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Falagonia mexicana is an aleocharine distributed from northern Mexico to Guatemala and El Salvador. It is associated with Atta mexicana ants and lives within their piles of waste or external debris. The phylogeography and historical demography of 18 populations from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador were studied. The data set encompasses a 472 bp fragment of the COI. Results suggest that F. mexicana was originated during Middle Pliocene (ca. 0.5 Mya), starting its diversification at the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene. Populations were recovered forming at least four main lineages, with a significant phylogeographic structure. Evidence of contemporary restricted gene flow was found among populations. The historical demography suggests that the geographic structure is due to recent physical barriers (e.g., Isthmus of Tehuantepec) rather than ancient geological events. Also, recent geological and volcanic events in the east of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Sierra Madre Oriental might be responsible for the restricted gene flow among populations. Skyline-plot analyses suggested that a demographic expansion event took place at the end of the Late Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles.

Pointing with the chin is a practice attested worldwide: it is an effective and highly recognizable device for re-orienting the attention of the addressee. For the chin point to be observed, the addressee must attend carefully to the movements of the sender’s head. This demand comes into conflict with the politeness norms of many cultures, since these often require conversationalists to avoid meeting the gaze of their interlocutor, and can require them to look away from their interlocutor’s face and head. In this paper we explore how the chin point is successfully used in just such a culture, among the Chatino indigenous group of Oaxaca, Mexico. We analyze interactions between multiple dyads of Chatino speakers, examining how senders invite visual attention to the pointing gesture, and how addressees signal that attention, while both participants avoid stretches of mutual gaze. We find that in the Chatino context, the senior (or higher-status) party to the conversation is highly consistent in training their gaze away from their interlocutor. This allows their interlocutor to give visual attention to their face without the risk of meeting the gaze of a higher-status sender, and facilitates close attention to head movements including the chin point.Abstracts in Spanish and Quiahije Chatino are published as appendices.Se incluyen como apéndices resúmenes en español y en el chatino de San Juan Quiahije.SonG ktyiC reC inH, ngyaqC skaE ktyiC noE ndaH sonB naF ngaJ noI ngyaqC loE ktyiC reC, ngyaqC ranF chaqE xlyaK qoE chaqF jnyaJ noA ndywiqA renqA KchinA KyqyaC.

The lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin contains one of the richest biodiversity landscapes of the Maya region. Our research is based on (1) an integrative literature review of the geomorphological and archaeological papers published about the lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin and (2) topographic analysis of digital elevation models using a geographical information system to explore the relationship between past human settlement and landscape accessibility along the coastal plain of Tabasco. This work provides a new synthesis of previous research and proposes new models for the geomorphic evolution of the lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin in the context of four millennia of human land use and settlement. For the evolution of the strand-plain of the Usumacinta and Grijalva rivers, there are two published geochronological models that provide different chronologies. We discuss here how both geochronological models encompass Pre-Columbian human settlement in the delta. Interestingly, we notice that one of them overlaps a possible high-magnitude flood event (or events) that drove large geomorphic change around 750 CE (1200 BP), with implications for settlement patterns and chronology. Based on topographical analysis of the eastern-distal sector of the Usumacinta–Grijalva delta, we propose a new model for the evolution of this area with implications for the human occupation during the Mesoamerican Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic on the delta. As one of the main conclusions, we propose that the Pom–Atasta water bodies predate much of the Usumacinta–Grijalva delta and the most recent phase of delta building overlays the original lagoon barriers, resulting in a geomorphic setting more attractive to local human occupation after the Terminal Classic period. According to one of the geochronological models of the delta, this dates to ca. 900 CE, preceding the establishment of nearby settlements such as Atasta.

This article takes the community of San Miguel Achiutla, located in the Mixtec highlands of Oaxaca, as a case study through which to examine the complex involvements of Indigenous pueblos de indios of Mexico in the early modern dynamics of globalization. Drawing from both ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence, this analysis shows not only how residents of this community were affected by forces of globalization as they appropriated new goods and ideas from across the Pacific and Atlantic, but also how they played an active economic role in driving colonial expansion during the sixteenth century, particularly through the silk trade. In tracing these connections, we see how locally focused microhistories can shed light on aspects of early modern globalization that we might not otherwise attend to.

