Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In February, 1519, the conquest of Mexico began with the arrival of Hernán Cortés in Veracruz. This year marks the 500th year anniversary of that crucial moment in the history of the Americas. When the Spanish arrived, they found a land filled with complex political, economic, and religious structures. Shifting political alliances and imperial tribute systems, as well as long-distance trade networks facilitated high levels of migration and interaction throughout Mesoamerica and adjacent areas during the Late Postclassic period (1200-1521). Complex polytheistic religious structures varied from place to place, with some large cities serving as major pilgrimage centers. Perhaps the most critical aspect of the success of the Spanish conquest was the ability of Cortés and others to capitalize on existing inter-regional trade networks, political alliances and rivalries, and centralized religious systems. This symposium focuses on current research regarding the various economic, political, religious, and biological structures throughout the major regions of Mexico during the Late Postclassic period that contributed to a larger, multi-regional sphere of interaction. With the major changes accompanying the Spanish conquest, it is important to highlight the existing pre-contact structures in Mexico that were the result of thousands of years of cultural and biological evolution.

Other Keywords
Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Trade and exchange • Ceramic Analysis • Material Culture and Technology • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis • demography • Chronology • Survey • Mobility

Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) • North America (Continent) • Colima (State / Territory) • Michoacan (State / Territory) • Jalisco (State / Territory) • Nayarit (State / Territory) • Aguascalientes (State / Territory) • Guanajuato (State / Territory) • Hidalgo (State / Territory) • Queretaro (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Costumbres funerarias en la época del contacto en la Huasteca Potosina (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Estela Martínez. Guillermo Martinez Mora. Patricia Olga Hernandez. Adrián Velazquez.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El contexto funerario de una mujer adulta nos muestra que, dentro de las conductas funerarias presentes entre las élites de Tamtoc, era tradicional ataviar al individuo con lujosos bienes procedentes de muy diversas regiones. Las costumbres funerarias y el estudio sobre el origen de los objetos de...

  • A Few Considerations Regarding Jade Circulation during the Aztec Period (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Herve Monterrosa Desruelles.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It is well a known fact among researchers that the only confirmed jade deposits in Mesoamerica are found in the middle Motagua Valley in Guatemala. This gem’s brightest shades of green were the most appreciated among Mesoamerican people, yet, barely three hundred objects made with emerald green...

  • Implications of the Spanish Colonization in the Evolution of Dental Morphological Structure in Maya Populations from Yucatan (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrea Cucina.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dental morphology among the Prehispanic Maya population has been characterized by a certain degree of stability. Isolation-by-distance models do not fit well into Mesoamerican populations, due to a relatively homogeneous dental structure. This was true also in the Yucatan peninsula, despite the...

  • Ingredients for Resistance: Foodways in Prehispanic and Colonial Tlaxcallan (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Keitlyn Alcantara.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Known as the "traitors to Mexico" for their fateful alliance with the Spanish, the Tlaxcalteca are often denigrated in Aztec-influenced versions of Mexican history. In these accounts, Tlaxcallan’s alliance with the Spanish was assumed to be a sign of the population’s political and economic...

  • Offerings in the Yacatas: The Funerary Objects from Tzintzuntzan Burials (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emmanuel Gómez Ambríz. José Luis Punzo Díaz.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The most important city of The Tarascan Empire was Tzintzuntzan. The Yacatas, political and ceremonial center of this site, was explored in the first half of the 20th Century by Mexican scholars. Nevertheless, information about these excavations is not clear at all. For this reason, here we offer...

  • Population Structure in the Valley of Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Corey Ragsdale. Cathy Willermet. Heather Edgar.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cultural processes connected the various regions throughout Mesoamerica. Increased long-distance trade, political alliances, imperial conquest, and spread of religious ideology in the Valley of Mexico facilitated more migration over time. City nucleation to important economic, political, and...

  • Quiechapa: A Window into the History of the Sierra Sur (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex Badillo. Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Southern Mexico has been the site of many large-scale regional settlement pattern projects that have been instrumental in developing the regional histories that contribute to our understandings of the sociopolitical and economic climate that was encountered by the Spanish upon their arrival nearly...

  • Rural Exchange Networks in Postclassic Oaxaca (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Konwest.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1523, Spanish colonizers, alongside their native allies and African slaves, arrived in Nejapa to find people already relatively accustomed to the social upheaval brought about from foreign entries into their territories. During the Late Postclassic, Zapotec and Aztec armies had followed...

  • Unveiling the Artisan Secrets of the Lapidary Goods from the Great Temple of the Aztecs (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emiliano Melgar. Reyna Solís.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent studies have demonstrated that the cultural provenance and diversity of the goods found in the offerings from the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan are more complex than the archaeologists thought, overlapping their acquisition by tribute, exchange, war prizes, or looting. In the case of the...

  • Urban Landscapes in Late Postclassic Western Mesoamerica: A View from Angamuco, Michoacán (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Cohen.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When Cristóbal de Olid arrived in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán c. 1522 CE, he encountered the powerful king (irecha) of the Purépecha (Tarascan) Empire who controlled approximately 75,000 km2 of western and central western Mesoamerica. Never defeated by the Mexica, the Late Postclassic (1350-1530 CE)...

  • What the Spanish Brought with Them: Phenetic Complexity of the Spanish Population at Contact (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Edgar. Cathy Willermet. Corey Ragsdale. Katelyn Rusk.

    This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Colonial contact in Mexico brought together populations from diverse regions of the world – Europe (especially Spain), Mexico, Africa, and eventually, Asia. While much attention has been focused on the contributions of these groups to the admixed population that resulted, this attention has...