"Comprehensive overview of Mesoamerican cultural traditions. Introductory chapter sketches the Mesoamerican physical setting and the field of Mesoamerican studies. Six chapters of volume's first section present the history of Mesoamerican peoples from prehispanic times to the present. The bulk of the text is devoted to topical essays on key issues in Mesoamerican studies: religion, gender, politics and economics, language, and native literature"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.