Reassessing the Aztatlán World

Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica

Edited by Michael D. Mathiowetz, John M. D. Pohl

The Aztatlán tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudied and enigmatic cultural developments in the Americas. This volume presents a spectrum of interdisciplinary research into Aztatlán societies, combining innovative archaeological methods with historical and ethnographic investigations. The results offer significant revelations about west Mexico’s critical role in over a millennium of cultural interaction between Indigenous societies in northwest and northeast Mexico, the Greater U.S. Southwest, Mesoamerica, lower Central America, and beyond.

Volume contributors show how those responsible for the Aztatlán tradition were direct ancestors of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the Náayeri (Cora), Wixárika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former Aztatlán region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the Aztatlán tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.

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Michael D. Mathiowetz is a research specialist at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has published widely in Kiva, Journal of the Southwest, Journal of Archaeological Research, British Archaeological Reports, Dumbarton Oaks, El Colegio de Michoacán, and others.

John M. D. Pohl’s background in archaeology, art history, and media have taken him from feature film and television production to serving as a curator, writer, and designer for major museum exhibitions including “Sorcerers of the Fifth Heaven: Art and Ritual in Ancient Southern Mexico” for Princeton University and “Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico” for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art.

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Table of Contents:List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface

Introduction. Integrated Approaches to the Aztatlán Tradition: History, Scale, and New Directions by John M. D. Pohl and Michael D. Mathiowetz

Part I. What is Aztatlán?: A Historical Perspective
Chapter 1. The Current Status of the Aztatlán Phenomenon in Far Western Mexico: What? Where? and When?
Joseph B. Mountjoy

Part II. Local and Regional Viewpoints: Aztatlán Sociopolitical Organization and Complexity from Continental to Local Scales
Chapter 2. Coast-to-Coast: Evidence for Aztatlán Articulation in Supraregional Interaction Networks
Laura Solar Valverde
Chapter 3. Ritual Objects as Cultural Capital: A Comparison between the Mixtec-Zapotec, Aztatlán, and Casas Grandes Cultural Co-Traditions
John M. D. Pohl
Chapter 4. Social Organization in the Aztatlán Tradition (AD850 – 1350): The Sayula and Chapala Basins (Jalisco), a Case Study
Susana Ramírez Urrea
Chapter 5. San Felipe Aztatán: An Aztatlán Political and Ceremonial Center in the Lower Basin of the Río Acaponeta, Nayarit
Mauricio Garduño Ambriz
Chapter 6. Not All that Glitters is Aztatlán Ceramics: The Development of Complex Societies in Southern Sinaloa
Luis Alfonso Grave Tirado
Chapter 7. Was There a Coastal Colony in the Eastern Valleys of Durango?: Notes on Aztatlán-Chalchihuites Interaction
Cinthya Isabel Vidal Aldana
Chapter 8. Interaction and Integration on the Northern Aztatlán Frontier in Sinaloa
John P. Carpenter and Guadalupe Sánchez
Chapter 9. Selective Influence of West Mexico Cultural Traditions in the Ónavas Valley, Sonora, Mexico
Cristina García Moreno, James T. Watson, and Danielle Phelps

Part III. Technologies, Economies, and Trade in the Aztatlán Region and Beyond
Chapter 10. Obsidian Usage and Trade in Postclassic West Mexico
Daniel E. Pierce
Chapter 11. A Spatial and Temporal Comparative Analysis of Metal Objects from Michoacán to the Greater Southwest
José Luis Punzo Díaz and Lissandra González

Part IV. Aztatlán Religion, Ritual Practice, and Worldview: The Archaeological Past and Continuities in the Ethnographic Present
Chapter 12. Funerary Practices during the Epiclassic and Postclassic: La Pitayera, Nayarit
José Carlos Beltrán Medina, María de Lourdes González Barajas, Jorge Arturo Talavera González, and Juan Jorge Morales Monroy
Chapter 13. A World Within the World: Portraiture Effigy Bowls and Cargo Systems in Mitote Cycles of the Aztatlán Culture
Michael D. Mathiowetz
Chapter 14. The Flowering World of the Gran Nayar: An Ethnographic Approach for Conceptualizing Political Legitimacy in the Aztatlán World
Philip E. Coyle

Part V. Concluding Thoughts and New Directions
Chapter 15. Discussion: The Three Transitions of Aztatlán
Christopher S. Beekman

References Cited
Contributors
Index