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Cabeza de Vaca and the Sixteenth-Century Copper Trade in Northern Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jeremiah F. Epstein
Jeremiah F. Epstein*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1086
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Abstract

Descriptions of Indians in northern Mexico with copper artifacts occur in the sixteenth-century expedition reports of Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Ibarra, and Father Rodríguez. The phrasing of Cabeza de Vaca's account indicates that both copper bells and plates were excavated from abandoned villages and then traded widely. Statements given in all three journals point to the site of Paquimé, or Casas Grandes, in Chihuahua as the most probable source. Since Casas Grandes was deserted in the sixteenth century, it is suggested that the copper objects found among the Indians in northern Mexico by Cabeza de Vaca, Ibarra, and Rodríguez were looted from Casas Grandes rather than obtained by trade from west Mexico or Mesoamerica.

Résumé

Résumé

En las relaciones del siglo XVI de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Ibarra y Fray Rodríguez, hay descripciones de indios con artefactos de cobre. El relato de Cabeza de Vaca indica que cascabeles y láminas de cobre eran excavados en pueblos abandonados y luego ampliamente intercambiados. Pasajes contenidos en las tres relaciones señalan a Paquimé, o Casas Grandes, en Chihuahua como lafuente más probable. Dado que Casas Grandes se encontraba desierto en el siglo XVI, se sugiere que los objetos de cobre encontrados entre los indios del norte de México por Cabeza de Vaca, Ibarra y Rodríguez eran saqueados de Casas Grandes en vez de ser obtenidos por comercio con el oeste de México o Mesoamérica.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , July 1991 , pp. 474 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1991

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