Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson

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 "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The vast region of northwestern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest is a rich and dynamic zone of both ancient and contemporary indigenous cultures. Its diversity in terms of both complexity and material culture have rendered it an especially fruitful region for addressing a range of pertinent anthropological issues, including social complexity, connectivity, and identity. For nearly four decades, Ben A. Nelson has dedicated his expertise to this region and its compelling issues, and has likewise encouraged generations of archaeologists in the careful study of ancient sites and landscapes both within the region and beyond. In this symposium, students and colleagues share their archaeological contributions in tribute to Dr. Ben Nelson’s broad influence and benevolent guidance as an archaeologist and mentor.

Other Keywords
Highland Mesoamerica: Classic • Zooarchaeology • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Ritual and Symbolism • Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic • Political economy • Teotihuacan • Chronology • Turquoise • Interaction

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United Mexican States (Country) • USA (Country) • Tamaulipas (State / Territory) • Colima (State / Territory) • Michoacan (State / Territory) • Sinaloa (State / Territory) • Jalisco (State / Territory) • Nayarit (State / Territory) • Aguascalientes (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-13 of 13)

  • Documents (13)
Documents
  • Canids in the Faunal and Iconographic Record at La Quemada: An Analysis from the Perspective of Huichol Ethnography (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nora Rodríguez Zariñán. Christopher W. Schwartz. Ben Nelson.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The presence of canids (members of the biological family Canidae, including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes) at the archaeological site of La Quemada in Zacatecas, Mexico has been established through multiple lines of evidence, including broad representation in...

  • Contacts before "Contact". Comments about the interaction between nomads and sedentary societies in Northern Mexico desert Highlands (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Juan Ignacio Macias Quintero.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents an analysis of the contacts process between sedentary farmers and nomadic groups who inhabited the Mesoamerican Northern Frontier, before the XVI Century. Archaeological previous research suggested that villages standing on the northern mesoamerican...

  • Contextualizing Ritual Violence: Kinship, Ethnicity, and Human Sacrifice in Epiclassic Central Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sofía Pacheco-Forés.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ritual violence has a long time-depth within Mesoamerica. While archaeologists and ethnohistorians have studied the political and cosmological significance of this practice extensively, less is understood about how or why particular individuals were targeted for...

  • The Contribution of Tree-Ring Studies to Archaeological Research in Northwestern Mesoamerica (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paula Turkon. Sturt Manning. Carol Griggs. Andrea Torvinen. Ben Nelson.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite more than fifty years of excellent archaeological research in Northwestern Mesoamerica, progress has been impeded by a lack of precise chronological controls to understand site developments and pinpoint the direction of political influence and cultural change....

  • Exploring the Role of Fire in Tarascan Ritual Contexts of the Zacapu Basin, Michoacan, Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Elliott. Grégory Pereira.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies of ritual activities often focus on paraphernalia, architectural structures, and other aspects of performance. While these are all important features, other more subtle elements that are nevertheless crucial to these activities are often not considered in...

  • Landscape Meaning and Materiality among the Indigenous Wixárika (Huichol) People of Jalisco, Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Loni Kantor.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Landscapes are more than just where people subsist: landscapes are inherently social entities. People create landscapes in their interactions with the environment and with each other; they conceptualize landscapes in various ways; they mediate their relationships with...

  • Reconstructing Past Environmental Landscapes in the Semi-arid Regions of North America Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Faunal Bones (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Somerville.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope values of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in animal bones are influenced by the environmental and climatic conditions present during the lifetime of the organisms. Stable isotope analysis of faunal bones thus permits the reconstruction of past environmental...

  • Social Identification and Collective Action at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (500-900 CE) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrea Torvinen.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the collective social identification framework, sustained collective action depends on the degree to which groups of individuals share networks of social interaction (i.e., relational identification) and recognize membership in the same social categories...

  • The Social Use and Value of Blue-Green Stone Mosaics at Sites within Canal System 2, Phoenix Basin, Hohokam Regional System (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lindsay Shepard. Will Russell. Christopher Schwartz. Robert Weiner.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (US SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Though many archaeologists have...

  • Then and Now: Conservative and Progressive Politics at the Mimbres Site of Swarts (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Will Russell. Sarah Klassen.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social inequality exists simultaneously in a number of domains, and can often be traced - or allegedly traced - to founding lineages. Antecedence is the demonstration of longevity in place and, therefore, claims to moral authority. In this paper, we explore the...

  • Uncovering a Globalized Past with the Connections Project: Highlighting challenges associated with exploring long-distance interaction between the Southwest US and Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brooke Hundtoft. Christopher W. Schwartz. Adrian Chase. Ben Nelson.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Connections Project is a long-term research venture focused on documenting material indicators of interregional interactions amongst people that inhabited an area ranging from the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) to Central America from 800-1540 CE . Data...

  • Urban Palimpsest Landscapes: Interpreting the Teotihuacan LiDAR map (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nawa Sugiyama. Tanya Catignani. Ariel Texis. Saburo Sugiyama.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With 54% of the world’s population living in urban zones, investigating the nature and impact of urban centers has never been more relevant. Archaeology’s unique ability to reconstruct prehistoric urban systems across the long dureé makes the Pre-Columbian metropolis of...

  • Violence and Veneration at the Edges: Mortuary Traditions and Social Order along the Northern and Southern Frontiers of Mesoamerica (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only E. Christian Wells. Claire Novotny. Anna C. Novotny.

    This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The northern and southern frontiers of Mesoamerica are about 2000 km apart and are separated by an incredible diversity of peoples and environments. Yet, these frontier spaces appear to be developmentally similar in many ways during the period ca. AD 500-1000, including...