Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T19:37:52.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

EARLY COLONIALISM AND POPULATION MOVEMENT AT THE MISSION SAN BERNABÉ, GUATEMALA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2020

Carolyn Freiwald*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Mississippi, 510 Lamar, Oxford, Mississippi38677
Katherine A. Miller Wolf
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of West Florida, 11000 University Parkway, Building 13, Office 131, Pensacola, Florida32514
Timothy Pugh
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Queens College/CUNY, Flushing, New York11367
Asta J. Rand
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, P.O. Box 4200, St. John's, NL A1C 5S7, Canada
Paul D. Fullagar
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 104 South Road, Mitchell Hall, Campus Box #3315, Chapel Hill, North Carolina27599
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]

Abstract

Colonialism came late to northern Guatemala. The Spanish began to establish missions in the Peten Lakes region in the early 1700s, nearly 200 years after initial contact with the Mayas. Excavations in 2011–2012 at the Mission San Bernabé revealed European goods, nonnative animal species, and burial patterns that marked a new lifestyle. Who lived at the Mission San Bernabé, and where did they come from? The Spanish resettled indigenous populations to facilitate the colonization process; however, isotopic data are inconsistent with large population movements. Instead, strontium and oxygen isotope values in the tooth enamel and bones of individuals buried at the mission suggest a mostly local population. The data suggest in-migration from Belize, a region under nominal Spanish control, but with pre-Hispanic ties to the Peten. Changes did not come from migrants crossing a border; instead, the border itself moved and brought the colonial world to the Peten Mayas.

Type
Special Section: Borders, Frontiers, and Boundaries in the Maya World: Concepts and Theory
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Arnauld, Charlotte M., Beekman, Christopher, and Pereira, Gregory 2020 Ancient Mesoamerican Cities: Populations on the Move. In Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Arnauld, Charlotte M., Beekman, Christopher, and Pereira, Gregory. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. In press.Google Scholar
Awe, Jaime J., Ebert, Claire E., Freiwald, Carolyn, and Green, Kirsten 2017 The Dead Do Tell Tales: Unraveling the Case of Cahal Pech's Jane or John Doe. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14:213225.Google Scholar
Bentley, R. Alexander 2006 Strontium Isotopes from the Earth to the Archaeological Skeleton: A Review. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13:135187.Google Scholar
Boot, Erik 1997 “No Place Like Home”: Maya Exodus. In Veertig Jaren Onderweg, edited by Claessen, Henri J.M. and Vermeulen, Hans F., pp. 165187. DSWO Press Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Leiden.Google Scholar
Buikstra, Jane E., and Ubelaker, Douglas H. 1994 Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Burton, James H., and Wright, Lori E. 1995 Nonlinearity in the Relationship between Bone Sr/Ca and Diet: Paleodietary Implications. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 96:273282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cabana, Graciela S., and Clark, Jeffery J. (editors) 2011 Rethinking Anthropological Perspectives on Migration. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caso Barrera, Laura 2002 Caminos en la Selva. Migracion, comercio, y resistencia. Mayas yucatecos e itzaes, siglos XVII–XIX. Colegio de México and Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Caso Barrera, Laura, and Fernández, Mario Aliphat 2006 Cacao, Vanilla and Annatto: Three Production and Exchange Systems in the Southern Maya Lowlands, XVI–XVII Centuries. Journal of Latin American Geography 5:2952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, Harmon 1957 Isotopic Standards for Carbon and Oxygen and Correction Factors for Mass-Spectrometric Analysis of Carbon Dioxide. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 12:133149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Diane E. 2012 Past Identities, Present Legitimation: The Reuse of a Late Preclassic Residential Group at the Maya Site of San Bartolo, Guatemala. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Dickin, Alan P. 2005 Radiogenic Isotope Geology. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donis, Alicia E. 2014 Exploring the Movement of People in Postclassic and Historic Period Lamanai Using Stable Isotopes. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London.Google Scholar
Ericson, Jonathon E. 1985 Strontium Isotope Characterization in the Study of Prehistoric Human Ecology. Journal of Human Evolution 14:503514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farriss, Nancy M. 1984 Maya Society under Colonial Rule. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Faure, Gunter, and Powell, James L. 1972 Strontium Isotope Geology. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn 2011 Maya Migration Networks: Reconstructing Population Movement in the Belize River Valley during the Late and Terminal Classic. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison.Google Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn 2018 Mobility and Diet in the Belize River Valley: A Resource Guide. In Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2017 Field Season, Vol. 23, edited by Ebert, Claire, Hoggarth, Julie, and Awe, Jaime, pp. 357386. Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University, Waco.Google Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn 2020a Barton Ramie and In-Migration to the Belize River Valley: Strontium Isotopes and Burial Patterns. In Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Charlotte Arnauld, M., Beekman, Christopher, and Pereira, Gregory. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. In press.Google Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn 2020b Migration and Mobility among the Ancient Maya. In The Maya World, edited by Hutson, Scott and Ardren, Traci. CRC Press, Boca Raton. In press.Google Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn, Woodfill, Brent K.S., and Mills, Ryan D. 2019 Chemical Signatures of Salt Sources in the Maya World: Implications for Isotopic Signals in Ancient Consumers. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 27:101990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn, and Pugh, Timothy 2018 The Origins of Early Colonial Cows at San Bernabé, Guatemala: Strontium Isotope Values at an Early Spanish Mission in the Petén Lakes Region of Northern Guatemala. Environmental Archaeology: The Journal of Human Paleoecology 23:278284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garvie-Lok Sandra, J., Varney, Tamara L., and Anne Katzenberg, M. 2004 Preparation of Bone Carbonate for Stable Isotope Analysis: The Effects of Treatment Time and Acid Concentration. Journal of Archaeological Science 31:763776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasco, Janine 2005 The Consequences of Spanish Colonial Rule for the Indigenous Peoples of Chiapas, Mexico. In The Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica, edited by Kepecs, Susan, and Alexander, Rani, pp. 7796. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Gilli, Adrian, Hodell, David A., Kamenov, George D., and Brenner, Mark 2009 Geological and Archaeological Implications of Strontium Isotope Analysis of Exposed Bedrock in the Chicxulub Crater Basin, Northwestern Yucatán, Mexico. Geology 37:723726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Elizabeth, Simmons, Scott E., and White, Christine D. 2013 The Spanish Conquest and the Maya Collapse: How ‘Religious’ is Change? World Archaeology 45:161185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Kirsten Anne 2016 The Use of Stable Isotope Analysis on Burials at Cahal Pech, Belize in order to Identify Trends in Mortuary Practices over Time and Space. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Missoula.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina, Freiwald, Carolyn, and Iannone, Gyles 2020 Introduction to the Special Section: Borders, Frontiers, and Boundaries in the Maya World: Concepts and Theory. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:453460.Google Scholar
Hedges, Robert E.M., Clement, John G., David, C., Thomas, L., and O'Connell, Tamsin C. 2007 Collagen Turnover in the Adult Femoral Mid-Shaft: Modeled from Anthropogenic Radiocarbon Tracer Measurements. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133:808816.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, Jonathan D. 1998 Violent Encounters: Ethnogenesis and Ethnocide in Long-Term Contact Situations. In Studies in Culture Contact: Interaction, Culture Change, and Archaeology, edited by Cusick, James G., pp. 146171. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Hodell, David A., Quinn, Rhonda L., Brenner, Mark, and Kamenov, George D. 2004 Spatial Variation of Strontium Isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) in the Maya Region: A Tool for Tracking Ancient Human Migration. Journal of Archaeological Science 31:585601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoggarth, Julie, Freiwald, Carolyn, and Awe, Jaime 2020 Classic and Postclassic Population Movement and Cultural Change in the Belize Valley. In Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Arnauld, Charlotte, Beekman, Christopher, and Pereira, Gregory. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. In press.Google Scholar
Iannone, Gyles 2010 Collective Memory in the Frontiers: A Case Study from the Ancient Maya Center of Minanha, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 21:353371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Grant (editor) 1977 Anthropology and History in Yucatan. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Jones, Grant 1998 The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Kepecs, Susan, and Alexander, Rani T. (editors) 2005 The Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica: Archaeological Perspectives. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Koch Paul, L., Tuross, Noreen, and Fogel, Marilyn L. 1997 The Effects of Sample Treatment and Diagenesis on the Isotopic Integrity of Carbonate in Biogenic Hydroxylapatite. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:417429.Google Scholar
Lachniet, Matthew S., and Patterson, William P. 2009 Oxygen Isotope Values of Precipitation and Surface Waters in Northern Central America (Belize and Guatemala) are Dominated by Temperature and Amount Effects. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 284:435446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laffoon, Jason E., Davies, Gareth R., Hoogland, Menno L.P., and Hofman, Corinne L. 2012 Spatial Variation of Biologically Available Strontium Isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) in an Archipelagic Setting: A Case Study from the Caribbean. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:23712384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marfia, A.M., Krishnamurthya, Rama V., Atekwana, Eliot A., and Panton, W.F. 2004 Isotopic and Geochemical Evolution of Ground and Surface Waters in a Karst Dominated Geological Setting: A Case Study from Belize, Central America. Applied Geochemistry 19:937946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meissner, Nathan 2020 The Porous Boundary: Comparing Late Postclassic–Early Colonial Maya Projectile Technologies across Petén and Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:526542.Google Scholar
