Circulation of People, Things & Ideas: Practices of Mobility in the Upper Usumacinta Basin

Several lines of research in the Upper Usumacinta Basin have recently expanded what we know about its kingdoms and the changing relations with their surrounding regions in pre-Hispanic times. What has emerged from these studies is a highly geographical and politically fragmented landscape in which circulation of people, things and ideas was a highly politicized practice too. Furthermore, different historic periods witnessed different practices of mobility due to seasonality, regional alliances or conflicts, and boundaries which left traces in the archaeological and epigraphic record. The idea for this symposium originated from the need to address these practices from anthropological and archaeological perspectives bridging the divide between transport and social research. Specifically, what this symposium wants to discuss is how people, things and ideas circulated through this fragmented landscape and dissect the issue of transportation into three main questions: 1) How can archaeology ground the experience of moving through this landscape from a phenomenological, geographical and political perspective? 2) How did people organize movement in the Upper Usumacinta basin in terms of transport technologies and social organization? 3) What is the evidence for materials and ideas circulating in the Upper Usumacinta basin?