Prehispanic Northwest and Adjacent West Mexico, 1200 B.C.–A.D. 1400: An Inter-Regional Perspective

Abstract

Northwest Mexico and West Mexico include four to five times as many named cultural areas equivalent to those known in the US Southwest, all with independent yet also connected histories. Together these changing cultures formed the bridge that connected the US Southwest with Mesoamerica. We review some aspects of regional diversity and moments of inter-regional relations, beginning with early agriculture and sedentism in the north. We trace the northward spread of rising regional centers and the appearance of some of the tangible elements of connection. This review shows that specialized production was more sparsely distributed than archaeologists once thought. Cultural identities were gained and lost; yet material connections persisted, and with the advances of past decades archaeologists can better characterize their occurrences, if not yet the mechanisms that produced those connections.El Noroeste y el Occidente de México incluyen cuatro o cinco veces más áreas culturales equivalentes a los que se conocen en el Suroeste de los EUA, por ejemplo Hohokam; todas independientes pero interconectas entre sí. El conjunto de estas culturas ha formado el puente que interconectó Mesoamérica con el Suroeste de los EUA. Aquí revisamos aspectos de la diversidad cultural así como los intercambios inter-regionales, iniciando con surgimiento de la agricultura, centrándonos en el desarrollo de centros regionales y los elementos tangibles que los conectan. Esta revisión nos muestra que la producción especializada fue más escasamente distribuida de lo que los arqueólogos alguna vez pensaron. Las identidades culturales de estos pueblos se consolidaron y se perdieron en el tiempo. obstante las conexiones persistieron. El avance en las investigaciones arqueológicas de las últimas décadas nos permiten caracterizarlas de mejor manera, sin embargo entender los mecanismos que las produjeron es aún una tarea por hacer.

A Comparison of Mortuary Practices among the Tucson Basin Hohokam and Trincheras Traditions

“…The Cerro de Trincheras site was a large settlement occupying over 900 terraces that supported habitation structures, craft workshops, ritual performances, and social gatherings (McGuire and Villalpando C. 2007, 2015; Watson et al 2015). Occupied from AD 1300 to 1450, the site was contemporaneous with similar cerros de trincheras –type sites in other portions of northwest Mexico and the southwest United States (Downum et al 1994; Fish and Fish 2004, 2007; McGuire 1980; McGuire and Villalpando C. 2015; Nelson et al 2015). These cerros de trincheras sites crosscut several archaeological traditions of the Greater Southwest, including the Hohokam, Trincheras, Rio Sonora, and Casas Grandes traditions (McGuire and Villalpando C. 2011).…”

“…The present research compares mortuary practices among the Tucson Basin Hohokam of southern Arizona during the Classic period (AD 1150–1450) to those of the residents of the Cerro de Trincheras site in northern Sonora, Mexico, which was occupied from approximately AD 1300 to 1450 (Figure 1). In this article, I focus on two main questions: What does the treatment of the dead tell us about social interactions on a broader regional level between these two regions? What do cremation funerals tell us about broader aspects of ideologies related to personhood and embodiment? The connections between the southwest United States and northern Mexico have long been an important research inquiry in archaeology (Haury 1945; McGuire 1980; McGuire and Villalpando C. 2011, 2015; Nelson et al 2015). Both the Trincheras and Hohokam traditions of the Sonoran Desert constructed shallow pithouses, made shell jewelry, practiced irrigation agriculture, and cremated their dead (McGuire and Villalpando C. 2011).…”

Pachuca Obsidian Blades from the U.S. Southwest: Implications for Mesoamerican Connections and Coronado's Mexican Indian Allies

“…People in the SW/NW interacted with and acquired objects from Mesoamerica before the 900s (Vokes and Gregory 2007). There is more evidence, however, for interaction and trade after 900 because this was when the SW/NW “snapped together with Mesoamerica” (Nelson et al 2015:47; see also McGuire 2011:33–39). Consequently, we suggest that Mesoamerican obsidian should have entered the SW/NW during this time.…”

“…Instead of Central Mexico, where the Pachuca source is located, most objects from Mesoamerica that the SW/NW obtained came from West Mexico (Mathiowetz 2019; McGuire 2011; Nelson 2006; VanPool et al 2008; Vargas 1995). Archaeologists often consider West Mexico to be a peripheral region to Central Mexico, and more work needs to be conducted on the relationships between the SW/NW and West Mexico (Nelson et al 2015). People in West Mexico, however, became “Mesoamericanized” around 900, when the Aztatlán tradition developed (Foster 1999; Kelley 2000; Riley 2005).…”

Mesoamerican Antecedents of Sikyatki-Style Geometric Patterns on Textiles Depicted in Murals from the American Southwest

“…From the perspective of Mesoamerica, the Sikyatki style appears to result from amalgamation and adaptation of many styles from multiple sources: the Central Valley, Cholula, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the West Coast. Trade and interaction networks that flourished between core states and periphery centers during the Classic and Postclassic provided the routes along which decorative ideas flowed (Foster 1999; Jimenez Betts 2017; Mathiowetz 2011; Nelson et al 2015; Pohl 2003). During the hegemony of Teotihuacan, people, goods, and ideas moved from the central valley into west Mexican highland and coastal centers and even further north (Carot and Hers 2011).…”