The National Liberation Zapatista Army (Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional, EZLN) was formed in 1983 from the National Liberation Forces (Fuerzas de Liberacion Nacional, FLN), a subversive organization formed in the late 1960s in northern Mexico, inspired by the Cuban revolution. FLN set up a guerrilla movement whose aim was the spread of socialism in Mexico. However, FLN was virtually wiped out by the federal Government in the early 1970s. Former members of the FLN managed to regroup and settle in the southeastern state of Chiapas in 1983, mainly along the hilly region of Los Altos, in the northern area of the state in the Lacandon jungle, where they pursued similar goals to those of the late FLN and created EZLN, a grassroots-based organization. With this organizational base, EZLN was able to expand its ranks and lead the 1994 armed rebellion. Keywords: ethnicity and culture; political sociology; community; conflict; cultural diversity; Mexico; Mesoamerica

Se realizó un análisis filogenético preliminar, con secuencias de los espaciadores internos transcritos del rDNA (nrITS) nrITS, apoyando la ubicación de Muellera como entidad monofilética, hermana del género Dahlstedtia, siendo ambos grupos hermanos de Lonchocarpus. Se estudiaron 13 especies de Muellera de Mesoamérica y norte de Sudamérica; se hacen tres cambios nomenclaturales de Lonchocarpus a Muellera; se describen tres especies nuevas para la ciencia: Muellera amazonica, M. burkartii y M. chocoensis. Además se describen e ilustran a M. frutescens, M. tubicalyx y M. unifoliolata y se presenta una clave dicotómica para contrastar las diferencias entre los componentes reconocidos del género.

This paper presents the results of a study on the quadruple flutes (multiple pipes) from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre of Teotihuacan, Mexico, based on a thorough examination of the fragmented, restored and partly reconstructed archaeological finds and the manufacture and subsequent test of a series of playable reproductions with a refined reconstructive design. For the latter, organological features, such as the diameter, number and position of the fingerholes/tone holes and the length of the individual pipes of the restored finds are challenged and a new design is proposed that might be closer to the original construction of the Teotihuacan instruments. The study reveals a better understanding of the particular construction, acoustics and musical possibilities of the Teotihuacan quadruple flutes.

In the era of Big Data, Latin American countries and biomes remain underrepresented. To remediate this issue, promoting repositories for biodiversity data focused on Latin America is a main priority. VegAndes -Dpt the vegetation database for the Latin American highlands (GIVD: SA-00-005), is a novel dataset for georeferenced and standardized information on vascular pants in the region. The database compiles 5,340 vegetation plots sampled above the montane treeline and below the permanent snowline in 11 Latin American countries and spanning over seven decades. VegAndes currently encompasses 5,804 taxon names, corresponding to 3,858 accepted names, as well as 136 syntaxon names. The database is nested within a scientific consortium of Latin American experts on highland vegetation and piloted from the University of the Andes (Colombia). Because the VegAndes data can support multi-scale studies in botany, ecology and biogeography, the database makes an essential contribution to biodiversity research and management perspectives in Latin America. Taxonomic reference: TROPICOS (preferential source, www.tropicos.org/), World Flora Online (secondary source, www.worldfloraonline.org/).

We document the first verifiable records of Claudius angustatus Cope, 1865 in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico. Three individuals were observed in different types of anthropic land covers. These records are the most recent observations of C. angustatus in the southeastern zone of its range in more than 20 years, thus representing the southernmost known occurrences of this species. With these records we confirm the long-suspected presence of C. angustatus in the region, increasing the number of reptile species in the Selva Lacandona to 91.

