Traveling to the Horned Serpent’s Home: Pilgrimages to Paquimé

Summary

In the 13th and 14th centuries, a new political and religious capital expanded its influence in the North American Southwest. This settlement, called Paquimé or Casas Grandes, was the focus of pilgrimages that reflected and reinforced the social dominance of the elites living at the community. However, caches of millions of ocean shell, instances of human sacrifice, and other aspects of the archaeological record indicate that Paquimé itself was likely considered a living entity that helped control access to water throughout the region. The pilgrimages consequently reflected and created a reciprocal relationship in which the settlement legitimized the elites living there while the elites reinforced and emphasized the sentient nature of the settlement. The resulting pattern is largely consistent with Southwestern and Mesoamerican perceptions of animated places where human and nonhuman beings negotiated complex relationships within the larger cosmological network. These animated locations were often the focus of pilgrimages, and included living communities, ancestral communities, natural features (e.g., the Zuni pilgrimages to the Salt Lake), and symbolic representations of the heavens.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Rethinking Archaeologies of Pilgrimage   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14322