-cultural influences, music, dance
Mesoamerican Mythology and Religion– belief systems, philosophy, mythologies, deities, rituals and ceremonies
Mesoamerican Studies– history and description of the field, subfields of specialist study, notable Mesoamericanist scholars and works, unresolved aspects/open questions, points of contention.
This page is intended as a repository of details and links to resources, references, tools and other materials commonly used when editing Mesoamerica-related articles.
Project (internal) resources
Internal (wikipedia/project) resource pages
Mesoamerica reference works and citations
The project subpage WP:MESO/CITE contains commonly used reference works on Mesoamerican topics, with pre-filled citation templates containing the full reference details. The pre-filled template may be copied and conveniently pasted direct into the "references" section of articles which use them, for consistency and completeness.
Please add more as you find/need them.
Mesoamerica journals and citations
The project subpage WP:MESO/J contains a listing of journals and other periodicals in which papers may be published on Mesoamerican topics. Contains links to online resources for the journals, plus pre-filled citation templates for each journal, that may be used when citing in a particular article.
links to primary source documents (reproductions of codices, indigenous and Spanish accounts from pre-Columbian, conquest and colonial eras, etc.), and secondary/historical documents.
VARIOUS conquistador sources. Crónicas de América. Complete online texts compiled by the arteHistoria online mag (govt. of Castille y León): incl. Hernan Colon, Cristobal Colon, Hernan Cortes, Diaz del Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, Fernando Ixtlilxochtitl, Rodriguez Freyle, Quiros, Francisco Hernandez, Gamboa, Vision de los vencidos, Lopez de Gomara, Toribio de Benevente, Origen de los mexicanos, Villagra, Sahagun, Alvaro Tezozomoc.
VARIOUS explorer sources. Early Modern Spain (King's College London). Online texts of Cabeza De Vaca's Naufragios, Las Casas' Brevísima relación, Columbus' diario of 1492/93 and 1st voyage letter, Cortés' five Cartas de relaciónes, Oviedo y Valdés' Historia general y natural de las Indias.
SUP-INFOR excellent collection of searchable databases for Nauhatl & other Mesoamerican languages, dictionaries, and reproductions of a number of codices. DBs can be downloaded (PC-only support). (in French, Nahuatl languages, Spanish, and English)(some pages)
Dictionnaire de la langue Nahuatl Classique, by Alexis Wimmer, based on dictionary compiled by Simeon. Comprehensive, with cross-referencing of terms found in the Florentine Codex. (in French and Nahuatl languages)
Nahuatl Vocabulary, searchable db of en, es & nah terms at Wired Humanities Project, UO
Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (in Spanish)
Mesoamerican studies websites
American foundations, institutions, collections and universities
FAMSIFoundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., just about the most comprehensive source for academic papers, monographs and Mesoamerican resources.
MESOWEB large repository of many recent academic papers on Mesoamerican studies.
PARIPrecolumbian Art Research Institute; incl. papers from Palenque Mesa Redonda ("Round Table") meetings
MARIMiddle America Research Institute, Tulane University
MARLMesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory, UT Austin. Publishes mono y conejo journal, & some site reports
CMHI, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions by Peabody Museum, now has some good info & reproductions online
Mesoamerican img archives Repository of photos from various Mesoamerican sites, by David R. Hixson. Imgs are copyrighted, but could be approached for use in WP.
Puuc (Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil and Labna) docs & imgs, by Charles Rhyne & Reed College; many scans of old (Pub Domain) imgs and maps, also modern ones, of the region; + extensive annotated biblios in PDFs
WHP, Wired Humanities Project, University of Oregon; collection of Mesoam resources and text digitisation projects (some under constr; some pwd protected, others accessible)
VMAVirtual Mesoamerican Archive, a portal maintained by University of Oregon's Wired Humanities Project, with extensive material, links, and search facilities specific to Mesoamerican material available online
HLAS Online, Handbook of Latin American Studies (online), by Library of Congress; searchable database of annotated bibliographies, journals etc
ArchaeoSeek Mesoamerica, listing of Mesoamerican archaeological sites (nb, WP:MESO gets a guernsey!)
European foundations, institutions, collections and universities
IAI-PK, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Preussischer Kulturbesitz; Library, catalogue & some details on Mesoamerican docs, research and collections (in German and Spanish)
Current-Contents, db listing TOCs of each vol for most ethnohistorical & arch. periodicals
Cibera, "is an interdisciplinary search facility for specialised scientists and students of culture, history, politics, economics and sociology of Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries and the Caribbean"
Arbeitskreis Mesoamerika, University of Vienna, Austrian academic Mesoamericanists (in German, English, and Spanish)
Месоамерика, Russian site on Americanist/Mesoamericanist research, materials, by some scholars/students; good info on Maya sites in particular (in Russian)
Меxicolore, UK-based educational resource for teachers and students of all ages on the Aztecs/Mexica; the website supports a teaching team that have run over 2,000 school workshops on the Aztecs in schools and museums in England since 1980 (in English and Spanish)
Spanish foundations, institutions, collections and universities
Crónicas de América, at arteHistoria by the Junta de Castile y León. Texts of original conquistador sources, biographies of authors and participants, images (many presumably PD), maps, and links.
OKMA, La Asociación Oxlajuuj Keej Maya’ Ajtz’iib’, Guatemalan organisation for investigation and documentation of Mayan langs.
Atlas Arquelógico de Guatemala Govt. site, some maps and a very good repository of Guatemalan archaeological papers published in various sources, all downloadable as PDFs (see in particular "Otras publicaciones") (in Spanish)
Summary of guidelines/conventions for editing Project-related articles. See WP:MESO/G for full details:
M01. Mesoamerica— it's Mesoamerica, not "Meso-America", "MesoAmerica" or "Meso America".
M02. English spelling— 'American' spelling is to be preferred over 'Commonwealth' or British spelling, for most articles. In any case, spelling should be consistent within an article.
Q'eqchi7 (talk) 14:46, 10 July 2012 (UTC)*M03. "Maya vs. Mayan"— as a rule, only use the form Mayan when referring to languages; otherwise, Maya is used for everything else. In these senses, the two words are true adjectives, thus: "Maya architecture", "Mayan phonetics". The words may also be used as adjectival nouns, in which case "the Maya" can mean the people (as does "the French"), and "to study Mayan" can mean to study the Mayan language family. Both words can also be regular nouns, with regular -s plurals: "Three Mayas were taken to hospital" or "Three Mayans were hired as translators".
M04. Orthography of Mayan words— other than for certain widely recognised placenames and some others, it is recommended that when writing Mayan words and terminology that the orthography follow the conventions of the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (1988), a standard adopted by many current sources. The orthography in the former 'standard' (derived from 16thC Yukatek) should also be given where different, and in any case the orthography employed in an article should be consistent and the distinctions made clear between competing orthographies.
M05. Use of diacritics/accents—Diacritics (accent marks) should not be used in the names of archaeological sites, cultures, locales, etc. where the name wholly derives from an indigenous Mesoamerican language that doesn't use diacritics. Modern-day localities, municipios, or Spanish-derived names may use diacritics as appropriate.
