Page:Historia Verdadera del Mexico profundo.djvu/27

 satisfaction of social needs: the production of luxury goods, construction of religious buildings, and so on." (Ángel Palerm. 1990)

The Milpa invention.

The milpa was another valuable trigger for the development of the Anahuac civilization, because by planting maize, chili, squash and beans, intensively farming a very small piece of land during four months; one man could feed his family for an entire year. This is as if today, with four months of minimum-wage earnings one could survive for one year. Hydraulic engineering reached very advanced levels in Cem Anahuac, not only due to extensive irrigation, but also because the use of the "Chinampa" was a very advanced concept, even by today’s standards.

''"...irrigation agriculture was the only technological way to sustain a sufficiently productive economy and to maintain a concentrated population, stable and specialized in non-agricultural work and a political organization to maintain the functioning of a productive system and good distribution. Therefore, the use of irrigation would have fostered urban life and, consequently, civilization." (Teresa Rojas Rabiela. 2001)''

''We definitely cannot imagine the wonders and magnificence of Teotihuacan or Monte Alban in the Classical period, without the basis of an efficient food system, which was able to support the challenges of building the various and numerous centers of knowledge that existed in our territory. Foreign researchers have not given Anahuac agriculture the place it deserves in the history of mankind.'' ____________________