http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica

This page is very helpful about Central American history before european conquests.

"Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Spanish: Mesoamérica) is a region in the mid-latitudes of the Americas, namely the culture area within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[1][2][3] The culture area extends from central Honduras and northwestern Costa Rica on the south to, in Mexico, the Soto la Marina River in Tamaulipas and the Rio Fuerte in Sinaloa on the north. Prehistoric groups in this area are characterized by agricultural villages and large ceremonial and politico-religious capitals ^[4] This culture area included some of the most complex and advanced cultures of the Americas, including the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya, and the Aztec.^[5] These cultures developed complex sociopolitical systems, reached advanced technological, scientific, and mathematical levels, and participated in long-distance interaction networks that resulted in the transmission of interrelated ideas and ideology."

1) Complex sociopolitical systems

2) Advanced technological, scientific, mathematical levels

3) Ceremony and religious practices

4) Political-Religious capitals (Maya/Aztec societies)

5) Agricultural villages

Try reading the article though. Better examples provided.