In this volume, thirteen ethnohistorical archaeologists who work in Mesomerica, including editors Susan Kepecs and Rani Alexander, break down the artificial barrier between archaeology and history by offering new material evidence of the transition from native-ruled, pre-Hispanic society to the age of Spanish administration. Taken together, the chapters contained herein cover most of the key Mesoamerican regions that eventually came under Spanish control. The authors bring new empirical information to bear on the problem of how pre-Hispanic social, political, and economic organisation were transformed, as independent Maya kingdoms, the Aztec empire (with its client states), the Tarascans, and other more distant polities once linked through the macroregional economic web of the Postclassic period were forcibly incorporated into Spain's transatlantic domain. The complex processes of multidirectional interaction and culture contact among Mesoamericans and Europeans are coloured by cultural diversity, culture clash, and varied responses ranging from accommodation to resistance to active rebellion. These case studies also illuminate how native organisation altered the Spanish imperial process. Ultimately, this volume provides a link between past and present, since Mesoamerican peoples continue to negotiate the effects of globalisation on their societies.
The Post-classic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica: An Introduction; The Aztec Palace Under Spanish Rule; Consumption and the Varied Ideologies of Domination in Colonial Mexico City; The Basin of Mexico A.D. 1450-1620: Archaeological Dimensions; From Imperial Core to Colonial Periphery: The Lake Patzcuaro Basin 1400-1800; The Consequences of Spanish Colonial Rule for the Indigenous Peoples of Chiapas, Mexico; On the Margins of Peripheries: The Consequences of Differential Incorporation in the Colonial Southwest; Mayas, Spaniards, and Salt: World Systems Shifts in Sixteenth Century Yucatan; Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Maya Political Geography in Central Peten, Guatemala; Isla Cilvituk and the Difficulties of Spanish Colonisation in Southwestern Campeche; Postcolonial Conquest of the Southern Maya Lowlands, Cross-cultural Interaction, and Lacandon Maya Culture Change; Index.
