The Pre-Hispanic in Landscape: Ethnography with the Mapa de Coatlinchan (original) (raw)
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In the Wake of Mexican Patrimonio: Material Ecologies in San Miguel Coatlinchan
San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode of state-perpetrated dispossession. In 1964, the Mexican state enforced its legal claim to pre-Hispanic material culture as national property by removing a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith from its lands and transporting it to the capital's National Anthropology Museum. Ever since, the stone sculpture that represents an ancient rain deity has stood at the entrance of the museum as an emblem of Mexico's ancestral indigenous heritage or patrimonio. For the residents of Coatlinchan, however , the monolith's removal brought about ecological and social disruptions: drought and other forms of scarcity which profoundly altered their town and its surrounding landscape. In this article, I draw on an ecological framework to explore the productive effects of dispossession and absence in Coatlinchan. Rather than analyzing its residents' loss as that of a bounded artifact, I argue that material traces from the pre-Hispanic past are embedded within and integral to webs of environmental, material, and social relations that are essential for the production and reproduction of life itself. [
Legacies of Space and Intangible Heritage: Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and the Politics of Cultural Continuity in the Americas, 2017
Library of congress cataloging-in-publication data names: armstrong-fumero, fernando, editor. | Hoil gutierrez, Julio, editor. title: Legacies of space and intangible heritage : archaeology, ethnohistory, and the politics of cultural continuity in the americas / edited by fernando armstrong-fumero and Julio Hoil gutierrez. description: boulder : University press of colorado, [2017] | includes bibliographical references and index. identifiers: Lccn 2016056647| isbn 9781607325710 (cloth) | isbn 9781607326595 (pbk) | isbn 9781607325727 (ebook) subjects: LcsH: cultural landscapes-america-case studies. | cultural property-protectionamerica-case studies. | cultural property-america-Management-case studies. | Historic sites-conservation and restoration-america-case studies. | Historic sites-america-Management-case studies. classification: Lcc gf500 .L44 2017 | ddc 973-dc23 Lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056647 an electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open access isbn for the pdf version of this book is 978-1-60732-700-4; for the epUb version the open access isbn is 978-1-60732-720-2. More information about the initiative and links to the open-access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. front-cover photographs: taperinha plantation (top), cavern of the painted rock, Monte alegre (bottom), courtesy of anna c. roosevelt.
The Origins and Development of the Cartographic Tradition in the Central Mexican Highlands. (2019)
Contributions in New World Archaeology, 2019
More than four decades ago H.B. Nicholson compared the so-called Palace Stone from Xochicalco to a page in a Mesoamerican codex. Showing numerous calendrical dates and toponymic signs connected by a path marked by footprints the monument readily recalls the cartographic tradition that is well-known for the central Mexican highlands at the time of the Spanish conquest. In this paper we explore the Epiclassic evidence of this tradition, discussing not only central features of the Palace Stone, but also additional monuments from Xochicalco and sites in the vicinity, such as the recently discovered Tetlama stela, that belong to the same genre. Thus, we provide a preliminary analysis of the formal features and contents of these fascinating monuments that record an important narrative history and founding myth of Xochicalco and some of its satellite communities. Furthermore, we shall also introduce evidence that suggests that the conventions of this tradition can ultimately be traced back to Teotihuacan in the Early Classic.
The origins and development of the cartographic tradition in the central Mexican highlands
Contributions in New World Archaeology, 2019
More than four decades ago H.B. Nicholson compared the so-called Palace Stone from Xochicalco to a page in a Mesoamerican codex. Showing numerous calendrical dates and toponymic signs connected by a path marked by footprints the monument readily recalls the cartographic tradition that is well-known for the central Mexican highlands at the time of the Spanish conquest. In this paper we explore the Epiclassic evidence of this tradition, discussing not only central features of the Palace Stone, but also additional monuments from Xochicalco and sites in the vicinity, such as the recently discovered Tetlama stela, that belong to the same genre. Thus, we provide a preliminary analysis of the formal features and contents of these fascinating monuments that record an important narrative history and founding myth of Xochicalco and some of its satellite communities. Furthermore, we shall also introduce evidence that suggests that the conventions of this tradition can ultimately be traced back...
A Forgotten House of Ancestors from Ancient Xoxocotlan
2009
This article documents the gradual destruction of a sumptuous pre-Hispanic tomb that was unearthed in the late nineteenth century, and tracks how its contents were eventually dispersed to many different museum collections, where the artifacts were often jumbled, mislabeled and eventually condemned to insignificance. A similar fate occurred to the many early written descriptions, drawings and photographs that recorded the tomb's existence. At first the information about this important discovery seemed too hopelessly fragmented to be of any use to the archaeological discipline, or we thought, too unreliable to withstand the rigor of current scientific inquiry. However, using an approach that combines archival sources and extant archaeological collections we have been able to piece together a detailed history of the interventions that occurred on the site, identify much of the material that was removed, and reconstruct the tomb structure. As a result it is now possible to establish the tomb's temporality more accurately and to define how it relates to its immediate environs. With the memory of this monument restored, we hope it will once again be considered an important part of ancient Zapotec history, Oaxaca's archaeological record, and Mexico's cultural heritage.
Excavations at the Southern Neighborhood Center of the Tlajinga District, Teotihuacan, Mexico
Latin American Antiquity
Investigations of the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) in 2019 focused on the southern neighborhood center of this cluster of non-elite residences in the southern periphery of the ancient Mexican metropolis. Our objective was to better understand the social infrastructure of public space within the district and how it tied its inhabitants together. Our methods included excavations at two large architectural complexes, geophysical prospection of these and adjacent structures and plazas, and chemical residue analysis of floors and sediments. They revealed architecturally elaborate complexes decorated with mural painting that appear to have been the loci of civic-ceremonial activities. Materials from the excavated portions of the complexes are inconsistent with residential uses, although it is possible that local elites lived elsewhere in the complexes or in others located nearby. The investigations therefore demonstrate that the semipublic spaces of neighborhood cente...