The obsidian mirror associated with the Elizabethan polymath and magus John Dee (1527–1608/1609) has been an object of fascination for centuries. The mirror, however, has a deeper history as an Aztec artefact brought to Europe soon after the Spanish conquest. The authors present the results of new geochemical analysis, and explore its history and changing cultural context to provide insights into its meaning during a period in which entirely new world views were emerging. The biography of the mirror demonstrates how a complex cultural history underpins an iconic object. The study highlights the value of new compositional analyses of museum objects for the reinterpretation of historically significant material culture.

espanolLa medicina nahuatl tenia un notable desarrollo en la Mesoamerica prehispanica. El concepto de salud y enfermedad era diferente al que en el siglo XVI prevalecia en Europa e incluia conceptos de magia, religion, empleo de recursos fisicos, de animales, de minerales y, muy destacadamente, de la herbolaria. El medico nahua (ticitl) no utilizaba estos recursos en forma aislada sino de manera complementaria de acuerdo con las caracteristicas de cada paciente. Los medicos compartian conocimientos generales comunes, pero habia diferencias entre los que vivian en las zonas rurales, los de la ciudad y los medicos-sacerdotes. En los anos que siguieron a las guerras de conquista se hicieron esfuerzos para recopilar las caracteristicas de la medicina en Mesoamerica. Algunos de estos trabajos, no los unicos, son el Codice De la Cruz-Badiano, el Codice Florentino o Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva Espana y el Codice Francisco Hernandez. Se llevo a cabo una revision de estos codices y de la literatura reciente referente a la practica medica nahuatl con enfasis en la herbolaria como recurso terapeutico para los padecimientos reumatologicos en el siglo XVI, en los territorios que ahora conocemos como Mexico. EnglishNahuatl medicine was remarkably advanced in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Thoughts on health and disease were different to those prevalent in Europe in the sixteenth century because they included magic, religion and different kinds of animal, mineral and, notably, herbal medicine. These resources were used in a supplementary, not isolated, way by Nahua physicians (ticitl) according to patients’ needs and beliefs. Most Nahua physicians had similar knowledge but there were some differences between rural and urban areas, and those who were also doctor-priests of a particular deity. After the European colonization of Mesoamerica, great efforts were made by Spaniards and Indians to recover the immense amount of ancient knowledge in Mesoamerica related to medicine. Some of this work, not all, is included in the Cruz-Badiano Codex, the Florentine Codex or Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva Espana, and the Francisco Hernandez Codex. A review of these codices and the recent literature on the practice of Nahua Medicine was performed with particular interest in herbal medicine in rheumatic diseases, or symptoms probably related to rheumatic diseases, during the sixteenth century in the land currently known as Mexico.

Nahuatl medicine was remarkably advanced in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Thoughts on health and disease were different to those prevalent in Europe in the sixteenth century because they included magic, religion and different kinds of animal, mineral and, notably, herbal medicine. These resources were used in a supplementary, not isolated, way by Nahua physicians (ticitl) according to patients' needs and beliefs. Most Nahua physicians had similar knowledge but there were some differences between rural and urban areas, and those who were also doctor-priests of a particular deity. After the European colonization of Mesoamerica, great efforts were made by Spaniards and Indians to recover the immense amount of ancient knowledge in Mesoamerica related to medicine. Some of this work, not all, is included in the Cruz-Badiano Codex, the Florentine Codex or Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España, and the Francisco Hernández Codex. A review of these codices and the recent literature on the practice of Nahua Medicine was performed with particular interest in herbal medicine in rheumatic diseases, or symptoms probably related to rheumatic diseases, during the sixteenth century in the land currently known as Mexico.

As a turn-design strategy, repeating another has been described for English as a fairly restricted way of constructing a response, which, through re-saying what another speaker just said, is exploitable for claiming epistemic primacy, and thus avoided when a second speaker has no direct experience. Conversations in Mesoamerican languages present a challenge to the generality of this claim. This paper examines the epistemics of dialogic repetition in video-recordings of conversations in three Indigenous languages of Mexico: Tzeltal and Yucatec Maya, both spoken in southeastern Mexico, and Lachixio Zapotec, spoken in Oaxaca. We develop a typology of repetition in different sequential environments. We show that while the functions of repeats in Mesoamerica overlap with the range of repeat functions described for English, there is an additional epistemic environment in the Mesoamerican routine of repeating for affirmation: a responding speaker can repeat to affirm something introduced by another speaker of which s/he has no prior knowledge. We argue that, while dialogic repetition is a universally available turn-design strategy that makes epistemics potentially relevant, cross-cultural comparison reveals that cultural preferences intervene such that, in Mesoamerican conversations, repetition co-constructs knowledge as collective process over which no individual participant has final authority or ownership.

