Fairs, Feasting, and Ritual in Northern Mexican Contexts
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
Gatherings for ceremonies, pilgrimages, and commemorations have always formed an integral part of the lives of folks that lived in the various landscapes of northern Mexico. In this session, we consider ritual settings in several different social and temporal contexts that span from preHispanic sites of different scales in the modern day states of Durango and Zacatecas, civic and religious celebrations in colonial Nueva Vizcaya, celebrations in a 19th century mining village, and the yearly journey to the beach by folks in northern Sonora. For each setting, we consider the relationships between material culture, the locales and the activities that make these gatherings both special and an integral part of the processes involved in identity creation and regional integration combining ethnographic analogy, historical research, interviews and ethnography with traditional archaeological method.
Other Keywords
Historic •
Ethnography •
Architecture •
Mining •
Ritual •
Ethnographic Analogy •
Landscape •
Ceramic Petrography •
Communities of Practice •
Sonora
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Colorado (State / Territory) •
Utah (State / Territory) •
North America - Southwest •
USA (Country) •
Mesoamerica •
United Mexican States (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)
- Documents (5)
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Celebration and the mining way of life in Magistral del Oro Durango (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
In this paper I present the historic and archaeological records, of social gatherings that formed an integral part of the mining way of life and the material culture that represents it. The study is focused on the town of Magistral del Oro, Durango in northern Mexico. This region was forged by mining activity in colonial times. Though the village today has been largely abandoned, traces of both labor and domestic areas still remain. Furthermore, photographs and interviews with people who worked...
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Establishing the nature and scale of ritual behavior at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The northern frontier region of Mesoamerica is partially defined by its ceramic traditions (i.e., red-on-buff, incised-engraved, and resist); however, observed variation in the types belonging to decorated wares suggests these types are likely local materializations of a regional ideology. Testing this hypothesis requires first determining the provenance of decorated ceramics recovered from a northern frontier site and then exploring the intrasite distribution of local and nonlocal ceramics...
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La Feria Colonial: flow and exchange of products in the Nueva Vizcaya in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The trade network in the colonial era formed a great circuit that used communication paths. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was used to transport the products sold through fairs that were established at strategic points in the New Spain. Kingdoms away as was the Nueva Vizcaya had people who used to travel these roads annually to bring their products and other materials to get points not only of the New Spain, but also from Spain and the Philippines. The circuit of fairs and marked trails around...
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Searching for the Big House: Ritual Spaces of the Sextin Valley, Durango, Mexico (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Many archaeologists have recorded plazas, altars, and rock art in Durango's pre-Hispanic landscapes. These spaces are often characterized as settings for ritual activities. Nevertheless, few researchers have posited the kinds of activities that were carried out in these spaces. In this paper I analyze data from excavation of the sites of Corral de Piedra and Los Berros in the Sextin valley in northern Durango, Mexico. The materials, architecture and spatial distribution suggest a variety of...
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When the desert meets the sea: the annual journey of quitovaquenses to the San Jorge beach as a community of practice (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This paper presents an ethnographic account of the people of Quitovac, Sonoras yearly journey to the sea. The village is set amidst the Altar desert. Every year the people of this town take a trip to the Sea of Cortés and make the shore a very special place. I present this account from the perspective of communities of practice emphasizing how the activities they undertake are the result of a continual interaction between people and places and between the distinct actors present. I also take...