Pre-Columbian cultures are grouped according to general geographic area. Although scholars sometimes differ in the precise regions they identify, their basic divisions are more or less the same. In this article the Mesoamerican Area, a major cultural region, includes the present countries of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Peru and Bolivia make up the Central Andean Area, the other major cultural region. Constituting the Intermediate Area are the lower Central America and the northern South American nations of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador; the Peripheral Area comprises the rest of South America, as well as the Caribbean islands.

Although these areas were initially regarded as separate cultural entities, recent archaeological research has indicated substantial cultural relation rather than isolation. Cultural similarities, therefore, are being as actively investigated as were differences in the past. Many anthropologists, archaeologists, and art historians are also now studying modern Latin Native American cultures for vestigial manifestations of or similarities to pre-Columbian civilization.

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