ALLAN ORTEGA-MUÑOZ | Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (original) (raw)

Books by ALLAN ORTEGA-MUÑOZ

Sindicato Nacional de Profesores de Investigación Científica y Docencia del INAH, 2021

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula. A Human Ecology Perspective, 2020

This study compares two cemetery series together with their civil records from the city of Mérida... more This study compares two cemetery series together with their civil records from the city of Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, which spotlight changes in lifestyle, life expectancy, and health during the twentieth century. To this end, we scored health indications in a skeletal series from the Central Cemetery of Mérida (N = 104; collected during the beginning of last century), and a recent population from the Xoclán Cemetery of Mérida, collected last decade (N = 174). The latter materializes living conditions towards and during the turn of the twenty-first century. The records under study include basic life and socioeconomic information, obtained from the civil records, along with skeletal data of age at death, sex, benign tumors, nonspecific stress markers, arthritis, and osteopenia. Our results, once age-corrected, indicate a rise in almost all analyzed indications towards the turn of the present century, which we will discuss in terms of pharmaceutical advances, public sanitation and longevity, changes in lifestyle and nutrition.

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula. A Human Ecology Perspective, 2020

We examined 548 reproductive histories of peasant Maya women from the Maize and Citrus Regions of... more We examined 548 reproductive histories of peasant Maya women from the Maize and Citrus Regions of the State of Yucatan, Mexico, to explore the impact of commercial agriculture and circular migration on rural fertility patterns. Since the 1970s households from the Citrus Region combined subsistence with commercial agriculture, and those from the Maize Region combined subsistence agriculture with salaried work in the nearby cities of Merida and Cancun. We compared the Age-Specific Fertility Rates between cohorts that reproduced before and after economic development, and between populations. Age at desired fertility was determined to search for stopping behavior and Coale and Trussell (Popul Index 40(2):185–258, 1974; Popul Index 44(2):203–213, 1978) model of marital control was used to determine variations from natural fertility. Citrus Region women reduced fertility after development, had fewer children than those from the Maize Region, and most of them stopped reproducing after age 36. However, Total Fertility Rate remained high (5.08). Those in the Maize Region had higher fertility (7.24) and a natural fertility pattern. The importance of food production maintained a high premium on fertility in both regions. While commercial agriculture reduced desired fertility, salaried work in the cities made large families desirable to incorporate labor opportunities into the household’s traditional survival strategy.

Guanajuato es una entidad federativa de origen, tránsito, destino y retorno de migrantes. Sus mov... more Guanajuato es una entidad federativa de origen, tránsito, destino y
retorno de migrantes. Sus movimientos de población podemos
situarlos tanto en un contexto interno como internacional. La literatura
académica ha puesto particular énfasis en los desplazamientos
de la población guanajuatense hacía Estados Unidos y al
fenómeno del retorno, dejando en un plano de interés secundario
las migraciones hacia la entidad, ya sea como tránsito y destino. En
este tenor, el trabajo que aquí se presenta tiene como objetivo describir
la intensidad de los movimientos migratorios que se dirigen
hacia Guanajuato, tanto los originados en otras entidades federativas
como de aquellos provenientes del extranjero. La investigación
está basada en la Encuesta Intercensal 2015, llevada a cabo por el
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). Un panorama
general del trabajo permite sostener que, dada su dinámica
socioeconómica, la inmigración en Guanajuato puede considerarse
como intensa. La población nacida fuera de la entidad ronda alrededor
del 9% de la población total, quienes en su gran mayoría
provienen de otras entidades federativas. Es posible encontrar sus
causas principalmente a su dinámica industrial, la cual atrae migrantes
laborales; pero también hay factores de atracción de jubilados
(gray migration), retornados extranjeros de origen mexicano
y migrantes en tránsito hacia Estados Unidos, quienes en algunas
ocasiones no alcanzan su destino final y terminan residiendo de
manera permanente en la entidad.

