Human Migration and Ethnic Expression in the Southeastern Borderland of Mesoamerica

This chapter discusses human migration and multiethnicity in Copan, a Maya archaeological site in modern Honduras. A broad skeletal sample from the site has been studied through basic osteology, mortuary archaeology, and archaeochemistry (stable isotope analysis). The combined results show that the ancient city had a significant number of immigrants from all over the Maya Area. There was no sex or age related distinction, nor socioeconomic exclusivity, among these immigrants. In such a multiethnic city, biocultural body modifications, like dental decorations and intentional head shaping, were indicative of their social identities, especially “Mayahood.” The dynamic changes of these biocultural attributes at spatial and chronological scales are evidence of shifting social identities at the southeastern borderland of the Maya Area.

Biological Affinities and Mortuary Archaeology in Coastal Northern Populations of Yucatán at the End of the Postclassic Period

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.

True People, Foreigners, and the Framing of Maya Morality

This chapter explores ancient Maya understandings of identity, belonging, how they defined themselves, and how they contrasted that against people who they perceived as foreign or “other.” The essay begins with a brief overview of concepts of otherness evident in the ethnographic literature. It then juxtaposes modern concepts of the foreign with those at the time of the conquest in order to consider what understandings of otherness have deep roots in Maya worldview. This essay then turns to discourses on otherness and foreigners as apparent in the iconography of the Classic period (AD 250–900). This discussion is further complemented by consideration of evidence for shared group practices as materialized in ceramic styles, mortuary patterns, cranial modification, and art and architectural styles. The chapter concludes with a discussion of depiction of foreigners in Classic period art.

Understanding Late Classic Maya Mortuary Ritual in Caves

Bioarchaeology frequently investigates dental health in burial populations to make inferences about mortuary variability within and between ancient groups. In this chapter, micro- and macroscopic dental defects were examined in a series of ancient Maya mortuary cave and rockshelter burials in Central Belize. The nature of mortuary cave ritual use and funerary performance in the Late Classic is widely debated in the literature. This study utilizes two analytical approaches, mortuary practice and paleopathology, to better understand mortuary variability between two site types that may be distinguished by social status in life. Ethnohistoric accounts focused on mortuary activities in the Late Classic period have described sacrificial victims as individuals originating outside of the elite population. To test these accounts, this study compares the dental health data of individuals from non-elite (rockshelter) populations to elite (cave) burial contexts.

On Interdisciplinarity in Bioarchaeology

Bioarchaeology began as an interdisciplinary enterprise, integrating biological anthropology and archaeology, and organized around central research problems, where researchers from different fields or subfields would actively collaborate in formulating research questions, study design, data collection, and analysis. Today it has developed into its own discipline that includes perspectives from a wide range of fields. Bioarchaeology is particularly well positioned to provide a disciplinary foundation that also supports multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary questions through collaborative research. In this chapter, the author examines explicitly the value of this type of integrative, multidisciplinary or “conjunctive” approach to research. She evaluates the use of interdisciplinary theory and methodology in bioarchaeology in both migration and mobility research and ethnicity and social identity research, particularly in Mesoamerica. A review of the challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary work is provided, and concludes with a discussion of contemporary issues that would benefit from an interdisciplinary bioarchaeological approach.

Isotopes, Dental Morphology, and Human Provenience at the Maya Site of Yaxuná, Yucatán, Mexico

Chapter 4 addresses the issue of human migration and mobility at the Classic period Maya site of Yaxuná, Yucatán, Mexico, located in the Maya northern lowlands, from the combined lens of bioarchaeology and archaeometry, specifically dental morphology and strontium and oxygen isotopes. The site is positioned at a crucial point of an east-to-west inland trade corridor, and the architectural evidence shows influence of the Puuc region, situated in the westernmost side of the peninsula. Given that material culture and ideas can be exchanged with or without the actual movement of people, the chapter evaluates the hypothesis that people from the Puuc region might have migrated to the city during the eighth century AD.

Introduction

Chapter 1, written by Cathy Willermet and Andrea Cucina, introduces the volume and its interdisciplinary approach to bioarchaeology. The volume editors encouraged a problem-oriented, rather than disciplinary, approach to showcase interdisciplinary research questions related to population history in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica contains a rich and complex ethnohistorical and archaeological record from which many data sources and perspectives can be brought to bear on questions of ethnicity and past migrations. The editors asked authors to focus on questions such as: How much did people move around? How much did their cultural affiliation reflect their biological history? How were people related to one another? How did people interact with one another? How did people view themselves? The resulting volume explores these issues from cultural ethnohistorical, (bio)archaeological, biological, biogeochemical, dental morphological, iconographic, and linguistic perspectives. The editors argue that approaching past societies from an interdisciplinary lens is sometimes more difficult, but ultimately more constructive.

Interdisciplinary Approaches in Mesoamerica

This final chapter synthesizes the chapters in the volume. It emphasizes the value of interdisciplinary approaches as they apply to complex issues of migration, mobility, ethnicity, and social identity. Drawing on the book’s chapters, warfare, elite intermarriage, economic opportunities and/or state economic demands, ecological traumas, and political ebbs and flows are all discussed as forces impacting population movements. Ethnicity and social identity are also themes throughout the book, and this concluding chapter assesses attributes of these concepts in light of the book’s overall contributions.

Population Continuity and Replacement in the Pre-contact Valley of Mexico

Settlement patterns in the pre-contact period in the Valley of Mexico are often characterized by the collapse and regeneration of civilizations, creating a series of power vacuums over time. How did these abrupt political changes affect population structures throughout the region? Can population structure in the Valley of Mexico be best characterized as population replacement, population continuity, or both? In this chapter, biological distances are compared with distances representing population continuity and replacement models. Biological distances based on dental morphological observations represent samples from Valley of Mexico populations from the Preclassic (1200 BC to AD 200) to the Late Postclassic (AD 1200–1520) periods. The results in this chapter support a population replacement model in the Valley of Mexico, confirming archaeological and ethnohistoric accounts of migration patterns. Population replacement is most evident during the transition from the Classic to Postclassic periods and throughout the Postclassic period.