Material Culture and Technological Innovation in Colonial Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "After Cortés: Archaeological Legacies of the European Invasion in Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, quickly attracted the attention of the Spanish invaders in the Early Colonial period because of the valuable cacao produced in the area. Intensive trade brought long-distance merchants to Soconusco bringing trade goods to exchange for cacao, as had been the case in the Late Postclassic period. As a result, indigenous Soconusqueños acquired new materials such as glazed ceramics, metal tools, and glass objects, in greater quantities than was the case in areas that did not produce goods in demand on the larger Mesoamerican or international markets. New plants and animals also were introduced and became integral parts of local lifeways, and a range of new social institutions—religious, political, and economic—were imposed by the colonial regime. In this paper I focus principally on patterns of consumption and production of these new materials, and I consider how they may reflect sociocultural continuity and change. Additionally, I explore the lasting legacy of these patterns for postcolonial and contemporary Soconusco residents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• After Cortés: Archaeological Legacies of the European Invasion in Mesoamerica   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22978