Confronting Conflict in the Tequila Region: Spatial Configurations in a Bellicose Landscape

Summary

During the Late Postclassic, the Tequila region was home to multiple small, ethnically, and linguistically diverse polities, which both competed and cooperated with one another. This period was highly conflictive due to attempts by the Tarascan Empire to push its way into the valleys, wreaking havoc in several towns along the way. To the north, bellicose, nomadic groups were also a threat to Tequila’s population. Therefore, we hypothesize that Late Postclassic settlement patterns reflect this conflictive political milieu. We evaluate this hypothesis by investigating possible internal and external boundaries and how they relate to conflict. We also consider the degree to which the Tequila region’s geomorphology, which included valleys, mountains, canyons, and lakes, figured into boundary strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Local Responses to Regional Integration in Postclassic Mesoamerica

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15664