The General/Universal History of the Things of New Spain comprises twelve books by the Franciscan Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (*1499 - †1590). After being lost for three centuries, a rediscovered manuscript of this ethnographic research study was named Florentine Codex after its storage in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence., Some special characters are missing, like the tilde.

This visual text represents some of the content from the article, Women, Childbirth, and the Sticky Tamales: Nahua Rhetoric and Worldview in the Glyphic Codex Borgia, by Felicia Lopez. Through the use of comic book conventions, readers are guided through the decipherment of logographic writing from Central Mexico and, in the process, are shown how colonization has limited our contemporary understanding of ancient Indigenous people. By offering reinterpretations of glyphs that reveal the cultural knowledge of women, this guided reading of a codex image paints a picture of Aztecs and other Indigenous people as intelligent, complex, and inventors of their own unique writing systems.

Ceratozamia (Zamiaceae, Cycadales), is a member one of the most endangered seed plant groups. Species of Ceratozamia grow from near sea level up to 2,100 meters in Mexico and Mesoamerica. We present a modern taxonomic treatment of Ceratozamia, based on fieldwork combined with detailed study of herbarium specimens in and from Mexico and Central America. This new revision is based on incorporation of morphological, molecular and biogeographic data that have been previously published in circumscriptions of species complexes by our group. Detailed morphological descriptions of the 36 species of Ceratozamia are provided and relevant characters for the genus are discussed and described. A majority are endemic to Mexico and are concentrated at high elevations in mountainous areas. Synonymies, lectotypifications, etymologies, taxonomic notes, distribution maps, illustrations and detailed species-level comparisons are included, as well as a dichotomous key for identification of all species. Data on distributional ranges and habitats of all species are summarized. Ceratozamia osbornei D.W.Stev., Mart.-Domínguez & Nic.-Mor., sp. nov. is described from evergreen tropical forests of Belize and we highlight new populations and distributional ranges for C. subroseophylla Mart.-Domínguez & Nic.-Mor. and C. vovidesii Pérez-Farr. & Iglesias in the Mesoamerican region.

The General/Universal History of the Things of New Spaincomprises twelve books by the Franciscan Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (*1499 - †1590). After being lost for three centuries, a rediscovered manuscript of this ethnographic research study was namedFlorentine Codexafter its storage in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence. In the first book, we learn about the Gods of the Mexica, including Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Huitzilopochtli. It is a description of each god, for example, their personality traits and their specific adornments.&nbsp

Beekeeping with stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini), an ancient activity in Mesoamerica, is still practiced and considered culturally important in many areas. It is part of a rich legacy of biocult...

People living in Mesoamerica and what is now the eastern and southwestern United States used turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) as sources of meat, eggs, bones, and feathers. Turkey husbandry and domestication are confirmed in two of these regions (Mesoamerica and the American Southwest), but human-turkey interactions in Eastern North American (eastern United States and Canada) are not fully explored. We apply stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) and ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses to archaeofaunal samples from seven sites in the southeastern United States to test whether turkeys were managed or captively reared. These combined data do not support prolonged or intensive captive rearing of turkeys, and evidence for less intensive management is ambiguous. More research is warranted to determine whether people managed turkeys in these areas, and whether this is generalizable. Determining whether turkeys were managed or reared in the southeastern United States helps define cultural and environmental factors related to turkey management or husbandry throughout North America. This inquiry contributes to discussion of the roles of intensified human-animal interactions in animal domestication.

