Searching for the Big House: Ritual Spaces of the Sextin Valley, Durango, Mexico

Summary

Many archaeologists have recorded plazas, altars, and rock art in Durango's pre-Hispanic landscapes. These spaces are often characterized as settings for ritual activities. Nevertheless, few researchers have posited the kinds of activities that were carried out in these spaces. In this paper I analyze data from excavation of the sites of Corral de Piedra and Los Berros in the Sextin valley in northern Durango, Mexico. The materials, architecture and spatial distribution suggest a variety of different ritual actions that made these spaces meaningful to the agents that built these locales. I consider recent ethnographic work among contemporary groups in the region to illustrate the modern-day use of analogous spaces in search for meaningful interpretations of specialized features in the pre-Columbian past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Fairs, Feasting, and Ritual in Northern Mexican Contexts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16714