Between Mesoamerica and the US Southwest: Social Dynamics in the Guasave Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Guasave region in Northwest Mexico embodies a contested zone between Mesoamerica and the US Southwest. By AD 1100, the presence of the Aztatlan tradition —interpreted as the expansion of Mesoamerica into the NW, undeniably marks a period of social transformation and a dynamic phase of pan-regional reorganization. Models explaining the Aztatlan tradition in Guasave offer divergent interpretations: Guasave as a shatter zone of Mesoamerica, others as part of a US Southwest politico-economic system, and still others see it as a locally driven development with minimal external involvement. While models have revolved around pan-regional interaction dynamics and delineation of cultural areas, there has been only a nascent interest in the local scale to evaluate the transformations of the Huatabampo culture. Based on new spatial data, this poster presents the results of pilot sourcing and provenance analyses on Huatabampo plainwares and Aztatlan polychromes from the Lower Guasave River. These analyses offer insights into the reasons behind the Aztatlan tradition's presence in Northern Sinaloa and its broader pan-regional implications. This study fills a critical gap in regional literature, providing a nuanced understanding of the social organization of the Huatabampo culture and the influence of the Aztatlan tradition on the local cultural system.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53672