This paper presents the acoustic study of a sample of sonic artefacts, in particular a selection of wind instruments (horns, trumpets and pipes), from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre of Teotihuacan, Mexico, based on a thorough examination of the accessible and playable archaeological finds and the construction and subsequent test of a series of experimental models. Combined with the archaeological and iconographical information, the study helps to deduce information with regard to the urban settings in which these instruments might have been used. It also reveals some basic acoustic components of the music once performed in Teotihuacan.

Stone raw material in the past was often extracted, processed, and used by different individuals. The relationships among these practices make quarries important spaces for understanding how econom...

In this article I argue that the graphic images of the gods in the divinatory codices are composed of signs of different semantic values which encode particular properties. All of them contribute to creating the identity of the god. However, these graphic elements are not only shared by different deities, but even differ between representations of the same god. Analyzing the graphic images of Xipe Totec, one of the best-studied deities and one of the oldest in Mesoamerica, I elaborate a hypothesis that the images of the gods in the divinatory codices were perceived by their authors as a mosaic of different properties, which at the same time were dynamic. Consequently, there was not even one “prototypical” representation of a single god, since possibly the identity of a god was defined precisely when composing his/her image with particular graphic signs, thus crystallizing some of his/her multiple properties, important at this precise moment.

Jeffrey Parsons was a pioneer who expanded the scope of settlement pattern analysis in archaeology. He conducted extensive surveys in Mexico, Peru, and Argentina. Here I discuss Parsons' contributi...

In this letter, the authors present archeological evidence of the presence of cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. During years 2016 and 2017, the authors visited 5 anthropology museums in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, in search for pre-Hispanic archeological evidence of CLP, and 16 anthropomorphic figurines with evidence of CLP were identified; 9 at the Anahuacalli Museum, 6 at the National Anthropology Museum of Mexico, and 1 at the National Anthropology Museum of El Salvador. Fifteen of these ceramics originated from the shaft tombs (pre-Hispanic culture from western Mexico, Jalisco, Colima, and Nayarit; dating from 200 bc-600 ad), and 1 ceramic originated from the Cotzumalguapa (a pre-Hispanic culture from western El Salvador dating from 200 ad-900 ad).

This work present results of an analysis of supply, use, and production of obsidian artifacts in Tepeticpac and Metepec, two settlements of Late Postclassic (a.d. 1250/1300–1519) Tlaxcallan. The fi...

The recircumscription and updated synopsis of Thyrsanthemum, together with a synopsis of Weldenia, are presented, with three new combinations, four new lectotypes, an identification key, and comments, distribution maps, and illustrations for all accepted species.

Common salt, or sodium chloride, has always been a strategic resource of primary importance throughout the world. In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, salt was used primarily for human consumption, as the native diet had little chloride or sodium, two chemical components that are indispensable for human health and nutrition. Here I discuss the traditional salt industries of Michoacán, Colima, Guerrero, the Basin of Mexico and Puebla, paying special attention to the production sites and the tool assemblages linked to salt production in these areas of Mesoamerica. This article sheds light on salt's role in the culture and history of the ancient Mesoamerican ecumene through the lens of ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory.

This paper focuses on the role played by rhythmic instruments in Aztec ritual performances, combining the study of sound related artefacts as primary archaeological record with other contextual sources, using a multidisciplinary approach. Two categories of Aztec percussion instruments (huehuetl and teponaztli) will be analyzed, trying to get closer to the emic point of view, the indigenous concept of drums as containers of non-human entities. This will offer a better understanding of their role within the ceremonial context. Another important aspect here stressed is the importance of considering the materiality of these sound related artefacts, entangled with humans in a dialogical way to shape the ritual soundscape. Finally, a brief excursion in ethnography, will show how ancient percussion instruments are today re-signified in a totally changed ritual context, where their enduring materiality becomes a field of negotiation and claim of identity for the members of indigenous communities. Cette étude porte sur le rôle joué par les instruments rythmiques dans la réalisation des rituels aztèques. Dans une perspective pluridisciplinaire, elle combine l’étude des sons d’objets archéologiques avec celles d’autres sources contextuelles. Deux types de percussions aztèques (le huehuetl et le teponaztli) sont ainsi analysés en tentant de se rapprocher, par une démarche émique, du concept indigène faisant de ces objets des contenants d’entités non-humaines. Cela permettra de mieux comprendre leur rôle en contexte cérémoniel. Un autre aspect important qui sera abordé est celui de la matérialité de ces artefacts sonores et de leur rapport à l’humain, les deux créant un dialogue qui façonne le paysage sonore rituel. En dernier lieu, une courte excursion ethnographique montrera comment ces instruments à percussion anciens sont aujourd’hui à nouveau porteurs de sens dans un contexte rituel totalement modifié, où leur matérialité immuable devient un élément de revendications identitaires des membres des communautés autochtones.

