Contacts before "Contact". Comments about the interaction between nomads and sedentary societies in Northern Mexico desert Highlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper presents an analysis of the contacts process between sedentary farmers and nomadic groups who inhabited the Mesoamerican Northern Frontier, before the XVI Century. Archaeological previous research suggested that villages standing on the northern mesoamerican frontier, were used as outposts for contain nomadic raiders. However, we lack of data for support such conceptions. Besides, other studies underestimate the capabilities of nomadic groups for promote extraregional contacts. The contact studies might help us in to get a better understanding of changes developed in northern frontiers societies during the classic and postclassic period. Some of the consequences could affect the hunter gatherers organizational composition, the mobility, and the adoption of storage technology, and ancillary crops. Here I present the result of a recent study carried out in the Zacatecas highland deserts. The research analyzed open air camps, sherds, sediments, starch grains, and landscape, with the aim to assess and contrast the ideas expressed before. We hope contribute to increase our knowledge about the effects of interaction in hunter gatherer societies in northern Mexico before the Contact with Spanish and European societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22959