Gran México
Mesoamérica · Aridoamérica · Anáhuac
Maize domesticated from teosinte in the Balsas valley (c. 9,000 years ago)
- Maize, cacao and chocolate, tomato, chili, vanilla, avocado
- One of the world's independent inventions of writing
NEO term · NEO Atlas
The Turtle Continent
The whole American continent, named the way its first peoples named it: a land carried on the back of a great turtle.
01The map
Its cultures, by their true reach.
From the Inuit Arctic to the Southern Cone. Touch a culture to consult its record.
02The name
Why a turtle.
For the Haudenosaunee, Sky Woman fell from the Sky World, and the animals of the water spread earth on the back of a great turtle so she could stand: that land is Turtle Island. The Mohawk call it Anowara:kowa, the Great Turtle.
The Guna of Panama and Colombia call the continent Abya Yala, land in full maturity, a name now used by original peoples from Mexico to Patagonia.
NEO Library joins both into one term for the whole continent, Turtle Continent, because the turtle that carries the world lives in many cosmovisions:
- Maya · the Maize God is reborn from a turtle shell, the Earth.
- Haudenosaunee and Wyandot · the land rests on the Great Turtle.
- Hindu · Kurma, the turtle form of Vishnu, holds the mountain at the churning of the ocean.
- Chinese · Nüwa props up the sky on the legs of the great turtle Ao.
The name America comes from Amerigo Vespucci, printed on Martin Waldseemüller's world map of 1507.
03The cultures
Nine great cultures, one continent.
Turtle Island
Anowara:kowa, the Great Turtle · First Nations
Clovis culture (c. 13,000 years ago)
- Three Sisters farming: maize, beans, squash
- Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace
Inuit Arctic
Inuit Nunangat · Kalaallit Nunaat
Arctic Small Tool tradition (c. 2500 BCE)
- Kayak and umiak
- Snow house (igluvijaq)
Anglo & Franco America
United States · Canada · Québec
Jamestown (1607) and Québec (1608)
- Written federal constitution (1787)
- Jazz, blues, rock and roll
Caribbean
Taíno · Kalinago · Afro-Caribbean
First island settlement (c. 6,000 years ago)
- Hammock, canoe, hurricane: Taíno words
- Son cubano, salsa, reggae, calypso
Andes
Tawantinsuyu
Caral-Supe, oldest city of the Americas (c. 3000 BCE)
- Potato and quinoa
- Khipu knotted records
Amazonia
Pindorama · the forest peoples
Caverna da Pedra Pintada (c. 11,000 years ago)
- Terra preta, made fertile soil
- Cassava and manioc
Atlantic Brazil
Tupi coast · Afro-Brazil
Tupi coast meets the Atlantic world (1500)
- Samba and bossa nova
- Capoeira
Southern Cone
Wallmapu · Paraguay · Río de la Plata
Monte Verde, Chile (c. 14,500 years ago)
- Tango
- Yerba mate
05The terms
Names of the land.
- Turtle Continent
- NEO term, 2026. The whole American continent, from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego and its islands, named after the turtle that carries the world in its creation stories.
- Turtle Island
- Name of North America in the creation stories of the Haudenosaunee, the Wyandot and other nations.
- Anowara:kowa
- Mohawk: the Great Turtle, the land of North America.
- Abya Yala
- Guna (Panama and Colombia): land in full maturity. Used today by original peoples across Central and South America for the whole continent.
- Anáhuac
- Nahuatl: the land by the waters; the Valley of Mexico and the world of the Mexica.
- Mesoamérica
- Cultural area from central Mexico to Central America: maize, the 260-day count, books of folded paper.
- Aridoamérica
- The dry north of Mexico and the American Southwest, joined to Mesoamérica by trade.
- Tawantinsuyu
- Quechua: the four parts together; the Andean state of the Inca.
- Pindorama
- Tupi: land of palm trees; a name for Brazil.
- Wallmapu
- Mapudungun: the land of the Mapuche, on both sides of the Andes.
- Kalaallit Nunaat
- Greenlandic: land of the Greenlanders.
How to cite · Sánchez González, José Fernando (2026). Turtle Continent [NEO term]. NEO Library. https://neolibrary.org/turtle-continent.html
References · "Naming of the Americas", Wikipedia. · "What's in a Name? America's First Name", Greenwich Historical Society. · Kirchhoff, Paul (1943). Mesoamérica. Acta Americana.