Este libro recolecta diversas opiniones relativas al uso, manejo e investigación en torno a la pr... more Este libro recolecta diversas opiniones relativas al uso, manejo e investigación en torno a la problemática de las series esqueléticas de sociedades pretéritas, así como las relaciones y colaboraciones entre diferentes especialistas. Los participantes en esta obra ensayística, que estaba pendiente en la antropología física, recuperan varios temas específicos: la legislación general del INAH respecto a los restos óseos humanos, que forman parte del patrimonio cultural de México; la relación arqueología-antropología física y su repercusión en el tipo de investigaciones que se efectúan en nuestro país; los diferentes enfoques teóricos y metodológicos en el estudio de restos óseos humanos; los aspectos relacionados con la conservación y restauración de los materiales y su manejo en los centros INAH y en distintas instituciones, tanto nacionales como extranjeras; las normas para la investigación con muestras óseas, y un aspecto fundamental, el proceso de excavación arqueológica.
Estos especialistas, antropólogos físicos y bioarqueólogos, presentan sus contribuciones en un tono propositivo a fin de dar cuenta de los heterogéneos problemas por los que se transita para la recuperación y análisis de los restos óseos; señalan las posibles salidas a estos problemas y proponen futuros escenarios para la investigación bioarqueológica, en beneficio de la ciencia y de la sociedad misma a la que se dirige.

Aunque los límites territoriales no dejan de ser imaginarios, paradójicamente las fronteras son s... more Aunque los límites territoriales no dejan de ser imaginarios, paradójicamente las fronteras son susceptibles de fungir como puentes, como intersecciones entre pueblos y naciones que propician el intercambio cultural y las relaciones interétnicas. Situada en el periodo comprendido entre 1900 y 1935, esta obra se aboca al estudio de nuestra frontera sudoriental en una época convulsa y plena de cambios. Por un lado, México entraba al siglo XX tratando de formar su identidad nacional por otro, Belice —en aquel entonces Honduras Británica— aún era una colonia del Imperio Británico y su identidad estaba completamente determinada por éste. A través del proceso histórico de ambos actantes, el autor analiza los cambios y continuidades en el ámbito demográfico, social y cultural de esta región, que ha sido lo mismo despreciada que codiciada y explotada a lo largo de su historia

Presenta resultado preliminares del proyecto de Etnografía de las localidades aledañas a zonas ar... more Presenta resultado preliminares del proyecto de Etnografía de las localidades aledañas a zonas arqueológicas abiertas al publico al sur de Quintana Roo. Se hace un análisis sobre el uso del patrimonio arqueológico cultural en México

Presenta resultados preliminares del proyecto Etnografia de las localidades aledañas a zonas abie... more Presenta resultados preliminares del proyecto Etnografia de las localidades aledañas a zonas abiertas al publico, aplicado a localidades del norte de Quintana Roo, México que versa sobre el uso del patrimonio arqueológico cultural en México

Papers by ALLAN ORTEGA-MUÑOZ

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2024

Dental morphological traits are analyzed in three Prehispanic (AD 800–1350) collections from Cost... more Dental morphological traits are analyzed in three Prehispanic (AD 800–1350) collections from Costa Rica’s (CR), and compared to coeval samples from the Maya area, Panama and northern Colombia. Traits were scored following the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System on permanent teeth and analyzed by means of multivariate statistical techniques. At micro-regional level, the CR’s collections manifest morphological similarities between one another; however, Jicaro tends to slightly separate from the others despite its very close geographical proximity to La Cascabel. This is interpreted as due to the external influence of people who established at the site from Mesoamerica at the onset of the second millennium AD. On a macro-regional base, instead, the CR collections gather more closely to the samples from the Maya area rather than to the one from Panama and to the Muiscas from northern Colombia, despite they all belong to the Isthmo-Colombian, Chibchanspeaking area. This is interpreted as the result of strong ties with the Maya area, as highlighted by the archaeological record, and to the east–west genetic clinal distribution within the Isthmo-Colombian area that tends to set apart CR from Panama and Colombia, the latter being more likely related to the Andean area rather than to the Isthmo region. Larger samples are however necessary to have a clearer picture of the demic relationships in Prehispanic Central America.