Miller, Katherine A. 2015a Family, ‘Foreigners’, and Fictive Kinship: A Bioarchaeological Approach to Social Organization at Late Classic Copan. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Miller, Katherine A. 2015b Proyecto Arqueológico Tayasal: Informe del Análisis de Entierros. In Proyecto Arqueológico Tayasal: Informe preliminar. Presentado al Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala de las Temporadas de Investigaciones 2014–2015, edited by Pugh, Timothy W. and Chan, Evelyn, pp. 8891. Unpublished manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, Queens College, New York.Google Scholar
Miller Wolf, Katherine A., and Freiwald, Carolyn 2018 Re-Interpreting Ancient Maya Mobility: A Strontium Isotope Baseline for Western Honduras. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 20:799807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oland, Maxine, Hart, Siobhan M., and Frink, Liam (editors) 2012 Exploring Prehistoric/Colonial Transitions in Archaeology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Ortega-Muñoz, Allan, Douglas Price, T., Burton, James H., and Cucina, Andrea 2019 Population Movements and Identity in Postclassic Yucatan. Bioarchaeological Analysis of Human Remains from the East Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 23:490500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, Bradley J. 2006 Toward an Understanding of Borderland Processes. American Antiquity 71:77100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pestle, William J., Crowley, Brooke E., and Weirauch, Matthew T. 2014 Quantifying Inter-Laboratory Variability in Stable Isotope Analysis of Ancient Skeletal Remains. PLoS One 9:e102844.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Price, T. Douglas, James H. Burton, Robert J. Sharer, Jane E. Buikstra, Lori E. Wright, Loa P. Traxler, and Katherine A. Miller, 2010 Kings and Commoners at Copán: Isotopic Evidence for Origins and Movement in the Classic Maya Period. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29:1532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. Douglas, Burton, James H., Cucina, Andrea, Zabala, Pilar, Frei, Robert, Tykot, Robert H., and Tiesler, Vera 2012 Isotopic Studies of Human Skeletal Remains from a Sixteenth to Seventeenth Century a.d. Churchyard in Campeche, Mexico: Diet, Place of Origin, and Age. Current Anthropology 53:396433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. Douglas, Burton, James H., Fullagar, Paul D., Wright, Lori E., Buikstra, Jane E., and Tiesler, Vera 2008 Strontium Isotopes and the Study of Human Mobility in Ancient Mesoamerica. Latin American Antiquity 19:167180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. Douglas, Burton, James H., Fullagar, Paul D., Wright, Lori E., Buikstra, Jane E., and Tiesler, Vera 2015 Strontium Isotopes and the Study of Human Mobility among the Ancient Maya. In Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Population Movement among the Prehispanic Maya, edited by Cucina, Andrea, pp. 119132. Springer International Publishing, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. Douglas, Tiesler, Vera, and Freiwald, Carolyn 2019 Place of Origin of the Sacrificial Victims in the Sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 170:98115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Price, T. Douglas, Tiesler, Vera, and Burton, James H. 2006 Early African Diaspora in Colonial Campeche, Mexico: Strontium Isotopic Evidence. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 130:485490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pugh, Timothy W. 2002 Remembering Mayapán: Petén Kowoj Architecture as Social Metaphor and Power. The Dynamics of Power, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, edited by O'Donovan, Maria, pp. 301323. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Pugh, Timothy W., Sánchez, Jose Rómulo, and Shiratori, Yuko 2012 Contact and Missionization at Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 37:319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pugh, Timothy W., Wolf, Katherine Miller, Freiwald, Carolyn, and Rice, Prudence M. 2016 Technologies of Domination at Mission San Bernabé, Petén, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 27:4970.Google Scholar
Rand, Asta, Matute, Varinia, Grimes, Vaughan, Freiwald, Carolyn, and Źrałka, Jarosław 2020 Prehispanic Maya Diet and Movement at Nakum, Guatemala: A Multi-Isotopic Approach. Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports 32:102374.Google Scholar
Rand, Asta J., and Grimes, Vaughan 2017 The Environmental Sulfur Isotope Composition of the Maya Region: A Working Model and Preliminary Results. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162:327327.Google Scholar
