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

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.