Mortuary Patterns of Regional Elites in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin of Western Mexico

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Perlstein Pollard ◽  
Laura Cahue
Keyword(s):  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
Elite Identity ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
And Control ◽  
Santa Maria ◽  
Tarascan State

Based primarily upon evidence from the site of Urichu in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin of Michoacán, we propose that changes in the burial practices of local elites document a transformation of these elites from highly ranked local chiefs into a socially stratified elite class associated with the emergence of the Tarascan state. Two distinctive mortuary patterns that represent the Classic-Epiclassic and Late Postclassic periods are presented. These patterns vary in the age and sex composition of differing mortuary facilities, the preparation and treatment of the bodies, the mortuary facilities, the types of burial goods, and the location of the burials within settlements. Comparison to mortuary practices from the sites of Loma Santa María (Morelia), Guadalupe (Zacapu Basin), Tingambato, and Tres Cerritos (Cuitzeo Basin) place these patterns in a regional context. By contrasting the earlier mortuary pattern, which is associated with societies poorly known, with the later mortuary pattern, which is associated with the well documented Tarascan empire, it is possible to propose a model of a transformation in regional political economies associated with the emergence of the Tarascan state in the Postclassic period. This transformation involved a shift in elite identity from one primarily associated with imported finished goods from distant powerful centers and control of prestige goods networks, to an identity primarily associated with locally produced, distinctively Tarascan, goods and control of tributary, military, political, and ideological networks.

TARASCAN CERAMIC PRODUCTION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CERAMIC DISTRIBUTION

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy J. Hirshman
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Ceramic Production ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Tarascan State

AbstractResearch on the emergence of social complexity and state economies tends toward an understanding of either political economies or market economies as the privileged economic form and with producer specialization emerging contemporaneously with the state. Markets and political control need not be seen as oppositional; rather, they are part of the continuum of multiple strategies elites use to create the larger political economy of a state. The Late Postclassic period Tarascan state is known for its strong centralizing tendencies, and an overview of previous research indicates political involvement in various aspects of the larger economic coordination of metal, obsidian, and agricultural production and distribution. Tarascan state ceramics are highly distinctive in form and decoration. Ethnohistoric evidence suggests that they were produced under court control, yet no direct evidence for ceramic production has been found in the Tarascan core, the Lake Patzcuaro Basin. A mix of compositional and statistical analyses of the ceramic assemblage from Urichu, Michoacan, Mexico, indicates that ceramics were not under centralized political control but, instead, were produced at a local level and distributed using the market mechanisms of the larger mixture of economic strategies on the part of the Tarascan political elite.

A TENTATIVE MODEL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF COPPER PRODUCTION IN THE TARASCAN STATE

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanca E. Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Copper Production ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Metal Production ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Tentative Model ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
State Industry ◽  
Tarascan State

AbstractAt the time of the Spanish conquest, the main locus of metal production in Mesoamerica was the Tarascan region of western Mexico. Scholars have argued that mining and metallurgy evolved into a state industry, as metal adornments used as insignias of social status and public ritual became closely associated with political control. In spite of its importance, however, Tarascan metallurgy is poorly documented. The extractive processes involved and the organization of the different aspects of this production are virtually unknown. Numerous questions arise from the notion that metal items functioned as wealth finance in the economy of the Tarascan state of Late Postclassic period Michoacan. Foremost among these is whether and how wealth was produced and controlled by the central power. This paper combines archaeological and ethnohistorical data to propose a model for pre-Hispanic copper production among the Tarascans. The goal of this analysis is to gain insights into the nature of metal production and its role in the major state apparatus. This will also provide clues to a better understanding of the development of technology and political economy in ancient Mesoamerica.

