It Was Not Always the Frontier: Multicultural Interaction between Isthmo-Colombian and Mesoamerican Peoples in Central Costa Rica

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Postclassic Mesoamerica: The View from the Southern Frontier" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Evidence for interregional exchange between Central Costa Rica and Greater Nicoya dates back to AD 300, and lasted until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century. Previous scholarship postulates that these regions were located in a changing boundary between Mesoamerican and Isthmo-Colombian peoples. While this may be true after AD 800 with the arrival of Mesoamerican migrants, previous social dynamics may have been of a different nature. Items were moving both ways pre-AD 800, but after AD 800 Greater Nicoya objects are more abundant in the Central Region, while Central Region objects are absent in Greater Nicoya. This is also a time for expanded interregional exchange, the construction of monumental architecture, and peer polity interaction marked by high status goods. Ethnohistorical accounts report a state of warfare, as Huetares from the Central Region and Chorotegas from Greater Nicoya were fearful warriors and enemies. We review the evidence for interregional exchange between both areas through time, and provide new data about the use and movement of exchange objects to evaluate models of interregional interaction. We also explore the volatile situation between regions that alternate economic relations with conflict, in a framework of multicultural interactions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Postclassic Mesoamerica: The View from the Southern Frontier

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33203