PLoS ONE, 2023

Residential mobility in Prehispanic Mesoamerica is of paramount importance in bioarchaeology to d... more Residential mobility in Prehispanic Mesoamerica is of paramount importance in bioarchaeology to determine the "how, where and why" people established biological, political and economic networks. The goal of this paper is to assess the presence of non-local people on the East Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula during the Late Postclassic (AD 1200-1540), and how they might have been perceived by the local Maya people. We analyze the presence, origin and mortuary distribution of 50 individuals based on their dental and bone 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures in the "urban" assemblage constituted by the archaeological sites known as El Rey and San Miguelito on Isla Cancun. Both sites present a strontium ratio "plateau" between 0.7091 and 0.7092, which is considered the local signature. Seven individuals, ranging in age from 5 years old to adulthood, were detected as potentially non-local, and originating from a wide range of regions both near and distant to Isla Cancun. Funerary patterns, burial location, and dietary data do not indicate these people were treated differently from the rest of the population, at least at the moment of death. This suggests that these non-locals might not have been perceived as "foreigners" and that they had integrated into the local community. Such mobility and cultural integration could have motivated by multiple factors, including economic and trade connections, or kinship relationships.

Regiones y Desarrollo Sustentable, 2023

Este artículo analiza el impacto demográfico en localidades de municipios de muy alta migración ... more Este artículo analiza el impacto demográfico en localidades de municipios de muy alta migración en Guanajuato, entre 2000 y 2010, uno de los periodos de mayor intensidad migratoria hacia Estados Unidos. Con base en los resultados por localidad de los productos de integración territorial (ITER), de los censos de población y vivienda, es posible sostener que estas localidades tuvieron un mayor estrés en su dinamismo demográfico de lo que las tradicionales perspectivas municipales o estatales revelan. El análisis muestra el paulatino despoblamiento e incluso la desaparición de algunas localidades, así como un mayor envejecimiento poblacional y
desequilibrios en las razones de sexo, lo cual compromete el desarrollo de la región.

Papeles de Población, 2022

Se compararon las preferencias de 149 jóvenes solteros-maya, mestizo, nahua y totonacode Puebla y... more Se compararon las preferencias de 149 jóvenes solteros-maya, mestizo, nahua y totonacode Puebla y Quintana Roo, México, en relación a la edad a la primera unión, tipos de unión, residencia postmarital, prácticas de endo/exogamia y homo/heterogamia, divididos por tamaño de localidad y características del mercado matrimonial. Los resultados muestran que los jóvenes indígenas y mestizos, sin distinción de tamaño de localidad, preferirían unirse a una edad tardía, bajo una unión legal, neolocalidad, y matrimonios homógamos. Concluimos que hay una continuidad del sistema tradicional de nupcialidad, pero con atisbos a la tesis de la Segunda Transición Demográfica.

Travesías en antropología física. Homenaje a Carlos Serrano por 50 años de actividad científica y docente, 2022

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial chang... more Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial changes during Classic and Postclassic periods. Migration was part of many important changes, and isotopic analyses allow quantification of the extent of population movement and the migrants’ potential places of origin by sex, age, and other social determinants. The purpose of the present analysis is to highlight regional migration patterns using published data that move beyond site-specific interpretations. Overall, the picture that emerges is that mobility in the region was not limited to one specific sex or age group, nor was it the prerogative of any social level. A variety of reasons lay behind population movement, including trade, kinship, marital residence, and elite marriage alliances that served to reinforce power or establish new outposts. Regional analyses and comparison of large datasets will provide a better understanding of this complex and tangled process that shaped society on the Yucatan peninsula for millennia.

Routledge eBooks, May 9, 2022

Revista Mexicana Del Caribe, 2004

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , 2022

Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial chang... more Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial changes during Classic and Postclassic periods. Migration was part of many important changes, and isotopic analyses allow quantification of the extent of population movement and the migrants’ potential places of origin by sex, age, and other social determinants. The purpose of the present analysis is to highlight regional migration patterns using published data that move beyond site-specific interpretations. Overall, the picture that emerges is that mobility in the region was not limited to one specific sex or age group, nor was it the prerogative of any social level. A variety of reasons lay behind population movement, including trade, kinship, marital residence, and elite marriage
alliances that served to reinforce power or establish new outposts. Regional analyses and comparison of large datasets will provide a better understanding of this complex and tangled process that shaped society on the Yucatan peninsula for millennia.

Latin American Antiquity

La Villa de Salamanca de Bacalar (siglos diecisiete al diecinueve) fue un asentamiento de fronter... more La Villa de Salamanca de Bacalar (siglos diecisiete al diecinueve) fue un asentamiento de frontera entre México y Belice. El objetivo del artículo es recrear la vida cotidiana por la que atravesaron tres personajes adultos (dos masculinos y uno femenino) que vivieron alrededor de los primeros 60 años del siglo diecinueve en la Villa y que fueron inhumados en la Iglesia de San Joaquín. Metodológicamente he empleado el marco analítico de la osteobiografía bajo un recurso de narrativa ficticia recreada con información historiográfica primaria y secundaria, ambientando la sociedad antes de y durante la Guerra de Castas de la Península de Yucatán, México. Con ello, describo las condiciones físicas y patológicas —óseas y dentales— de los tres individuos, analizadas mediante el marco de indicadores de estrés esquelético. El resultado es la recreación de las condiciones de vida y de la vida cotidiana de un segmento de la población, quien estuvo sujeta a condiciones higiénicas precarias, enf...

Sindicato Nacional de Profesores de Investigación Científica y Docencia del INAH, 2021

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula. A Human Ecology Perspective, 2020

This study compares two cemetery series together with their civil records from the city of Mérida... more This study compares two cemetery series together with their civil records from the city of Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, which spotlight changes in lifestyle, life expectancy, and health during the twentieth century. To this end, we scored health indications in a skeletal series from the Central Cemetery of Mérida (N = 104; collected during the beginning of last century), and a recent population from the Xoclán Cemetery of Mérida, collected last decade (N = 174). The latter materializes living conditions towards and during the turn of the twenty-first century. The records under study include basic life and socioeconomic information, obtained from the civil records, along with skeletal data of age at death, sex, benign tumors, nonspecific stress markers, arthritis, and osteopenia. Our results, once age-corrected, indicate a rise in almost all analyzed indications towards the turn of the present century, which we will discuss in terms of pharmaceutical advances, public sanitation and longevity, changes in lifestyle and nutrition.

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula. A Human Ecology Perspective, 2020

We examined 548 reproductive histories of peasant Maya women from the Maize and Citrus Regions of... more We examined 548 reproductive histories of peasant Maya women from the Maize and Citrus Regions of the State of Yucatan, Mexico, to explore the impact of commercial agriculture and circular migration on rural fertility patterns. Since the 1970s households from the Citrus Region combined subsistence with commercial agriculture, and those from the Maize Region combined subsistence agriculture with salaried work in the nearby cities of Merida and Cancun. We compared the Age-Specific Fertility Rates between cohorts that reproduced before and after economic development, and between populations. Age at desired fertility was determined to search for stopping behavior and Coale and Trussell (Popul Index 40(2):185–258, 1974; Popul Index 44(2):203–213, 1978) model of marital control was used to determine variations from natural fertility. Citrus Region women reduced fertility after development, had fewer children than those from the Maize Region, and most of them stopped reproducing after age 36. However, Total Fertility Rate remained high (5.08). Those in the Maize Region had higher fertility (7.24) and a natural fertility pattern. The importance of food production maintained a high premium on fertility in both regions. While commercial agriculture reduced desired fertility, salaried work in the cities made large families desirable to incorporate labor opportunities into the household’s traditional survival strategy.

