[Aztlan] Mesoam. as culture area? Kirchhoff 1943+?

[ECOLING at aol.com]

Is there anything like an updated version of Paul Kirchhoff's 1943
"Mesoamerica" in _Acta Americana_ vol.1 pp.92-107 ??
Or more recent work in a similar vein, attempting to record culture
traits which more or less identify Mesoamerica as a "culture area",
but with more refined recognition of gradients etc.?

I'm aware that his classification of higher and simpler "cultivators"
is now questioned as ethnocentric.  Could more specific traits like a
particular shape of planting stick (Nahua "coa") and "chinampas" 
(raised-field agriculture) be substituted usefully? 

Has anyone analyzed which traits are probably ecosystem-dependent,
so that cross-cuts attempts to define culture areas?

I am aware of the publication in 
Sol Tax ed. 1952 _Heritage of Conquest_ pp.17-30
of a version of Kirchhoff's work, hope to get a look at that today.

In the meantime, I split Kirchhoff's column "Amazonian" into two,
one for his Andean-Amazonian, one for Amazonian other than that,
and assumed if unfootnoted by him that both areas display the trait.

A similar split could be made for Mesoamerica,
into perhaps Mayan (+???) and Other Mesoamerica,
has something like that been done usefully in any publications?

I will be very grateful for any assistance,
and will report the results within the year somewhere.

Best wishes,
Lloyd Anderson
Ecological Linguistics