Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:01:12.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tribe versus Chiefdom in Lower Central America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Winifred Creamer  and
Jonathan Haas
Winifred Creamer
Affiliation:
School of American Research, P.O. Box 2188, Santa Fe, NM 87504
Jonathan Haas
Affiliation:
School of American Research, P.O. Box 2188, Santa Fe, NM 87504
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has commonly been argued that chiefdoms were the dominant form of prehispanic political organization in Lower Central America. Reexamination of the data base, however, reveals that tribal forms of organization were also present in Lower Central America at the time of Spanish contact and before. The salient characteristics of both tribes and chiefdoms are discussed, and criteria for identifying tribes and chiefdoms in the archaeological record are outlined. Data from the Central Provinces of Panama and the Gulf of Nicoya are then examined in light of these criteria. We argue that while a chiefdom form of organization prevailed in Panama, the Gulf of Nicoya was occupied by tribal groups immediately prior to contact with the Spanish.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 1985 , pp. 738 - 754
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

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

Abel-Vidor, Suzanne 1980 The Historical Sources for the Greater Nicoya Archaeological Sub-Area. Vinculos 6: 155–176.Google Scholar
Abel-Vidor, Suzanne 1981 Ethnohistorical Approaches to the Archaeology of Greater Nicoya. In Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica, pp. 85–92. Harry N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Adams, Richard N. 1975 Energy and Structure: A Theory of Social Power. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy, Schortman, Edward M., and Urban, Patricia A. 1982 The Classic Maya Fringe: Cultural Boundaries in the Southeast Mesoamerican Periphery. Paper presented at the 81st annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy, Schortman, Edward M., and Urban, Patricia A. n. d. Data on Chira. Notes in possession of author.Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik 1969 Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference. Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Baudez, Claude F. 1967 Recherches Archeologiques Dans La Vallee du Tempisque, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Travaux et Memories de I'lnstitut des Hautes Etudes de L' Amerique Latine 18.Google Scholar
Baudez, Claude F., and Coe, Michael D. 1962 Archaeological Sequences in Northwestern Costa Rica. Acts, XXXIV International Congress of Americanists 1: 366–373. Vienna.Google Scholar
Bennett, Charles F. 1968 Human Influences on the Zoogeography of Panama. Iberoamericana 51.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L. 1982. Aboriginal Exchange and Territoriality in Owens Valley, California. In Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange, edited by E. Ericson, Jonathon and Earle, Timothy K., pp. 103–127. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, David P. 1983 Social Evolution, Prehistoric Central Midwestern U. S., 200 B. C. —A. D. 600. Draft proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation.Google Scholar
Braun, David P., and Plog, Stephen 1982 Evolution of “Tribal” Social Networks: Theory and Prehistoric North American Evidence. American Antiquity 47: 605–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, Warwick 1981 Gold Work. In Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica, pp. 153–166. Harry N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Carneiro, Robert L. 1970 A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169: 733–738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carneiro, Robert L. 1978 Political Expansion as an Expression of the Principle of Competitive Exclusion. In Origins of the State: The Anthropology of Political Evolution, edited by Cohen, Ronald and Service, Elman R., pp. 205–224. Institute for the Study of Human Issues, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Cooke, Richard G. 1972 The Archaeology of the Western Code Province of Panama. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, University of London.Google Scholar
Cooke, Richard G. 1976 Panama, Region Central. Vinculos 2: 122–140.Google Scholar
Cooke, Richard G. 1978 Maximizing a Valuable Resource: The White-tailed Deer in Prehistoric Central Panama. Paper presented at the 43rd annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Cooke, Richard G. 1979 Los Impactos de las Comunidades Agricolas Precolombinas Sobre los Ambientes del Tropico Estacional: Datos del Panama Prehistorico. Adas del IVSimposio Internacional de Ecologia Tropical, pp. 917–973.Google Scholar
Creamer, Winifred 1983a Production and Exchange on Two Islands in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica, A. D. 1200-1550. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Creamer, Winifred 1983b Faunal Remains as an Indicator of Territory Size for Prehistoric Communities. Brenesia 21.Google Scholar
Creamer, Winifred 1983c Costa Rican Trade in Context. Paper presented at conference on Interregional Ties in Costa Rican Prehistory, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Creamer, Winifred 1984 Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. Steward Journal of Anthropology, in press.Google Scholar
Day, Jane, and Abel-Vidor, Suzanne 1980 The Late Polychrome Period: Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Paper presented at the 79th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Denton, Robert K. 1968 The Semai: A Nonviolent People of Malaya. Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Drolet, Robert P. 1984 Social Grouping and Residential Activities Within a Late Phase Polity Network: Diquis Valley, Southeastern Costa Rica. Steward Journal of Anthropology, in press.Google Scholar
Dunnell, Robert C. 1980 Evolutionary Theory and Archaeology. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by B. Schif, Michael Fer, pp. 35–99. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 1977 A Reappraisal of Redistribution: Complex Hawaiian Chiefdoms. In Exchange Systems in Prehistory, edited by K. Earle, Timothy and Ericson, Jonathon E., pp. 213–229. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 1978 Economic and Social Organization of a Complex Chiefdom: The Halelea District, Kaua'i, Hawaii. Anthropological Papers 63, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Espinosa, Gaspar de 1864 Relacion Hecha por Gaspar de Espinosa, Alcalde Mayor de Castilla del Oro, dada a Pedrarias de Avila, Lugar Teniente General de aquellas provincias, de todo lo que sucedio en la entrada que hizo en ellas, de orden de Pedrarias. In Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos … del Real Archivo de Indias, edited by Pacheco, Joachin F., tomo II, pp. 467–522.Google Scholar
Fernandez de Oviedo, Gonzalo 1959 Historia General y Natural de las Indias. 5 vols. Edicion y estudio preliminar de Juan Perez de Tudela Bueso. Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles. Atlas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Fernandez de Oviedo, Gonzalo 1976 Nicaragua en los Cronistas Indias: Oviedo. Serie Cronistas 3. Fondo de Promocion Cultural, Banco de America, Managua.Google Scholar
Ferrero A., Luis 1977 Costa Rica Precolombina. 2nd ed. Biblioteca Patria, San Jose.Google Scholar
Ferrero A., Luis 1981 Ethnohistory and Ethnography in the Central Highlands— Atlantic Watershed and Diquis. In Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica, edited by P. Benson, Elizabaeth, pp. 93–103. Harry N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1968 Archaeological Systems Theory and Early Mesoamerica. In Anthropological Archaeology in the Americas, edited by J. Meggers, Betty, pp. 67–87. Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Fonseca Z., Oscar 1981 Guayabo de Turrialba and its Significance. In Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica, edited by P. Benson, Elizabeth, pp. 93–103. Harry N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H. 1967 The Evolution of Political Society: An Essay in Political Anthropology. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H. 1975 The Notion of Tribe. Cummings, Menlo Park, CA.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H. 1983 Tribe to State or State to Tribe in Ancient China? In The Origins of Chinese Civilization, edited by N. Keightley, David, pp. 467–493. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, J., and Rowlands, M. J. 1978 Notes Toward an Epigenetic Model of the Evolution of “Civilization. ” In The Evolution of Social Systems, edited by Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M. J., pp. 201–276. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Gage, Thomas 1958 Thomas Gage's Travels in the New World. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Haas, Jonathan 1980 Troubles with Tribes: An Archaeological Approach to an Anthropological Problem. Paper presented at the 79th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Haas, Jonathan 1981 Must the Chief Precede the King? Paper presented at the 80th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Haas, Jonathan 1982 The Evolution of the Prehistoric State. Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, Jonathan 1983 Tribalization in the Southwest. Proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Harner, Michael J. 1970 Population Pressure and the Social Evolution of Agriculturalists. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26: 67–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healy, Paul F. 1980 Archaeology of the Rivas Region of Nicaragua. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.Google Scholar
Helms, Mary W. 1978 Coastal Adaptations as Contact Phenomena Among the Miskito and Cuna Indians of Lower Central America. In Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations, edited by L. Stark, Barbara and Voorhies, Barbara, pp. 121–150. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helms, Mary W. 1979 Ancient Panama. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio de 1934-1957 Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Mas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano. 17 vols. Edited by Ballesteros y Berretta, A. and Altolaguirre, A.. Academia Real de Historia, Madrid [1601–1615].Google Scholar
Hodder, Ian 1979 Economic and Social Stress and Material Culture Patterning. American Antiquity 44: 446–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoopes, John W. 1983 Copador, Babilonia, and Mora: Costa Rican Ceramics and the Southern Maya Periphery. Paper presented at conference on “Interregional Ties in Costa Rican Prehistory, ” Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Kirchhoff, Paul 1943 Meosamerica, sus Limites Geograficos, Composicion Etnica y Caracteres Culturales. Acta Americana 1: 92–107.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, Kristian 1982 The Formation of Tribal Systems in Later European Prehistory: Northern Europe, 4000-55 B. C. In Theory and Explanation in Archaeology, edited by Renfrew, Colin, pp. 241–286. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ladd, John 1964 Archaeological Investigations in the Parita and Santa Maria Zones of Panama. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 193.Google Scholar
Lange, Frederick W. 1971 Cultural History of the Sapoa River Valley, Costa Rica. Logan Museum of Anthropology Occasional Paper, No. 4. Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Lange, Frederick W. 1980 Una Ocupacion del Policromo Tardio en el Sitio Ruiz, Cerca de Bahia Culebra. Vinculos 6: 81–96.Google Scholar
Las Casas, Bartolome 1875 Historia General de las Indias, edited by Martin Fernandez Navarrete et al. Madrid.Google Scholar
Levy, Janet 1979 Evidence of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Denmark. Journal of Field Archaeology 6: 49–56.Google Scholar
Levy, Janet 1983 Rank and Religion in Prehistoric Chiefdoms. Paper presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Lewis, Herbert S. 1978 Warfare and the Origin of the State: Another Formulation. Paper presented at the Xth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Linares, Olga F. 1977 Ecology and the Arts in Ancient Panama. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, 17.Google Scholar
Linares, Olga F. 1979 What is Lower Central American Archaeology? Annual Review of Anthropology 8: 21–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linares, Olga F. 1980 La Pitahaya (IS-3) in the Gulf of Chiriqui: Mapping and Excavations. In Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama, edited by F. Linares, Olga and Ranere, Anthony J., pp. 306–315. Peabody Museum Monographs 5. Google Scholar
Linares, Olga F., and Ranere, Anthony J. (editors) 1980 Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama. Peabody Museum Monographs 5.Google Scholar
Linares, Olga F., Sheets, Payson D., and Jane Rosenthal, E. 1975 Prehistoric Agriculture in Tropical Highlands. Science 187: 137–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lopez de Gomara, Francisco 1954 Historia General de las Indias. 2 vols. Barcelona [1552].Google Scholar
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1926 Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. 2 vols. Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation 8.Google Scholar
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1937 Cocle, an Archaeological Study of Central Panama: Part I. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 1. Google Scholar
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1954 Suicide, Sacrifice, and Mutilations in Burials at Venado Beach, Panama. American Antiquity 19: 226–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicaragua en los Cronistas de Indias-Siglo XVI 1976 Serie Cronistas 1. Fondo de promocion cultural, Banco de America, Managua.Google Scholar
Oliver, Douglas 1955 A Solomon Island Society. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pagden, A. R. (editor and translator) 1971 Hernan Cortes, Letters from Mexico. Grossman, New York.Google Scholar
Paulsen, Alison 1977 Patterns of Maritime Trade Between South Coastal Ecuador and Western Mesoamerica, 1500 B. C. -A. D. 600. In The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by P. Benson, Elizabeth, pp. 141–160. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Peebles, Christopher S. 1974 Moundville: The Organization of a Prehistoric Community and Culture. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Peebles, Christopher S. 1983 Moundville: Late Prehistoric Sociopolitical Organization in the Southeastern United States. In The Development of Political Organization in Native North America, edited by Tooker, Elisabeth, pp. 183–198. American Ethnological Society, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Peebles, Christopher S., and Kus, Susan M. 1977 Some Archaeological Correlates of Ranked Societies. American Antiquity 42: 421–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peralta, Manuel M. de(editor) 1883 Costa Rica, Nicaragua y Panama en el siglo XVI, su historia y sus limites segun los documentos de archivo de Indias de Sevilla, del de Simancas etc., recogidos y publicados con notas y aclaraciones historicas y geograficas. Libreria de M. Murillo, Madrid.Google Scholar