Guanajuato es una entidad federativa de origen, tránsito, destino y retorno de migrantes. Sus mov... more Guanajuato es una entidad federativa de origen, tránsito, destino y
retorno de migrantes. Sus movimientos de población podemos
situarlos tanto en un contexto interno como internacional. La literatura
académica ha puesto particular énfasis en los desplazamientos
de la población guanajuatense hacía Estados Unidos y al
fenómeno del retorno, dejando en un plano de interés secundario
las migraciones hacia la entidad, ya sea como tránsito y destino. En
este tenor, el trabajo que aquí se presenta tiene como objetivo describir
la intensidad de los movimientos migratorios que se dirigen
hacia Guanajuato, tanto los originados en otras entidades federativas
como de aquellos provenientes del extranjero. La investigación
está basada en la Encuesta Intercensal 2015, llevada a cabo por el
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). Un panorama
general del trabajo permite sostener que, dada su dinámica
socioeconómica, la inmigración en Guanajuato puede considerarse
como intensa. La población nacida fuera de la entidad ronda alrededor
del 9% de la población total, quienes en su gran mayoría
provienen de otras entidades federativas. Es posible encontrar sus
causas principalmente a su dinámica industrial, la cual atrae migrantes
laborales; pero también hay factores de atracción de jubilados
(gray migration), retornados extranjeros de origen mexicano
y migrantes en tránsito hacia Estados Unidos, quienes en algunas
ocasiones no alcanzan su destino final y terminan residiendo de
manera permanente en la entidad.

Este libro recolecta diversas opiniones relativas al uso, manejo e investigación en torno a la pr... more Este libro recolecta diversas opiniones relativas al uso, manejo e investigación en torno a la problemática de las series esqueléticas de sociedades pretéritas, así como las relaciones y colaboraciones entre diferentes especialistas. Los participantes en esta obra ensayística, que estaba pendiente en la antropología física, recuperan varios temas específicos: la legislación general del INAH respecto a los restos óseos humanos, que forman parte del patrimonio cultural de México; la relación arqueología-antropología física y su repercusión en el tipo de investigaciones que se efectúan en nuestro país; los diferentes enfoques teóricos y metodológicos en el estudio de restos óseos humanos; los aspectos relacionados con la conservación y restauración de los materiales y su manejo en los centros INAH y en distintas instituciones, tanto nacionales como extranjeras; las normas para la investigación con muestras óseas, y un aspecto fundamental, el proceso de excavación arqueológica.
Estos especialistas, antropólogos físicos y bioarqueólogos, presentan sus contribuciones en un tono propositivo a fin de dar cuenta de los heterogéneos problemas por los que se transita para la recuperación y análisis de los restos óseos; señalan las posibles salidas a estos problemas y proponen futuros escenarios para la investigación bioarqueológica, en beneficio de la ciencia y de la sociedad misma a la que se dirige.

Aunque los límites territoriales no dejan de ser imaginarios, paradójicamente las fronteras son s... more Aunque los límites territoriales no dejan de ser imaginarios, paradójicamente las fronteras son susceptibles de fungir como puentes, como intersecciones entre pueblos y naciones que propician el intercambio cultural y las relaciones interétnicas. Situada en el periodo comprendido entre 1900 y 1935, esta obra se aboca al estudio de nuestra frontera sudoriental en una época convulsa y plena de cambios. Por un lado, México entraba al siglo XX tratando de formar su identidad nacional por otro, Belice —en aquel entonces Honduras Británica— aún era una colonia del Imperio Británico y su identidad estaba completamente determinada por éste. A través del proceso histórico de ambos actantes, el autor analiza los cambios y continuidades en el ámbito demográfico, social y cultural de esta región, que ha sido lo mismo despreciada que codiciada y explotada a lo largo de su historia

Presenta resultado preliminares del proyecto de Etnografía de las localidades aledañas a zonas ar... more Presenta resultado preliminares del proyecto de Etnografía de las localidades aledañas a zonas arqueológicas abiertas al publico al sur de Quintana Roo. Se hace un análisis sobre el uso del patrimonio arqueológico cultural en México

Presenta resultados preliminares del proyecto Etnografia de las localidades aledañas a zonas abie... more Presenta resultados preliminares del proyecto Etnografia de las localidades aledañas a zonas abiertas al publico, aplicado a localidades del norte de Quintana Roo, México que versa sobre el uso del patrimonio arqueológico cultural en México

