Reevaluating Understudied Sources: A Comparison of Early Colonial Period Domestic Life in Mexico’s North-Central Yucatán

Summary

The domestic archaeology of Early Colonial period Yucatán, Mexico is well regarded as a melting pot of imported and local technologies, goods, and systems of belief. Evaluating domestic access to goods during the Early Colonial period is usually done by comparing the frequency between locally produced and imported wares. This type of comparison allows for preliminary insight into cultural breaks, and or, cultural continuity during the first few generations after European Contact. Although much archaeological household data exists from the comprehensive work at well-known sites with Early Colonial components, scholars have paid less attention to state controlled rescate and salvamento archaeological projects that surround Yucatán’s more frequently traveled highway corridors. By highlighting these rich and understudied archaeological resources, a greater synthesis of Early Colonial domestic life can be reevaluated when paired with an analysis of regional ethnohistorical documents. Synthesizing such archaeological and ethnohistorical material establishes clearer production, consumption, and distribution patterns of the Early Colonial Yucatán household.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage