Weaving Our Life: The Economy and Ideology of Cotton in Postclassic West Mexico

Summary

West Mexican archaeologists long have noted that around AD 900 the material culture record in this broad region exhibits a pronounced increase in the presence of modeled ceramic spindle whorls, particularly along the Pacific coastal plain of Nayarit and south-central Sinaloa. Although limited evidence of cotton in this region is present in the Classic period, the heightened cotton cultivation and consumption that seemed to accompany the dramatic social transformations in the Aztatlán culture during the Postclassic period suggests that there were important political, social, economic, and ideological ramifications tied to its production and use. This presentation examines the ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological data on cotton cultivation, trade, and ritual use in order to better understand how this domesticated plant was valued by Aztatlán societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Connections and Complexity: Shifting Perspectives and Current Research in Western Mesoamerica

Keywords

Spatial Coverage