Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dylan Clark.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerican ports were not only settings for exchange but also communities with residential populations and dynamic shared identities that contributed to both coastal and inland cultural landscapes. Ancient ports commonly incorporated a variety of sacred architecture and symbolism to accommodate visitors from distant...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maia Dedrick.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As famously outlined by historian Nancy Farriss, mobility was an important survival strategy for Indigenous peoples of the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico throughout the colonial period. During the middle colonial period and beyond, a tension existed between mobility and emplacement, as demonstrated when entire communities...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Judith Maxwell.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mayan communities are located within sacred space. Each town has four principal guardians roughly aligned with cardinal directions and, in precontact times, a central altar. Each of the guardians is associated with a landmark (an escarpment, a cave/overhang, a spring or stream, a mountain) and embodies the energy of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rani Alexander.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I examine the postcolonial social transformations of Yucatec-speaking communities located southwest of Valladolid, Yucatán, occasioned by the Caste War (1847–1901), a violent rebellion and revitalization movement intricately related to processes of decolonization following Independence. How did Native...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ronald Faulseit.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Throughout its prehispanic occupation, Dainzú played a significant ceremonial role in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico. In the Formative period (200 BCE–CE 200), prominent terrain features were intentionally incorporated into the settlement’s design with the intent of making a shared place through ritual practice. For...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Josuhé Lozada. Joel Palka. Fabiola Sánchez.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mirador Mountain, or Chak Aktun for contemporary Lacandon Maya, dominates the landscape at Lake Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico. The mountain, which has a natural red stain on its east side, rises from an island. Late Preclassic Maya (ca. 200 BCE–200 CE) created temples, platforms, and plazas on the island Mountain for an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob Welch.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Classic period, ancient excavators at an elite residence at Ucanha, Yucatan, Mexico, broke through several stucco floors and peeled away rocky fill before partially exposing two earlier buildings dating back to the Late Preclassic. Centuries separated the initial burial of these Preclassic buildings and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Franco Rossi. Heather Hurst.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2010, archaeologists of the San Bartolo-Xultun Project began investigations of an acropolis complex located at the northern limit of the urban center of Xultun, designated "Los Arboles." The penultimate phase of the complex, dating to the Early Classic period (likely fifth century AD), included extensive preserved...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Allen Christenson.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Throughout the highlands of Guatemala, Maya traditionalists believe that mountains and their associated cave openings are the “mouths of the world” giving access to spiritual realms inhabited by sacred beings that have influence over natural phenomena of importance to the outside world. Each of these caves or watery...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christine Hernandez.

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the special collections of the Latin American Library at Tulane University is a tracing made by William Spratling of an original *lienzo map centered on the town of Noxtepec, Guerrero. Painted by a *tlacuilo, the *lienzo likely dates to the end of the sixteenth century. This little-known piece exemplifies the...