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2024

Dental morphological traits are analyzed in three Prehispanic (AD 800–1350) collections from Cost... more Dental morphological traits are analyzed in three Prehispanic (AD 800–1350) collections from Costa Rica’s (CR), and compared to coeval samples from the Maya area, Panama and northern Colombia. Traits were scored following the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System on permanent teeth and analyzed by means of multivariate statistical techniques. At micro-regional level, the CR’s collections manifest morphological similarities between one another; however, Jicaro tends to slightly separate from the others despite its very close geographical proximity to La Cascabel. This is interpreted as due to the external influence of people who established at the site from Mesoamerica at the onset of the second millennium AD. On a macro-regional base, instead, the CR collections gather more closely to the samples from the Maya area rather than to the one from Panama and to the Muiscas from northern Colombia, despite they all belong to the Isthmo-Colombian, Chibchanspeaking area. This is interpreted as the result of strong ties with the Maya area, as highlighted by the archaeological record, and to the east–west genetic clinal distribution within the Isthmo-Colombian area that tends to set apart CR from Panama and Colombia, the latter being more likely related to the Andean area rather than to the Isthmo region. Larger samples are however necessary to have a clearer picture of the demic relationships in Prehispanic Central America.

PLoS ONE, 2023

Residential mobility in Prehispanic Mesoamerica is of paramount importance in bioarchaeology to d... more Residential mobility in Prehispanic Mesoamerica is of paramount importance in bioarchaeology to determine the "how, where and why" people established biological, political and economic networks. The goal of this paper is to assess the presence of non-local people on the East Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula during the Late Postclassic (AD 1200-1540), and how they might have been perceived by the local Maya people. We analyze the presence, origin and mortuary distribution of 50 individuals based on their dental and bone 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures in the "urban" assemblage constituted by the archaeological sites known as El Rey and San Miguelito on Isla Cancun. Both sites present a strontium ratio "plateau" between 0.7091 and 0.7092, which is considered the local signature. Seven individuals, ranging in age from 5 years old to adulthood, were detected as potentially non-local, and originating from a wide range of regions both near and distant to Isla Cancun. Funerary patterns, burial location, and dietary data do not indicate these people were treated differently from the rest of the population, at least at the moment of death. This suggests that these non-locals might not have been perceived as "foreigners" and that they had integrated into the local community. Such mobility and cultural integration could have motivated by multiple factors, including economic and trade connections, or kinship relationships.

Regiones y Desarrollo Sustentable, 2023

Este artículo analiza el impacto demográfico en localidades de municipios de muy alta migración ... more Este artículo analiza el impacto demográfico en localidades de municipios de muy alta migración en Guanajuato, entre 2000 y 2010, uno de los periodos de mayor intensidad migratoria hacia Estados Unidos. Con base en los resultados por localidad de los productos de integración territorial (ITER), de los censos de población y vivienda, es posible sostener que estas localidades tuvieron un mayor estrés en su dinamismo demográfico de lo que las tradicionales perspectivas municipales o estatales revelan. El análisis muestra el paulatino despoblamiento e incluso la desaparición de algunas localidades, así como un mayor envejecimiento poblacional y
desequilibrios en las razones de sexo, lo cual compromete el desarrollo de la región.

Papeles de Población, 2022

Se compararon las preferencias de 149 jóvenes solteros-maya, mestizo, nahua y totonacode Puebla y... more Se compararon las preferencias de 149 jóvenes solteros-maya, mestizo, nahua y totonacode Puebla y Quintana Roo, México, en relación a la edad a la primera unión, tipos de unión, residencia postmarital, prácticas de endo/exogamia y homo/heterogamia, divididos por tamaño de localidad y características del mercado matrimonial. Los resultados muestran que los jóvenes indígenas y mestizos, sin distinción de tamaño de localidad, preferirían unirse a una edad tardía, bajo una unión legal, neolocalidad, y matrimonios homógamos. Concluimos que hay una continuidad del sistema tradicional de nupcialidad, pero con atisbos a la tesis de la Segunda Transición Demográfica.