Central Places and Cities: A Consideration of the Protohistoric Tarascan State

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Perlstein Pollard
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Human Settlement ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Central Places ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
Urban Status ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Tarascan State

Systems of human settlement serve as primary sources of evidence for investigating variability in the evolution of complex societies. In particular, the existence of and nature of cities reveals much about the nature and direction of sociopolitical changes characteristic of prehistoric states. The present study places the analysis of prehistoric urbanism within the context of settlement system analyses and applies this approach to the protohistoric Tarascan state of western Mexico. This first synthesis of our knowledge of major Tarascan settlements evaluates the protohistoric communities at Tzintzuntzan, Ihuatzio, Pátzcuaro, and Erongarícuaro (within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin) and considers those outside the Tarascan core, especially Zacapu. This study suggests that the Tarascan state did not participate in the Central Mexican urban tradition, and that the historic capital, Tzintzuntzan, may have been unique in its urban status. Rather, the state was characterized by a complex and overlapping network of central places and specialized places. To the extent that this pattern diverges from other prehistoric systems it constitutes one source for understanding the diversity in the protohistoric Mesoamerican world.

A MODEL OF THE EMERGENCE OF THE TARASCAN STATE

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Perlstein Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Secondary State ◽  
Tarascan State

AbstractBya.d.1350, central-western Mexico was incorporated into the Tarascan state. Thisirechequa tzintzuntzani(kingdom of Tzintzuntzan) has been known primarily from sixteenth-century documents. With three decades of archaeological, ecological, and ethnohistoric research, it is now possible to propose a model of the emergence of the first archaic state in Michoacan. Critical issues to be addressed include (1) why state formation occurred (and why this form); (2) why even secondary state formation was “delayed” for more than a millennium; (3) why it occurred in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin; and (4) the role of Purepecha ethnicity in the process.

OBSIDIAN PRODUCTION AND CHANGING CONSUMPTION IN THE LAKE PATZCUARO BASIN, MICHOACAN, MEXICO

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin J. Rebnegger
Keyword(s):  
Source Location ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Secondary Administration ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Site Function ◽  
Small Tributary

AbstractMany Tarascan settlements surrounded Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacan, Mexico, during the Late Postclassic period. A hierarchy of settlements existed from the capital of Tzintzuntzan to secondary administration sites and small tributary communities. Obsidian artifacts from the large site, Erongaricuaro, have been studied by the author. Analysis of the obsidian from this site highlighted particular patterns in the production and consumption of prismatic blades and large scrapers. Data from another site, Urichu, was collected and analyzed more recently. Urichu was a tributary center to Erongaricuaro during the Tarascan empire. Local and state elites inhabited both sites, and analysis of obsidian manufacture indicates that the sites may have had different functions. Obsidian from the sites also varies by source location. This too may indicate site function and the changing sociopolitical organization of obsidian production and use throughout the Tarascan empire.

scholarly journals Aztec and Tlaxcalan Economic Interaction: Blockade or Interregional Exchange?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Bianca L. Gentil ◽  
A. Gabriel Vicencio Castellanos ◽  
Kenneth G. Hirth
Keyword(s):  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Lithic Tools ◽  
Economic Interaction ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Large Center ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of the Aztec Triple Alliance on trade and economic activity in the region of Puebla-Tlaxcala during the Late Postclassic period (AD 1200–1519). Ethnohistorical sources describe the Aztec Triple Alliance as constantly at war with settlements in the Tlaxcala region. To weaken their Tlaxcalteca rivals, the Aztecs imposed a trade blockade to reduce the flow of resources into Puebla-Tlaxcala. This article uses archaeological evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this blockade. It compares the types of obsidian used to manufacture lithic tools from Aztec-controlled sources with those used within Puebla-Tlaxcala. Information from the large center of Tepeticpac and the small obsidian workshop site of Cinco Santos II, both in the Tlaxcala domain, are compared to other sites in Central Mexico prior to and during the height of Aztec influence. The results show little difference in regional trade patterns: obsidian from Sierra de las Navajas and Otumba was used in proportions in the Tlaxcala region in the Late Postclassic similar to those used during earlier periods. If an embargo was attempted, it was largely unsuccessful in isolating Tlaxcala from broader regional distribution networks.

