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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

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