espanolEste articulo es una sintesis de una investigacion mas amplia dedicada al Codice Laud que centra su atencion en el problema de su procedencia e, indirectamente, en el del Grupo Borgia. Se presentan las cualidades estilisticas de este manuscrito pictografico, incluidos sus materiales y tecnica pictorica; se analizan los argumentos esgrimidos con anterioridad por otros investigadores sobre el enigma de su origen, y se muestran las comparaciones estilisticas e iconograficas entre el Laud y otras obras de arte —pintura mural, ceramica pintada, relieves y escultura—, de seis diferentes regiones de Mesoamerica. Por medio del analisis iconografico se reconoce al Codice Laud como un documento pictografico prehispanico nahuatl y se propone la region de Tehuacan como su lugar de origen. EnglishThis article is a synthesis of broader research concerning the Codex Laud. It focuses on the problem of its provenance and, indirectly, on the “Borgia Group”. It presents the stylistic qualities of this pictographic manuscript, including its materials and pictorial technique, and analyses the arguments offered by other researchers surrounding the enigma of its origin. It also presents stylistic and iconographic comparisons between the Codex Laud and other works of art —mural paintings, polychrome pottery, reliefs and sculptures— from six different Mesoamerican regions. Through an iconographic analysis the Codex Laud is recognized as a Nahuatl pre-Hispanic pictographic document and the Tehuacan region is proposed as its possible place of origin.

This article discusses the urban landscape of Angamuco, located in the Purepecha (Tarascan) imperial heartland in western Mexico. Angamuco was occupied between the Late Preclassic through Late Post...

Archaeologists have long compared the Hohokam world of the North American Southwest to contemporary traditions in Mesoamerica and West Mexico. A degree of cultural connectivity between the Southwest and Mesoamerica is evident in similarities in public architecture, ceramic technology and design, ritual paraphernalia, and subsistence, among other qualities. Researchers commonly frame this connectivity in economic or cultural evolutionary terms that position Hohokam communities as somehow descendant from or dependent on more complexly and hierarchically organized societies far to the south. In this paper, I examine this connectivity through the lens of iconography to show that shared religious themes and archetypes were strands within the nexus. I focus on three iconographic subjects in Hohokam media—serpents, flowers, and “pipettes”—each of which materializes seemingly Mesoamerican religious concepts. From a careful consideration of the inception and breadth of each, I argue that Hohokam artisans began to portray these subjects in concert with a religious revitalization movement that drew a degree of inspiration from the south. However, while the iconography may have been new to Hohokam media, the religious themes were not. I show that the iconography references Archaic religious archetypes and cosmological principles that probably accompanied the spread of agriculture millennia before the formation of the Hohokam world. Rather than representing a new religion, I suggest Hohokam artisans materialized these long-established and unquestioned principles in novel iconographic ways as a means of naturalizing and ordaining the rapid social change that accompanied the religious revitalization movement.