FILTH AND HEALING IN YUCATAN: INTERPRETING IX HUN AHAU, A MAYA GODDESS

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Interethnic Interaction

AbstractThis paper analyzes the roles and attributes of the Maya goddess Ix Hun Ahau, the female manifestation of Hun Ahau that appears in the Ritual of the Bacabs. This Colonial Yucatec text is our earliest surviving source for how Maya cosmology provided a framework for healing practices. Although the extant manuscript dates to the late eighteenth century, it is the culmination of centuries of interethnic interaction, including innovations emerging from the intellectual exchange that characterized Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic period (ca. A.D. 1200–1500). The accoutrements and activities ascribed to this goddess in the incantations identify her as a Maya parallel to Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina, the Nahua goddess of weaving, sexuality, pollution, and its purification. Pollution concepts and purification practices that are otherwise peripheral in the Ritual of the Bacabs are specifically related to Ix Hun Ahau, suggesting that early intellectual exchange between Mesoamerican peoples extended to medical cosmologies as well.

Migration of the Zoques to the Mountain Region of Tabasco, Mexico

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-232
Author(s):  
Eladio Terreros-Espinosa
Keyword(s):  
Mountain Region ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Exchange Network

The mountain region of Tabasco was a significant area in the interregional exchange network in pre-Hispanic times and during the colonial period. Additionally, the exchange of various regional products followed the intricate network of trade routes within the coastal plain and Chiapas. Therefore, the role played by the settlements of the Sierra Tabasqueña within the commercial chain that existed between pre-Hispanic times and the first half of the last century was undoubtedly reflected among these territories. Trade was an important part of the economy of the Zoque settlements established in the Tabasqueña mountain range. Linguistic evidence suggests that the Proto-Mixe-Zoque speakers from several centuries BC were among the first foreign groups to migrate to Tabasco, merging with the local inhabitants. The documents written by Spaniards in the first half of the 16th century state that the Province of the Sierra de Tabasqueña was occupied by Zoque-speaking inhabitants. Based on the analysis of pre-Hispanic pottery recovered in this region, a chronology can be proposed from the Early Preclassic to the Protoclassic period, continuing into the Late-Terminal-Classic through the Late-Postclassic period.

THE “LAND OF FISH”: RECONSTRUCTING THE ANCIENT AQUATIC LIFEWAY IN MICHOACÁN, WESTERN MEXICO

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Eduardo Williams
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Aquatic Environments ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Western Mexico ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Lake Patzcuaro Basin ◽  
Subsistence Activities ◽  
Aquatic Landscapes ◽  
Written Sources

Abstract This article deals with the cultural activities linked to subsistence in aquatic environments (fishing, hunting, gathering, and manufacture) in Michoacán from ca. a.d. 1540 to the present. First, I present an ethnohistorical account of aquatic landscapes and resources based on the major written sources from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Second, I discuss the extant ethnographic information about subsistence activities in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin (Michoacán) during the twentieth century. Finally, I discuss the archaeological implications of all the information presented here, through an ethnoarchaeological analysis of the subsistence strategies and the material culture associated with the aquatic lifeway in the study area. The main goal of this study is to provide bridging arguments for the reconstruction and interpretation (through analogy) of the archaeological assemblages associated with production and consumption activities in aquatic landscapes within the Tarascan region and elsewhere in Mesoamerica.

Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico, Postclassic Chronology

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Toby Evans ◽  
AnnCorinne Freter
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Absolute Dating

AbstractThe Postclassic period in central Mexico was characterized by enormous population growth and expansion of settlement, but the timing of the onset of these processes has been poorly understood. Obsidian tools from residential contexts at the Late Postclassic village of Cihuatecpan in the Teotihuacan Valley have been analyzed to determine the extent of hydration, and thus the amount of time elapsed since the tools were manufactured. Estimated dates of manufacture range betweena.d.1221 and 1568, consistent with ethnohistoric accounts of the timing of establishment of Cihuatecpan and other rural villages, and their abandonment in the Early Colonial period. Ceramics found in the same contexts as the obsidian tools include Black-on-orange types, such as III, which may have come into use in the thirteenth century. This experiment in relative and absolute dating accords with other current research, indicating a needed revision of traditional chronologies toward an earlier onset of major processes.

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