Petersen, Glenn 1982 One Man Cannot Rule a Thousand: Fission in a Ponapean Chiefdom. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred 1983 Political and Economic Alliances on the Colorado Plateaus, A. D. 400-1450. In Advances in World Archaeology, edited by Wendorf, Fred, pp. 289–330. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred, and Upham, Steadman 1983 The Analysis of Prehistoric Political Organization. In The Development of Political Organization in Native North America, edited by Tooker, Elisabeth, pp. 199–213. American Ethnological Society, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Plog, Stephen, and Braun, David P. 1983 Some Issues in the Archaeology of “Tribal” Social Systems. American Antiquity 49: 619–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pohorilenko, Anatole 1980 The Olmec Style and Costa Rican Archaeology. In The Olmec and Their Neighbors, edited by P. Benson, Elizabeth, pp. 309–328. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Pozorski, Thomas 1980 The Early Horizon Site of Huaca de los Reyes: Societal Implications. American Antiquity 45: 100–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranere, Anthony J. 1975 Toolmaking and Tool Use among the Preceramic Peoples of Panama. In Lithic Technology, edited by Swanson, E., pp. 173–209. Mouton, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remesal, Fray Antonio de 1932 Historia General de las Indias Occidentals y Particular de la Gobernacion de Chiapa y Guatemala. 2 vols. Biblioteca “Goathemala” de la Sociedad de Geografia e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1972 The Emergence of Civilization: The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B. C. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1973 Monuments, Mobilization and Social Organization in Neolithic Wessex. In The Explanation of Culture Change: Models in Prehistory, edited by Renfrew, Colin, pp. 539–558. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall 1963 Poor Man, Rich Man, Big Man, Chief: Political Types in Melanesia and Polynesia. Comparative Studies in Society and History 5: 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall 1968 Tribesmen. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall 1972 Stone Age Economics. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Saitta, Dean J. 1983 On the Evolution of “Tribal” Social Networks. American Antiquity 48: 820–824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, William T., and Price, Barbara J. 1968 Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Sauer, Carl O. 1966 The Early Spanish Main. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Service, Elman R. 1971 Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Service, Elman R. 1975 Origins of the State and Civilization: The Process of Cultural Evolution. Norton, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., and Heath-Smith, Cynthia M. 1980 Waves of Influence in Postclassic Mesoamerica?: A Critique of the Mixteca-Puebla Concept. Anthropology 4: 15–50.Google Scholar
Snarskis, Michael J. 1981 The Archaeology of Costa Rica. In Precolumbian Art of Costa Rica, edited by P. Benson, Elizabeth, pp. 15–84. Harry N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1978 Location Theory and Complex Chiefdoms: A Mississippian Example. In Mississippian Settlement Patterns, edited by D. Smith, Bruce, pp. 417–453. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1955 Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Stone, Doris 1972 Precolumbian Man Finds Central America. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Stone, Doris 1977 Precolumbian Man in Costa Rica. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sweeney, Jeanne W. 1975 Guanacaste, Costa Rica: An Analysis of Pre-Columbian Ceramics from the Northwest Coast. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Sturtevant, William 1983 Tribe and State in the Sixteenth and Twentieth Centuries. In Native North America, edited by Tooker, Elisabeth, pp. 3–16. American Ethnological Society, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Torquemada, Juan de O. F. M. 1969 Monarquia Indiana. 3 vols. Editorial Porrua, Mexico [1723].Google Scholar
Upham, Steadman 1982 Polities and Power: An Economic and Political History of the Western Pueblo. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Upham, Steadman, Lightfoot, Kent G., and Feinman, Gary M. 1981 Explaining Socially Determined Ceramic Distributions in the Prehistoric Plateau Southwest. American Antiquity 46: 822–833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vazquez de Coronado, Juan 1964 Cartas de Juan Vazquez de Coronado, Conquistador de Costa Rica, edited by Ricardo, Fernandez-Guardia. Academia de Geografia e Historia de Costa Rica, San Jose.Google Scholar
Vazquez de Coronado, Juan n. d. Report on a visit to sites in the Gulf of Nicoya. Ms. on file, National Museum of Costa Rica.Google Scholar
Verrill, A. Hyatt 1927a Excavations in Code Province, Panama. Indian Notes 4(1): 47–61. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.Google Scholar
Verrill, A. Hyatt 1927b The Pompeii of Anrient America: A Vast Settlement Destroyed Centuries Before Christ. The World's Work 53(3): 279–288. Doubleday, Page, New York.Google Scholar
Ximenez, Fr. Francisco O. P. 1929-1931 Historia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala. Biblioteca “Goathemala” de la Sociedad de Geografia e Historia 1, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Yoffee, Norman 1979 The Decline and Rise of Mesopotamian Civilization: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective on the Evolution of Social Complexity. American Antiquity 44: 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar