Mortuary practices in the Nejapa region of Oaxaca, Mexico

Summary

To date, we have documented or recovered the remains of over 15 individuals in the Nejapa region of Oaxaca. This paper summarizes these finds and takes a first step in comparing the mortuary practices of Nejapa to those in other regions of Oaxaca. Eight individuals were found buried nearby one another at the site of Majaltepec, an early Colonial period town in the mountains surrounding Nejapa. Morphoscopic dental analyses indicate the presence of at least 4 younger individuals between 15 and 21 years old, 3 infants, and 1 individual of undetermined age. Though poorly preserved, the burials provide us clear examples of early Colonial indigenous mortuary practices. Notably, residents of Majaltepec buried their dead below floors of buildings with grave offerings, similar to practices in Prehispanic Oaxaca. The persistence of these practices alongside Dominican presence and Catholicism suggests that there were limits to Spanish oversight. Prehispanic burials in Nejapa, by comparison, are uncommon in spite of extensive excavation. The lack of sub-floor burial in Nejapa, in particular, might signal a difference in identity between the Prehispanic residents of Nejapa and the residents of Majaltepec in the late sixteenth century.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Bioarchaeology of Oaxaca: Talking with the Dead from Southern Mexico   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage