section_path: Other characteristics/Economy
section_name: Economy
paragraph_text: Economy
  
  Given that Mesoamerica was broken into numerous and diverse ecological niches, none of the societies that inhabited the area were self-sufficient, although very long-distance trade was common only for very rare goods, or luxury materials. For this reason, from the last centuries of the Archaic period (8000 BCE– 1000 BCE) onward, regions compensated for the environmental inadequacies by specializing in the extraction of certain abundant natural resources and then trading them for necessary unavailable resources through established commercial trade networks.
  
  The following is a list of some of the specialized resources traded from the various Mesoamerican sub-regions and environmental contexts: