Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:31:03.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ben A. Nelson ,
J. Andrew Darling  and
David A. Kice
Ben A. Nelson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, 380 M.F.A.C, Buffalo, NY 14261
J. Andrew Darling
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
David A. Kice
Affiliation:
P-III Associates, Inc., 2212 South West Temple, Suite 21, Salt Lake City, UT 84115-2645
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings and functions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were those of revered ancestors or community members. The sacred structure is seen as a charnel house, in which the more ancient tradition of ancestor worship expressed in shaft tombs was essentially perpetuated above ground. Hostile social relations are clearly suggested, however, by other categories of bone deposits. Recognition of the rich variability of mortuary displays leads to questions about their role in the maintenance of the social order.

Los grupos que ocuparon el sitio de La Quemada durante el período Epiclásico dejaron tras de sí los restos desarticulados de once a catorce individuos en un templo ubicado fuera del núcleo monumental del sitio. En este trabajo se revisan varias clases de evidencia a fin de proponer una hipótesis acerca del significado y función rituales de los huesos. Un análisis comparativo revela la complejidad de las costumbres funerarias del norte y el oeste de México, y permite sugerir que los restos humanos en cuestión eran los de miembros venerados de la comunidad. El templo se considera como una estructura en la cual la antigua tradición de veneración de los antepasados, inicialmente manifestada en el Preclásico en las tumbas de tiro, fue perpetuada en una forma evolucionada. Sin embargo, otras categorías de depósitos óseos sugieren claramente la existencia de relaciones hostiles entre los habitantes del sitio. El reconocimiento de la rica variabilidad de despliegues mortuorios abre las puertas para la investigación de su función en el mantenimiento del orden social.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 298 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Alegre, F. G. 1958 [1597–1639] Historia de la provincia de la Compañía de Jesós de Nueva España, vol. 2, books 4–6. Edited by E. Burrus and F. Zubillaga. Institutum Historicum S.J., Rome.Google Scholar
Amador, E. 1943 Bosquejo de Zacatecas. Reprint of 1892 edition ordered by government of the state of Zacatecas. Talleres Tipográficos Pedroza, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, México.Google Scholar
Armillas, P. 1964 Condiciones ambientales y movimientos de pueblos en la frontera septentrional de Mesoamérica. In Homenaje a Fernando Marquez-Miranda, pp. 62–82. Madrid.Google Scholar
Beals, R. L. 1932 The Comparative Ethnology of Northern Mexico Before 1750. Ibero-Americana No. 2. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Beals, R. L. 1933 The Acaxee: A Mountain Tribe of Durango and Sinaloa. Ibero-Americana No. 6. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1971 Mortuary Practices: Their Study and Their Potential. In Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, edited by J. A. Brown, pp. 6–29. Memoirs No. 25. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Brown, J. A. 1971 The Dimensions of Status in the Burials at Spiro. In Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, edited by J. A. Brown, pp. 92–112. Memoirs No. 25. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D. 1962 Mexico. Praeger, New York.Google Scholar
Corona Nuñez, J. 1955 Tumba de El Arenal, Etzatlán, Jalisco. Informes No. 3. Directión de Monumentos Prehispánicos. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico, D.F.Google Scholar
Díaz del Castillo, B. 1956 The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, 1515–1521. Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, New York.Google Scholar
Diehl, R. A. 1976 Prehispanic Relationships Between the Basin of Mexico and North and West Mexico. In The Valley of Mexico: Studies in Pre-Hispanic Ecology and Society, edited by E. Wolf, pp. 249–286. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Diehl, R. A. 1983 Tula: The Toltec Capital of Ancient Mexico. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Drucker, P. 1955 Indians of the Northwest Coast. Natural History Press, Garden City, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durán, Fray D. 1971 Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar. Edited and translated by F. Horcasitas and D. Heyden. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Faulhaber, J. 1960 Breve análisis osteológico de los restos humanos de “La Quemada,” Zacatecas. Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia 12:131–149. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Míxico, D.F.Google Scholar
Fikes, J. C. 1985 Huichol Indian Identity and Adaptation. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Flinn, L. G., Turner, C. G., and Brew, A. 1976 Additional Evidence for Cannibalism in the Southwest: The Case of La4528. American Antiquity 41: 308–318.Google Scholar
Gillespie, S. D. 1991 Ballgames and Boundaries. In The Mesoamerican Ballgame, edited by V. Scarborough and D. Wilcox, pp. 317–345. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heidenreich, C. 1978 Huron. In Northeast, edited by B. G. Trigger, pp. 368–388. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, W. C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Helms, M. W. 1979 Ancient Panama: Chiefs in Search of Power. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Hers, M-A. 1989 Los toltecas en tierras chichimecas. Cuadernos de Investigaciones Estéticas No. 35. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, D.F.Google Scholar
Holien, T., and Pickering, R. B. 1978 Analogues in a Chalchihuites Culture Sacrificial Burial to Late Mesoamerican Ceremonialism. In Middle Classic Mesoamerica: A.D. 400–700, edited by E. Pasztory, pp. 145–157. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Jiménez Betts, P. 1989a Perspectivas sobre la arqueología de Zacatecas. Arqueología 5:7–50.Google Scholar
Jiménez Betts, P. 1989b Informe de los trabajos efectuados dentro del proyecto La Quemada 1987–88. Ms. on file, Departamento de Arqueología, Secretaría de Obras Públicas, Gobierno del Estado de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, México.Google Scholar
Joyce, R. 1991 Cerro Palenque: Power and Identity on the Maya Periphery. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kelley, E. A. 1978 The Temple of the Skulls at Alta Vista, Chalchihuites. In Across the Chichimec Sea: Papers in Honor of J. Charles Kelley, edited by C. L. Riley and B. C. Hedrick, pp. 102–126. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. C. 1971 Archaeology of the Northern Frontier: Zacatecas and Durango. In Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, pt. 2, edited by G. Ekholm and I. Bernal, pp. 768–804. Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 11, R. Wauchope, general editor. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kelley, J. C. 1985 The Chronology of the Chalchihuites Culture. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by M. S. Foster and P. C. Weigand, pp. 269–288. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Long, S. V. 1966 Archaeology of the Municipio of Eztatlán, Jalisco. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Lumholtz, C. 1902 Unknown Mexico, vol. 2. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Marshall, L. G. 1989 Bone Modification and the “Laws of Burial.” In Bone Modification, edited by R. Bonnichsen and M. H. Sorg, pp. 7–24. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Millon, R. 1974 The Study of Urbanism at Teotihuacan, Mexico. In Mesoamerican Archaeology: New Approaches, edited by N. Hammond, pp. 335–362. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Moser, C. L. 1973 Human Decapitation in Ancient Mesoamerica. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Negrín, J. 1975 The Huichol Creation of the World. E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento.Google Scholar
Nelson, B. A. 1990 Observaciones acerca de la presencia tolteca en La Quemada, Zacatecas. In Mesoamérica y norte de México siglos IX–XII, vol. 2, coordinated by F. Sodi Miranda, pp. 521–540. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Oliveros, J. A. 1974 Nuevas exploraciones en El Opeño, Michoacán. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by B. Bell, pp. 182–201. Sociedad de Estudios Avanzados del Occidente de México, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
O’Shea, J. 1984 Mortuary Variability: An Archaeological Investigation. Academic Press, Orlando.Google Scholar
Pérez de Ribas, A. 1944 [1645] Historia de los triunfos de nuestra santa fé entre gentes las más bárbaras y fieras del nuevo orbe, vol. 3. A. de Paredes, Madrid.Google Scholar
Pickering, R. B. 1985 Human Osteological Remains from Alta Vista, Zacatecas: An Analysis of the Isolated Bone. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamérica, edited by M. S. Foster and P. C. Weigand, pp. 289–326. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Pijoan, C. M., and Mansilla, J. 1990 Evidencias rituales en restos humanos del norte de Mesoamérica. In Mesoamérica y none de México sighs IX–XII, vol. 2, coordinated by F. Sodi Miranda, pp. 467–478. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Prem, H. J. 1990 Uberlick uber den Forschungsstand der Archaeologie von Zacatecas. In Beschreibung der Uberrest Aztekischer Niederlassungen auf Ihrer Wanderung nach dem Tale von Mexico Durch den Gegenwartigen Friestaat von Zacatecas, by C. de Berghes, pp. ix–xlii. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1986 Introduction: Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change. In Peer Polity Interaction and Sociopolitical Change, edited by C. Renfrew and J. F. Cherry, pp. 1–18. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Saxe, A. A. 1971 Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices in a Mesolithic Population from Wadi Halfa, Sudan. In Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, edited by J. Brown, pp. 29–57. Memoirs No. 25. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Steele, D. G., and Carlson, D. L. 1989 Excavation and Taphonomy of Mammoth Remains from the Duewall-Newberry Site, Brazos County, Texas. In Bone Modification, edited by R. Bonnichsen and M. H. Sorg, pp. 413–130. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. 1986 A Computer Program for Radiocarbon Determination. Radiocarbon 28:1022–1030.Google Scholar