Travesías en antropología física. Homenaje a Carlos Serrano por 50 años de actividad científica y docente, 2022

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial chang... more Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial changes during Classic and Postclassic periods. Migration was part of many important changes, and isotopic analyses allow quantification of the extent of population movement and the migrants’ potential places of origin by sex, age, and other social determinants. The purpose of the present analysis is to highlight regional migration patterns using published data that move beyond site-specific interpretations. Overall, the picture that emerges is that mobility in the region was not limited to one specific sex or age group, nor was it the prerogative of any social level. A variety of reasons lay behind population movement, including trade, kinship, marital residence, and elite marriage alliances that served to reinforce power or establish new outposts. Regional analyses and comparison of large datasets will provide a better understanding of this complex and tangled process that shaped society on the Yucatan peninsula for millennia.

Routledge eBooks, May 9, 2022

Revista Mexicana Del Caribe, 2004

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , 2022

Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial chang... more Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial changes during Classic and Postclassic periods. Migration was part of many important changes, and isotopic analyses allow quantification of the extent of population movement and the migrants’ potential places of origin by sex, age, and other social determinants. The purpose of the present analysis is to highlight regional migration patterns using published data that move beyond site-specific interpretations. Overall, the picture that emerges is that mobility in the region was not limited to one specific sex or age group, nor was it the prerogative of any social level. A variety of reasons lay behind population movement, including trade, kinship, marital residence, and elite marriage
alliances that served to reinforce power or establish new outposts. Regional analyses and comparison of large datasets will provide a better understanding of this complex and tangled process that shaped society on the Yucatan peninsula for millennia.

Latin American Antiquity

La Villa de Salamanca de Bacalar (siglos diecisiete al diecinueve) fue un asentamiento de fronter... more La Villa de Salamanca de Bacalar (siglos diecisiete al diecinueve) fue un asentamiento de frontera entre México y Belice. El objetivo del artículo es recrear la vida cotidiana por la que atravesaron tres personajes adultos (dos masculinos y uno femenino) que vivieron alrededor de los primeros 60 años del siglo diecinueve en la Villa y que fueron inhumados en la Iglesia de San Joaquín. Metodológicamente he empleado el marco analítico de la osteobiografía bajo un recurso de narrativa ficticia recreada con información historiográfica primaria y secundaria, ambientando la sociedad antes de y durante la Guerra de Castas de la Península de Yucatán, México. Con ello, describo las condiciones físicas y patológicas —óseas y dentales— de los tres individuos, analizadas mediante el marco de indicadores de estrés esquelético. El resultado es la recreación de las condiciones de vida y de la vida cotidiana de un segmento de la población, quien estuvo sujeta a condiciones higiénicas precarias, enf...

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2021

Abstract Oxtankah was a Late Preclassic to Middle Postclassic (300 BCE–CE 1200) Prehispanic settl... more Abstract Oxtankah was a Late Preclassic to Middle Postclassic (300 BCE–CE 1200) Prehispanic settlement at the southernmost end of the modern state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. This trans-shipment port associated with long distance trade was part of the political sphere of influence of the Kan dynasty of Dzibanche and Calakamul. Archaeological and biological evidence links its inhabitants with the central lowland region of Mexico and Guatemala. Residential mobility has been investigated through the analysis of strontium and oxygen isotopic ratios in the teeth of 18 individual of both sexes, commoners and elite, dated to the period of occupation. The results showed that 35.3% of the sample is outside the local strontium baseline, indicating that these individuals were possibly immigrants originating between the Peten, Palenque, and Guatemala, and from the northern Yucatan peninsula and Gulf of Mexico. Their relocation to Oxtankah is likely related to trading, familial ties, and changes of power in the Kan dynasty.

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula, 2019

We examined 548 reproductive histories of peasant Maya women from the Maize and Citrus Regions of... more We examined 548 reproductive histories of peasant Maya women from the Maize and Citrus Regions of the State of Yucatan, Mexico, to explore the impact of commercial agriculture and circular migration on rural fertility patterns. Since the 1970s households from the Citrus Region combined subsistence with commercial agriculture, and those from the Maize Region combined subsistence agriculture with salaried work in the nearby cities of Merida and Cancun. We compared the Age-Specific Fertility Rates between cohorts that reproduced before and after economic development, and between populations. Age at desired fertility was determined to search for stopping behavior and Coale and Trussell (Popul Index 40(2):185–258, 1974; Popul Index 44(2):203–213, 1978) model of marital control was used to determine variations from natural fertility. Citrus Region women reduced fertility after development, had fewer children than those from the Maize Region, and most of them stopped reproducing after age 36. However, Total Fertility Rate remained high (5.08). Those in the Maize Region had higher fertility (7.24) and a natural fertility pattern. The importance of food production maintained a high premium on fertility in both regions. While commercial agriculture reduced desired fertility, salaried work in the cities made large families desirable to incorporate labor opportunities into the household’s traditional survival strategy.

Bioarchaeology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, 2018

The authors of this chapter focus their attention on the distribution of mortuary practices and t... more The authors of this chapter focus their attention on the distribution of mortuary practices and their relationship to population affinities among several Postclassic (AD 1000–1520) Maya sites located long the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. The archaeological evidence suggests a lack of clear and culturally well-established patterns of mortuary practices in the region. Coastal sites represented important commercial and ceremonial centers along maritime trade routes around the peninsula, and were therefore potentially subject to population movement. The joint analysis of mortuary patterns and site biological distances, based on the evidence of dental morphology, indicates that biological relationships between sites does not correspond to similarities in mortuary practices, suggesting a series of diverse relationships between sites long the peninsula’s east coast.

Se presenta la historia y la composicion de una nueva coleccion esqueletica de referencia, compue... more Se presenta la historia y la composicion de una nueva coleccion esqueletica de referencia, compuesta por 84 osamentas bien documentadas, provenientes del cementerio moderno de Xoclan del municipio de Merida. Esta es la primera en su tipo en la peninsula de Yucatan, una region con menos de dos millones de residentes. La coleccion forma parte del proyecto Demografia y enfermedad de los antiguos habitantes de Yucatan a traves del analisis histomorfologico de sus restos; esta resguardada por la Facultad de Ciencias Antropologicas de la Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan. La informacion biografica individual se obtuvo de las actas de defuncion del Registro Civil Municipal. Estos datos se contrastaron con los censos nacionales y municipales de 2000 y 2005, respectivamente. En la coleccion predominan los masculinos, asi como hombres y mujeres adultos de sectores socioeconomicos bajos. Casi todos provienen de la ciudad de Merida y de sus alrededores. Se discute la representatividad de la muest...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

Estudios de Cultura Maya, 2021

The Morocoy Community Museum (Quintana Roo, Mexico) is a cultural spot since 2015. The goal of th... more The Morocoy Community Museum (Quintana Roo, Mexico) is a cultural spot since 2015. The goal of this paper is to develop a visitor’s study, analyzing its function as a means of cultural and educational socialization through the record book and its written mentions about the museum, from January 2019 to January 2020, with 306 individual registers including sex, place of origin and opinions. Crosstab tabulations, hypothesis tests, and logistic regression were performed to compare the characteristics of the visitors categorized by sex, procedence, and five categories of opinions. The main results have shown that locals see the museum as an important space for the knowledge of their historical and cultural heritage, meanwhile foreigners have shown more interest about museum exhibition, and the documentation presented there. There is not a statistical difference in the assistance between sexes. The final reflection is about the importance to develop an institutional policy, from the Insti...

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula, 2019

This study compares two cemetery series together with their civil records from the city of Merida... more This study compares two cemetery series together with their civil records from the city of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, which spotlight changes in lifestyle, life expectancy, and health during the twentieth century. To this end, we scored health indications in a skeletal series from the Central Cemetery of Merida (N = 104; collected during the beginning of last century), and a recent population from the Xoclan Cemetery of Merida, collected last decade (N = 174). The latter materializes living conditions towards and during the turn of the twenty-first century. The records under study include basic life and socioeconomic information, obtained from the civil records, along with skeletal data of age at death, sex, benign tumors, nonspecific stress markers, arthritis, and osteopenia. Our results, once age-corrected, indicate a rise in almost all analyzed indications towards the turn of the present century, which we will discuss in terms of pharmaceutical advances, public sanitation and longevity, changes in lifestyle and nutrition.