A method of reconstructing pre-Columbian political boundaries in Central Mexico

Using measures of cost distance in the estimation of polity boundaries in the Postclassic Yautepec valley, Mexico

“…Ethnohistorical sources are of decreasing value with increasing chronological distance into the past and none refer to polities or events prior to the arrival of the Tlahuica into Morelos. None the less, early colonial documents are useful in the identification of centers in many areas, especially in the context of political geographic reconstruction [29,44,75]. In many cases large sites are near colonial or modern towns that often share the same name.…”

“…Political geography has been used in a variety of areas such as the Greek Mediterranean [66], and Latin America [30,44,75]. Peter Gerhard conducted the most extensive reconstruction of Mesoamerican political geography by using early Colonial census documents and Spanish administrative sources [29,30]. Recently, several investigators have reconstructed political territories for smaller regions by relying on similar documents [44,75].…”

A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre

“…Peter Gerhard's (1972) massive survey, based on extensive archival research, is the most complete study of this type. He also published a methodological paper on the reconstruction of city-state territories in Morelos (Gerhard [1970]), a study that was later incorporated into my own analysis of Morelos city-states (Smith [1994]). Frances Berdan and I analyzed local territorial organization in the outer provinces of the Aztec empire using a range of published administrative documents (Berdan et al [I9961 Appendix 4).…”

“…2). My own research in Morelos is also represented (Smith [1994]; Gerhard [1970]); the major polities included here are Cuauhnahuac, Yautepec, Huaxtepec, and Yacapitztlan. The Morelos city-states are smaller in both area and population than their counterparts in the Valley of Mexico.…”

Aztec-Period Political and Economic Organization of Western Morelos, Mexico

“…Gerhard (1970, 1975) and Smith (1983, 1994a) identified 27 towns within the limits of the Mexica tribute province of Cuauhnahuac, although only 16 of these towns are reported as tributaries of the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan. They assumed that each town was the capital of a small city-state ( altepetl in Nahuatl; plural altepeme ) headed by a ruler or tlatoani before and during the era of Aztec rule (Cline 1993:17).…”