Long-Distance Interaction in Central Nicaragua: An Archaeological View on Local Practices and Globalizing Postclassic Trends

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.

Archaeological work on Greater Nicoya modeled perceived Postclassic changes in material culture by invoking foreign incursions and population displacement. At the eastern edges of Greater Nicoya, however, small-scale communities navigated the increasing flow of Mesoamerican cultural features through a social dynamic of active adaptation and participation in exchange networks beyond regional frontiers, rather than through patterns of migration and cultural homogenization. This paper presents results of multiyear investigations in central Nicaragua using recent work on globalization thinking in archaeology to show that this seemingly peripheral region took on an active role. Included herein are the import of pottery, innovation in vessel shapes following local materials and technical traditions, the adoption of specific culinary practices, the incorporation of obsidian in lithics repertoires, and the use of certain iconographic elements in rock art. In spite of this clear evidence of contact and trade, the relationships with Mesoamerica did not entail a fundamental transformation in local ways of making things and relating to the environment. Instead, the shifting interregional ties to southeastern Mesoamerica suggest that central Nicaraguan communities reimagined and reoriented objects and motifs, through a mix of adoption and adaptation, allowing a move beyond hypotheses of population displacements and ancient “Mexican” invasions.

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): 32619