Nayarit (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (439 Records)
To our minds the most interesting issue that emerges from juxtaposing the cosmologies of northern and central Mexico is the relationship between cosmology and social complexity. The regions were historically related and shared both broad structures many details of cosmology. Yet Central Mexican societies had undergone an urban transformation that the societies of northern and western Mexico had not experienced. In our view there are scale-dependent regularities in the material expression of...
Cosmologies of Ruins and Ruination: Infrastructures and the Anthropocene (2018)
Scientists debate the Anthropocene as a geological epoch. But as a cultural phenomenon, the Anthropocene is recent. And as a cultural phenomenon, the Anthropocene projects a cosmology across history. This paper specifically examines how this cosmology understands the materiality of infrastructures, the built substrate upon which networks of human and non-human worlds intersect and collide. I argue that this cosmology contrasts infrastructures of the recent past as dangerous and polluting against...
Cosmology in the New World
This project consists of articles written by members of Santa Fe Institute’s cosmology research group. Overall, the goal of this group is to understand the larger relationships between cosmology and society through a theoretically open-ended, comparative examination of the ancient American Southwest, Southeast, and Mesoamerica.
Coyolxauhqui’s Serpents (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Animal Symbolism in Postclassic Mesoamerica: Papers in Honor of Cecelia Klein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study focuses on questions about serpents and gender associations in Aztec art--questions raised by a ceramic fragment located in storage in the Brooklyn Museum. On it Coyolxauhqui, the enemy of the Aztecs’ supernatural patron, Huitzilopochtli, is depicted with two different types of imaginary serpents, a...
Creating the Pax Tolteca: Diversity, Autonomy, and Centralization from the Epiclassic to the Early Postclassic Periods in the Northern Basin of Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper studies the role that economic and ecological diversity plays in the establishment of communities, the maintenance of sociopolitical autonomy, and the centralization of regional state power. We focus on the transition from the Epiclassic period in the northern Basin of Mexico, a time...
Creolization and the Zapotec Diaspora: A Classic Period Zapo-Teotihuacano Settlement in Southern Hidalgo, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Crossing Boundaries: Interregional Interactions in Pre-Columbian Times" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will present the results of a multi-faceted research endeavor at the site of El Tesoro, Hidalgo, Mexico. Previous and recent research have shown that the Classic-period settlement at El Tesoro exhibited affiliations to both Teotihuacan and the Zapotec homeland in the Valley of Oaxaca and was likely related...
Culture Change and Shifting Populations in Central Northern Mexico (1982)
The present paper is a preliminary attempt to consider the history and processes of cultural contact of several now-extinct aboriginal groups that inhabited the area of centra northern Mexico during part of the Spanish Colonial period. While the general region comprises roughly the area south of the Rio Grande, east of the Florido River in Chihuahua, north of the town of Parras and the Laguna district (Torreon, Coahuila), and west of the modern highway that runs south from Piedras Negras to...
"A Curious Ambivalence": The Iconography of Long-Distance Trade Goods in Postclassic Mexico (2018)
The Postclassic Mexica maintained what Sophia and Michael Coe (2005) refer to as a "curious ambivalence" regarding cacao: despite its prevalence in everyday life as currency, the plant rarely appears in artistic programs and consumption was highly restricted via sumptuary laws that controlled social behavior. The visual scarcity of this crop extends into divine imagery – for instance, cacao remained an important aspect of Ek’ Chuah, the Postclassic Maya merchant god, but does not appear among...
Daily Life Rhythms of the Mexican Mountains: Narrating Milpa and Coffee Landscapes in Baxtla and Mixtla de Altamirano (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the Mesoamerican worldview, maize is synonymous with the body and represents the primary food of the human being, accompanied by a complex planting system known as milpa. Said system, we believe, celebrates the interrelation between the diversity of species, serving, in this way, as a metaphor to understand our social construction. In this metaphor,...
Damage on the Jicalán Viejo Complex by Land Use from 1970 to 2021: A Modern Mapping Assessment (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2003, a field survey at the site of Jicalán Viejo was carried out, inspired by ethnohistorical interpretations of the Lienzo of Jicalán, also known as Lienzo de Jucutacato. One of this site’s most outstanding...
A Dark Horse of the Early Postclassic: The Site of El Cerrito (Querétaro, Mexico) and Its Relationship to Chichen Itza and Tula (2018)
Ever since the first attempts to explain the close correspondences (in iconography, architecture, and writing) between Chichen Itza and Tula in the Early Postclassic it has been assumed that it was mainly between these two cities, sometimes even called "twin Tollans", that the extended and intense contact between Northern Yucatan and central Mexico took place. A tendency among Mesoamericanists not to look further to the north and west, to present states such as Guanajuato and Querétaro, have...
Decapitation and the Vulnerable Nature of Joints among the Aztecs (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prisoners of war were ritually killed by heart extraction and were often decapitated. Archaeologists at Templo Mayor found skulls with the first cervical vertebrae attached, indicating death by decapitation. Lethal weapons such as flint sacrificial knives were also found near decapitated...
Defining petrographic fabrics among regional wares at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (2018)
Situated in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico, the site of La Quemada was one of a series of polities that developed along the northern frontier of Mesoamerica during the Epiclassic period (A.D. 500-900). Widely distributed ceramic wares suggest interaction among northern frontier polities, but it remains unknown whether they are the product of widely recognized social categories (i.e., shared style) or direct, face-to-face interaction among individuals (i.e., shared composition)....
