Mesoamerica is a region that extends roughly from the Tropic of Cancer in central Mexico down through northwestern Costa Rica. The term is generally used to denote the peoples and cultures of that region before the Spanish conquest.

The name Mesoamerica was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff to refer to a region of similar cultures characterized by the practice of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle. The term has now become part of the vernacular in pre-Columbian anthropological studies. By contrast, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica have not entered widespread usage.

Ecology

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Mesoamerica is located between 10° and 22° northern latitude. It encompasses central Mexico, except for those Mexican states that border the United States and San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Aguascalientes and the north of Sinaloa. It extends south to include the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the Pacific coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica up to the Gulf of Nicoya.

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