Crossing Boundaries: Interregional Interactions in Pre-Columbian Times

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Crossing Boundaries: Interregional Interactions in Pre-Columbian Times," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

International borders have influenced the way archaeology is being practiced and presented. The political boundaries of modern countries do not correspond with Pre-Columbian social or political boundaries. In Pre-Columbian times, landscape features were used to delimit cultural regions and were often used as places of communication and markets. Aside from material goods, ideas and words were frequently exchanged or borrowed. During the culture-historical period, archaeologists tried to make artifacts fit into categories and sometimes erroneously mislabeled artifacts to another culture region. Similarly, ideas and practices were ascribed to a larger category such as Teotihuacan, Olmec, Aztec, or Maya, making other lesser-known cultures invisible. This session aims to acknowledge the effects Western thought has had on Mesoamerican archaeology in an attempt to break down these barriers by discussing diverse culture regions. Considering Mesoamerica as a culture region would allow for the identification of similarities and differences in material culture, art, and iconography, cosmology and settlement patterns perhaps revealing cultural contacts and interactions. This session aims to open cross-cultural and international discussion about Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures and their interactions.