Defining the Urbanism of the Ancient Purépecha Site of Angamuco (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient Purépecha site of Angamuco located in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin of Michoacán, Mexico provides an unrivaled opportunity to study the urban tradition of the Purépecha prior to the formation of the empire in the late postclassic (1350 – 1520 CE). Previously, the understanding of Purépecha urbanism relied upon analysis of the imperial capital...
Desarrollo del sistema agrícola de terrazas en el Paisaje del sureste de la Cuenca de México (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Landscapes: Archaeological, Historic, and Ethnographic Perspectives from the New World / Paisajes: Perspectivas arqueológicas, históricas y etnográficas desde el Nuevo Mundo" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El uso de un enfoque con carácter holístico, como lo es el concepto de Paisaje, ha permitido una visión y análisis integral en el estudio de las características sobre uno de los sistemas agrícolas tradicionales más...
Diagnóstico, registro y conservación interdisciplinaria en el Occidente de México: El caso del Ixtépete, Jalisco (2019)
This is an abstract from the "La Restauración de Monumentos Prehispánicos en México: Principios, Práctica, y Visión al Futuro" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Esta ponencia abordará las distintas exploraciones e intervenciones realizadas en el sitio arqueológico del Ixtépete, Jalisco, a lo largo del siglo XX; mismas que, si bien permitieron entender las técnicas y etapas constructivas, así como la cronología del lugar y sus monumentos, también...
Diamonds in the Rough: What Do the Sculpture Fragments Discovered in the Teotihuacan Mapping Project/Ground Stone Collection Tell Us about the Social Organization of the City? (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of sculpture at Teotihuacan—as at many other sites—has traditionally focused on larger, more elaborate sculptures from civic-ceremonial contexts. As a result, less is known about the distribution, ubiquity, and diversity of the use of sculpture in other contexts and, specifically, what relation it has...
Dietary Evidence for the Timing and Diversity of Mesoamerican Turkey Husbandry (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the absence of morphological changes, clear genetic markers, and pen structures, the archaeological evidence for turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) husbandry and domestication in Mesoamerica relies primarily on identifying dietary shifts in ancient turkeys. As in the American Southwest, captive Mesoamerican turkeys exhibit greater consumption of maize than...
Differential Access and Socioeconomic Inequality at Teotihuacan (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I investigate patterns of social and spatial inequality at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Differential access to civic resources is a well-documented mechanism of socioeconomic differentiation in historic cities and can be measured by analyzing movement within the built environment. I measure differential access at...
Digging in Churches: Community Archaeology in Xaltocan, Mexico (2018)
Xaltocan has a thriving community and its people have a strong connection to their long history, although this was not always the case. Elizabeth Brumfiel pioneered community archaeology at Xaltocan almost 30 years ago and initiated a long process of collaborative archaeology that continues until this day. As a consequence of the close interaction between archaeologists and the community, the past has become a vehicle for the construction of local and national identity in Xaltocan. We will...
Dinámica cultural durante el Formativo Inferior y Medio en la Cuenca de México: Tlatilco y Tlapacoya (2018)
Dos de los sitios más relevantes en el Centro de México durante el Formativo Inferior y Medio fueron Tlatilco y Tlapacoya, los que presentan una gran riqueza cultural. Sin embargo, la relación entre ellos y la función que tuvieron en su época son grandes interrogantes que aún persisten; esta revaloración será abordada a través de la revisión y comparación de sus materiales arqueológicos (cerámica y figurillas), incluyendo los de otros sitios ubicados tanto dentro, como fuera de la Cuenca de...
Distribution Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics on the "Malpaís de Tacámbaro Site", La Garita Sector, Michoacán, México (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Regional and Intensive Site Survey: Case Studies from Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we will present the results of the geostatistical analysis of the ceramics recovered during the archaeological prospecting works at Malpaís de Tacámbaro site in the La Garita sector. This is a big settlement located on top of a volcanic flow in the municipality of Tacámbaro, the south central of Michoacán....
The Distribution and Characterization of Agricultural Terraces on Cerro de la Mesa Ahumada, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents preliminary results of ancient landscape modifications on Cerro de la Mesa Ahumada, a medium sized mountain between the northern Basin of Mexico and the southern Mezquital. Humans have used the hill at least since the Epiclassic period (ca. 600-900 CE) for human occupation, farming, or ranching. Terrace systems are located throughout the...
Divine Food and the Warriors of Curicaueri (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Tzintzuntzan, Capital of the Tarascan Empire: New Perspectives" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Tarascan cosmovision, feeding the gods daily, especially Curicaueri, was vital because it ensured that the world would continue to function; this food was the human sacrifice. At the foot of the platform, one of the most significant pieces of evidence of this act of surrender to the gods was found, where an enormous...
Domestic Life and Ceramic Consumption in Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tlajinga is the southernmost district of Teotihuacan, a cosmopolitan city that thrived in Central Mexico during the Classic period. Previous research done in this neighborhood includes surface collection associated with the Teotihuacan Mapping Project and the excavation of one compound, designated 33:S3W1 during...