The Toltec Diaspora as Political Action

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological chronologies and material-culture evidence indicate large-scale migrations of Nahua peoples to eastern Mesoamerica in the ninth and tenth centuries CE linked to the collapse of the Toltec state at Tula Chico in about 850 CE. This event marked the commencement of the Toltec diaspora—large-scale population movements out of the region of Tula and radiating south and east. These migrations involved identity politics associated with cultural construction, foregrounded in various contexts of social life. The material culture traits, landscape appropriation, and cultural traditions that facilitate the recognition of Nahua Pipil migrations in the archaeological record should be viewed in a broader context as markers of daily practices, social identities, and political differentiation among different groups of Pipil migrants in competition with each other as well as with Maya, Xinca, and Lenca groups of the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part II   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35831.0