Swanton, J. R. 1946 The Indians of the Southeastern United States. Bulletin No. 137. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E. 1970 The Shaft Tombs of Western Mexico: Problems in the Interpretation of Religious Function in Nonhistoric Archaeological Contexts. American Antiquity 35:160–169.Google Scholar
Tello, Fray A. 1968 Crónica miscelanea del la sancta provincia de Xalisco. Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco, Universidad de Guadalajara. Instituto Jaliscense de Antropología e Historia and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Guadalajara, Mexico.Google Scholar
Trombold, C. D. 1976 Spatial Distribution, Functional Hierarchies, and Patterns of Interaction in Prehistoric Communities Around La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico. In Papers on New World High Culture in Honor of J. Charles Kelley, edited by R. B. Pickering, pp. 149–180. Research Records No. 4. University Museum, Southern Illinois University Museum, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Trombold, C. D. 1978 The Role of Locational Analysis in the Development of Archaeological Research Strategy. Ph.D. dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Trombold, C. D. 1982 Road Networks on the Northern Mesoamerican Periphery. Paper presented at the 81 st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Trombold, C. D. 1985a A Summary of the Archaeology of the La Quemada Region. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by M. S. Foster and P. C. Weigand, pp. 327–352. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Trombold, C. D. 1985b Conceptual Innovations in Settlement Pattern Methodology on the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier. In Contributions to the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Greater Mesoamerica, edited by W. J. Folan, pp. 205–239. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Trombold, C. D. 1990 A Reconsideration of the Chronology for the La Quemada Portion of the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier. American Antiquity 55:308–323.Google Scholar
Turner, C. G. II 1983 Taphonomic Reconstructions of Human Violence and Cannibalism Based on Mass Burials in the American Southwest. In A Question of Bone Technology, edited by G. M. LeMoine and A. S. MacEachern, pp. 219–240. University of Calgary Archaeological Association, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Turner, C. G. II, and Morris, N. T. 1970 A Massacre at Hopi. American Antiquity 35:320–331.Google Scholar
Weigand, C. G., and Weigand, P. C. 1991 Death and Mourning Among the Huicholes of Western Mexico. In Coping with the Final Tragedy: Cultural Variation in Dying and Grieving, edited by D. R. Counts and D. A. Counts, pp. 53–68. Baywood, Amityville, New York.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1964 Piano fotométrico de la Ciudadela La Quemada versión Armillas–Weigand. Unpublished map in possession of P. C. Weigand.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1974 The Ahualulco Site and the Shaft-Tomb Complex of the Etzatlán Area. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by B. Bell, pp. 120–131. Sociedad de Estudios Avanzados del Occidente de México, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1975 Possible References to La Quemada in Huichol Mythology. Ethnohistory 22:15–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1977 The Prehistory of the State of Zacatecas: An Interpretation. In Anuario de historia zacatecana, edited by C. Esparza Sánchez, pp. 1–39. Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, México. Reprinted in two parts in Anthropology 2:67–87, 103–117, 1978. State University of New York, Stony Brook.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1982 Mining and Mineral Trade in Prehispanic Zacatecas. In Mining and Mineral Techniques in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by P. C. Weigand and G. Gwynne, pp. 87–134. Anthropology 6. State University of New York, Stony Brook.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C. 1985 Evidence for Complex Societies During the Western Mesoamerican Classic Period. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by M. S. Foster and P. C. Weigand, pp. 47–92. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Weigand, P. C, Harbottle, G., and Sayre, E. V. 1977 Turquoise Sources and Source Analysis: Mesoamerica and the Southwestern U.S.A. In Exchange Systems in Prehistory, edited by T. K. Earle and J. E. Ericson, pp. 15–34. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, T. D. 1991 Human Osteology. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Zingg, R. M. 1938 The Huichols: Primitive Artists. G. E. Stechert, New York.Google Scholar