Restall, Matthew 1997 The Maya World: Yucatec Culture and Society 1550–1850. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M., Boileau, Arianne, Cecil, Leslie G., deFrance, Susan D., Freiwald, Carolyn, Meissner, Nathan J., Pugh, Timothy W., Rice, Don S., and Yacubic, Matthew P. 2018 Zacpeten Structure 719: Activities at a Contact Period Popol Nah before Rapid Abandonment. Ancient Mesoamerica 29:137155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 2020 Itza Maya Migration and Mobility: A Tale of Two (or More) Cities. In Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities, edited by Arnauld, Charlotte, Beekman, Christopher, and Pereira, Gregory. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. In press.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M., and Rice, Don S. 2005 The Final Frontier of the Maya. In Untaming the Frontier in Anthropology, Archaeology, and History, edited by Parker, Bradley J. and Rodseth, Lars, pp. 147174. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M., and Rice, Don S. (editors) 2009 The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Robinson, David J. 1981 Indian Migration in Eighteenth Century Yucatan: The Open Nature of the Closed Corporate Community. In Studies in Spanish American Population History, edited by Robinson, David J., pp. 149173. Dellplain Latin American Studies, No. 8. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Schaefer, Maureen, Black, Sue M., Schaefer, Maureen C., and Scheuer, Louise 2009 Juvenile Osteology. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Scherer, Andrew K., de Carteret, Alyce, and Newman, Sarah 2015 Local Water Resource Variability and Oxygen Isotopic Reconstructions of Mobility: A Case Study from the Maya Area. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2:666676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, Hannes, O'Connell, Tamsin C., Evans, Jane A., Shuler, Kristrina A., and Hedges, Robert E. M. 2009 Trans-Atlantic Slavery: Isotopic Evidence for Forced Migration to Barbados. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139:547557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, Norman B. 1990 Forest Society: A Social History of Petén, Guatemala. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Sharpe, Ashley E., Kamenov, George D., Gilli, Adrian, Hodell, David A., Emery, Kitty F., Brenner, Mark, and Krigbaum, John 2016 Lead (Pb) Isotope Baselines for Studies of Ancient Human Migration and Trade in the Maya Region. PloS One 11:e0164871.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shiratori, Yuko 2017 Constructing Social Identity through the Past: Migration Myths and Exchange Systems of the Contact Period Itza. In Trading Spaces: The Archaeology of Migration, Interaction, and Exchange Proceedings of the 46th Annual Chacmool Archaeology Conference, edited by Patton, Margaret and Manion, Jessica, pp. 5668. University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Shiratori, Yuko 2019 Constructing Social Identity through the Past: The Itza Maya Community Identity through the Late Postclassic Period (1250–1525 CE). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York.Google Scholar
Sponheimer, Matt, and Lee-Thorp, Julia A. 1999 Oxygen Isotopes in Enamel Carbonate and their Ecological Significance. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:723728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suzuki, Shintaro, Paredes, Federico A., Douglas Price, T., Burton, James H., and Vides, Fernando A. 2015 Georreferencia isotópica de El Salvador: Un fundamento para futuros estudios bioarqueológicos en El Salvador. Anales 54:112128.Google Scholar
Thornton, Erin K. 2011 Reconstructing Ancient Maya Animal Trade through Strontium Isotope (87Sr/86Sr) Analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 38:32543263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trask, Willa 2018 Missionization and Shifting Mobility on the Southeastern Maya-Spanish Frontier: Identifying Immigration to the Maya Site of Tipu, Belize Through the Use of Strontium and Oxygen Isotopes. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Voss, Barbara L. 2005 From Casta to Californio: Social Identity and the Archaeology of Culture Contact. American Anthropologist 107:461474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, Christian E., Davis-Salazar, Karla L., Moreno-Cortés, José E., Stuart, Glenn S.L., and Novotny, Anna C. 2014 Analysis of the Context and Contents of an Ulua-Style Marble Vase from the Palmarejo Valley, Honduras. Latin American Antiquity 25:82100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Christine, Longstaffe, Fred J., and Law, Kimberley R. 2004 Exploring the Effects of Environment, Physiology and Diet on Oxygen Isotope Ratios in Ancient Nubian Bones and Teeth. Journal of Archaeological Science 31:233250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Lori E. 2005 Identifying Immigrants to Tikal, Guatemala: Defining Local Variability in Strontium Isotope Ratios of Human Tooth Enamel. Journal of Archaeological Science 32:555566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Lori E. 2007 Ethnicity and Isotopes at Mayapán. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/05068/05068Wright01.pdf, accessed November 2019.Google Scholar
Wright, Lori E. 2012 Immigration to Tikal, Guatemala: Evidence from Stable Strontium and Oxygen Isotopes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31:334352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Lori E., Valdés, Juan Antonio, Burton, James H., Douglas Price, T., and Schwarcz, Henry P. 2010 The Children of Kaminaljuyu: Isotopic into Diet and Long Distance Interaction in Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29:155178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrobel, Gabriel D., Freiwald, Carolyn, Michael, Amy, Helmke, Christophe, Awe, Jaime, Kennett, Douglas J., Gibbs, Sherry, Ferguson, Jocelyn M., and Griffith, Cameron 2017 Social Identity and Geographic Origin of Maya Burials at Actun Uayazba Kab, Roaring Creek Valley, Belize. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 45:98114.Google Scholar