The Mexico City Basin has had exceptional plant and animal diversity since ancient times due to its varied orography and benign climate. This environment attracted diverse human groups, from hunter-gatherers to one of the most influential pre-Hispanic cultures of Mesoamerica: the Mexica, also known as the Aztec. The subsoil of Mexico City hides a rich and varied cultural heritage. The Archaeological Rescue Department works to preserve cultural heritage, review archaeological studies, and expand archaeological information with new findings. We report on archaeological rescue works carried out at two sites in the Mexico City Basin prior to the beginning of new construction projects. The first one is the Reforma Hidalgo Complex Office in Teocaltitlán, one of the neighborhoods of ancient Mexica City, Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Some wooden post samples were selected for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating, believed to have been used as chinampa supports. We seek to determine their temporality and possible reuse by Hispanic builders. The second one, the La Otra Banda Site, is part of the human settlements that were founded around Cuicuilco, one of the main ancient urban centers of the highlands of Central Mexico. Some human bones and coal samples were selected to be dated, aiming to establish the site’s occupation time.

The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and traditional assemblages remained intact as the artifacts and ideas moved farther from their places of origin. The current study analyzes the distribution and deposition of blue-green stone mosaics, a craft technology that was well established in Mesoamerica by the Late Preclassic period (300 BC–AD 250) and spread to the U.S. SW by the start of the Hohokam Pioneer period (AD 475). We assess the spatial distribution, contextual deposition, and morphology of mosaics at sites within Hohokam Canal System 2, located in the Phoenix Basin of Arizona. We use these data to infer mosaics’ social value and function within Hohokam social structure. Analyses suggest that, although the technology of mosaic making may have originated in Mesoamerica, the contexts and ways in which mosaics were used in the Hohokam regional system were decidedly Hohokam.

In the Mesoamerican region, arid or hydrological variable conditions are commonly interpreted from 4 ka onwards. It is not well known how these changes modified the Mesoamerican monsoon system, which were the main atmospheric-oceanic forcings involved and their effect in the Pre-Classic Mesoamerican societies' history. Here, we study the possible link between paleoclimatic changes and decreased social development of societies in Mesoamerica during the Pre-Classic period (4.3 ka to 2.2 ka), which correspond to the Middle-Late Holocene transition. We also describe the principal oceanic-atmospheric mechanism related. We employed a partly laminated sediment sequence from La Alberca maar lake in the central Mexico highlands by means of environmental magnetism and comparing versus X-ray fluorescence (XRF), pollen, and δ18O analyses. Increased concentrations and preservation of ferrimagnetic minerals and enhanced detrital load as described by the XRF Ti counts reveal the occurrence of variable hydrological conditions between ~4.4 ka to 2.2 ka. These conditions coincide with the onset of high-frequency latitudinal variations of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the rise of ENSO and Pacific decadal oscillation activity. We suggest that variable hydrological conditions affected the development of Mesoamerican agrarian societies stressing agricultural production during the Pre-Classic period.

This article presents a pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican greenstone sculpture, formerly held in the collection of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605) and recently rediscovered by the author in the storerooms of the Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna. After a discussion of Aldrovandi’s general attitude towards natural and cultural specimens from the New World, the article explores the ways in which the Bolognese polymath described and illustrated the sculpture in his Musaeum metallicum (1648), where he named it as ‘Idolum pileatum’. It is argued here that Aldrovandi’s main interest was not so much proto-anthropological as of a taxonomic kind, in line with his interest in material culture as both an antiquary and a natural historian. The last section of the article explores the sculpture’s cultural biography, reconstructing its collection history and also putting forward a hypothesis for the circumstances of its arrival in Bologna.

The origin of the Museum of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, dates to the late nineteenth century—only a few years after the city was formally incorporated. Initially intended to showcase curios and items of interest, among the early donations were objects from various Mesoamerican cultures. Over the years the Mesoamerican archaeology collection grew not from a deliberate collecting strategy, but from chance donations by residents of the city. Not long after the re-focus to a civic museum the collection ceased to grow, and today the collection is consigned to the museum’s storage area. Despite not being of immediate relevance to the museum’s mission, the history of the collection reveals a fascinating insight into the lives of past Vancouver residents and demonstrates the utility of investigating the provenance of previously little-known collections.

Mortuary rituals at the mission church of Yacman, a sixteenth-century rural Maya community, reflect locally specific variants of cultural hybridity relevant to the comparative study of the archaeology of agency and social change in early Colonial settings of Mesoamerica. Burial practices in this church reveal early adoption of Christian norms, followed by a return to more traditional Pre-Columbian family mausoleum-like interments. At the same time, these Maya mission residents, like many of their contemporaries in the region, co-opted the Christian church as a new community nucleus and as a resting place for ancestors. These findings, with additional evidence for hybridity from domestic contexts, reveal strategic expressions of Colonial Maya identity at Yacman, a modest and remote rural settlement that exercised options to experience social change on its own terms, far from the supervisory gaze of Spanish friars.

This article examines the special case of cocoa in different parts of Mesoamerica, as it was used for an additional purpose, besides providing for nutritional needs of people, as well as for religious and other ceremonies. When confidence in a system of currency with coins is present, this more conventional form of money takes precedence. A respected economic form of currency which may include paper and coins or accounts thereof, has all three elements of money: a medium of exchange, a store of value and as a unit of account. In this article, the concept of value includes subjective value, what people have in terms of pleasure and displeasure in regard to owning and seeing a particular object. This article shows that cocoa satisfied the three requirements for serving as a form of money, during some time periods and in some areas of Mesoamerica. It has been found that cocoa met the three criteria necessary for them to be a type of money, in history in different countries. Some examples include certain past time periods in parts of Mesoamerica (part of present-day Latin America). However, cocoa was later found to not work as well, compared to some other specific forms of money. Understanding how different forms of money appear and then are replaced by other forms of money is important in the quest to understand what exactly money is. Monetary theory concepts concerning Gresham’s Law and the Quantity Theory of Money are discussed regarding using cocoa as money.

This article compiles the history, religion, culture and usage of corn with the sole purpose of providing a small sample on the utility and importance of such prodigious millenary plant which fruit has been the main food source in Mesoamerica. Keywords: Corn - Cultural aspects - History – Mesoamerica, Corn - Social aspects - Mesoamerica, Corn - Cultivation - Mesoamerica, Corn - Socioeconomic aspects - Mesoamerica. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5377/koot.v0i11.10737URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11298/1193

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important Neotropical crop originating in South America and dispersed by European explorers, arriving in Madagascar in the late 19th century. Although Madagascar is an important producer of cocoa for the premium chocolate market, the varietal composition and genetic diversity in cacao germplasm from Madagascar, especially in traditional cacao farms, remains unknown. A total of 190 cacao accessions, including 40 farmer accessions collected from traditional cacao farms in Madagascar, and 150 accessions representing seven reference cacao populations, were analyzed using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers. Multivariate analysis and Bayesian stratification resulted in the clustering of the 40 farmer accessions into three groups: Criollo, Amelonado and Trinitario. These three traditional varieties were commonly cultivated in tropical America in the 18th century, but most of them have been replaced by improved varieties. The present study demonstrated that Madagascar is distinctive in that all three traditional cacao varieties, Criollo, Amelonado and Trinitario, are still maintained on-farm for cocoa production, as in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean several hundred years ago. Results from the present study are significant in terms of understanding the early dispersal of cacao from tropical America and Asia to Africa, in addition to the well-documented route from Brazil to Sao Tome & Principe. The results also provide new information for planning future conservation and utilization of cacao germplasm in Madagascar.

This article presents the results of an integrative program of salvage archaeology in response to two comprehensive modern construction projects within the limits of the Early Postclassic city of Tula, Hidalgo. Exploratory excavation at eleven different localities encountered remains of residential compounds and other prehispanic structures in all localities, collectively spanning the Epiclassic through Late Postclassic periods and yielding extensive ceramic, lithic, and faunal remains from domestic and ritual contexts including over 250 human and animal burials that included evidence of contact with other areas of Mesoamerica. Some 36 radiocarbon dates were obtained from ceramically dated contexts that span c. 1,000 years of occupation and support the current ceramic phase chronology for Tula.