Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T00:26:04.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

PRE-HISPANIC-TO-COLONIAL DIETARY TRANSITIONS AT ETZATLAN, JALISCO, MEXICO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2012

Judith F. Porcasi
Judith F. Porcasi*
Affiliation:
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California at Los Angeles, 308 Charles E. Young Drive North, A210 Fowler Building, Box 951510 Los Angeles, CA 90095–1510
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Faunal analysis of subsistence remains from four sites in the Etzatlan Basin in western central Mexico presents important contrasts between pre-Hispanic and colonial dietary patterns. Specific changes in animal remains are well correlated with the transition from pre-Hispanic to colonial occupations tracked along a statistically derived timeline in which ceramic evidence for the onset of colonization is found. Allometry is used to calculate faunal biomass, and abundance and diversity indices are used to define these dietary patterns relative to the timeline. There is a decrease in use of large mammals over time and an increased use of smaller mammals, birds, and reptiles/amphibians. In particular, a marked increase in exploitation of the most important native large mammal (for example, deer) is found during early colonial occupation. However, this bounty decreased appreciably during later periods, consistent with widening of dietary breadth by inclusion of less preferred resources.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Fall 2012 , pp. 251 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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

Alexander, Rani T., and Kepecs, Susan 2005 The Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica: An Introduction. In The Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by Kepecs, Susan and Alexander, Rani T., pp. 1–12. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Álvarez, Ticul, and Ocaña, Aurelio 1999 Sinopsis de restos arqueozoológicos de vertebrados terrestres: Basada en informes del laboratorio de paleozoologi'a del INAH. Colección Cientifica 386, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Azúa, Raúl Valadez 1992 Fauna Relationship in Mesoamerica Before and After the Europeans. Diogenes 40:51–56.Google Scholar
Azúa, Raúl Valadez 2005 Faunal Remains from Xaltocan. In Production and Power at Postclassic Xaltocan, edited by Brumfiel, Elizabeth M., pp. 233–246. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and University of Pittsburgh, Mexico City and Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Bayham, Frank E. 1979 Factors Influencing the Archaic Pattern of Animal Utilization. Kiva 44:219–235.Google Scholar
Bayham, Frank E. 1982 A Diachronic Analysis of Prehistoric Animal Exploitation at Ventana Cave. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Beekman, Christopher S. 2010 Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 18:41–109.Google Scholar
Bell, Betty 1974 The Archaeology of West Mexico. West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Berlanga-Robles, César A., Madrid-Vera, Juan, and Ruiz-Luna, Arturo 2002 Fish Abundance and Trophic Structure from the Commercial Catch in Lake Patzcuaro, Mexico. Hydrobiologia 467:117–122.Google Scholar
Broughton, Jack M. 1994 Declines in Mammalian Foraging Efficiency During the Late Holocene, San Francisco Bay, California. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13:371–401.Google Scholar
Broughton, Jack M. 1999 Resource Depression and Intensification During the Late Holocene, San Francisco Bay: Evidence from the Emeryville Shellmound Vertebrate Fauna. Anthropological Records Vol. 32, University of California Publications, University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Broughton, Jack M., Cannon, Michael D., Bayham, Frank E., and Byers, Donald A. 2011 Prey Body Size and Ranking in Zooarchaeology: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Applications from the Northern Great Basin. American Antiquity 76:403–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charlton, Thomas H., Fournier, Patricia, and Charlton, Cynthia L. Otis 2009 Historical Archaeology in Central and Northern Mesoamerica: Development and Current Status. In International Handbook of Historical Archaeology, edited by Majewski, Teresita and Gaimster, David, pp. 409–428. Springer, NY.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jacob 1988 Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Colley, Sarah M. 1990 The Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological Fish Remains. In Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 2, edited by Schiffer, Michael B., pp. 207–253. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Cook, Richard G., and Ranere, Anthony J. 1989 Hunting in Pre-Columbian Panama: A Diachronic Perspective. In The Walking Larder: Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation, edited by Clutton-Brock, J., pp. 295–315. Unwin Hyman, London.Google Scholar
Corona-M, Eduardo 2008 The Origin of Archaeozoology in México: An Overview. Quaternary International 185:75–81.Google Scholar
Corona-M, Eduardo, and Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquin 2007 Human and Faunal Relationships Reviewed: An Archaeozoological Approach. BAR International Series 1627. Archaeopress, Oxford.Google Scholar
Cumbaa, Stephen 1973 Subsistence Strategy at Venadillo, Sinaloa, Mexico. In The Marismas Nacionales of Mexico: Report on Continuing Investigations of the Archaeology and Related Natural Sciences Studies, edited by Scott, Stuart D., pp. 66–79. West Mexican Prehistory, Part 7. State University of New York, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Deagan, Kathleen 2004 Reconsidering Taino Social Dynamics after Spanish Conquest: Gender and Class in Culture Contact Studies. American Antiquity 69:597–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Domínguez, Omar, Boto, Luis, Alda, Fernando, de León, Gerardo Pérez-Ponce, and Doadrio, Ignacio 2007 Human Impacts on Drainages of the Mesa Central, Mexico, and Its Genetic Effects on an Endangered Fish. Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis. Conservation Biology 21(1):168–180.Google Scholar
Emery, Kitty F. 2008 A Zooarchaeological Test for Dietary Resource Depression at the End of the Classic Period in the Petexbatun, Guatemala. Human Ecology 36:617–634.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan Toby 2008 Ancient Mexico and Central America, 2nd ed.Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Foster, Michael S., and Weigand, Phil C. 1985 The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica. Westview Press, Boulder and London.Google Scholar
Gennis, Carlos F. 1999 Etzatlan y su region. Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Guadalajara.Google Scholar
Gill, G.Wayland 1974 Toltec-Period Burial Customs within the Marismas Nacionales of Western Mexico. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by Bell, Betty, pp. 83–105. West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Glassow, Michael A. 1967 The Ceramics of Huistla, a West Mexican Site in the Municipality of Etzatlan, Jalisco. American Antiquity 32:64–83.Google Scholar
Goldman, Edward A. 1951 Biological Investigations in Mexico. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Vol. 115. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Guzmán, Ana Fabiola, Polaco, Oscar J., and Pollard, Helen P. 2001 Ofrendas de peces asociadas a entierros del clásico–epiclásico en Urichu, Michoacán, México. Archaeofauna 10:149–162.Google Scholar
Guzmán, Ana Fabiola, and Polaco, Oscar J. 2003 A Comparative Analysis of Fish Remains from Some Mexican Offerings. Archaeofauna 12:7–20.Google Scholar
Guzmán, Ana Fabiola, and Polaco, Oscar J. 2005 Fishing in Prehispanic Mexico. In The Role of Fish in Ancient Time: Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of the International Council on Archaeozoology Fish Remains Working Group, pp. 25–36. Basel.Google Scholar
Heredia Espinoza, Verenice Y. 2008 The Agave Landscape and its Archaeological Context in the Tequila Volcano Area. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Crystal River, FL.Google Scholar
Jameson, E.W. Jr., and Peeters, Hans J. 1988 California Mammals. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Jochim, Michael A. 1998 A Hunter-Gatherer Landscape: Southwest Germany in the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Plenum Press, New York and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Isabel T. 1945 The Archaeology of the Autlan-Tuxcacuesco Area of Jalisco. I: The Autlan Zone. Ibero-Americana 26. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Long, Stanley V. 1966 Archaeology of the Municipio of Etzatlan, Jalisco. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Long, Stanley V., and Taylor, R.E. 1966 Suggested Revision for West Mexican Archaeological Sequences. Science 154:1456–1459.Google Scholar
Lubinski, Pat M. 1996 Fish Heads, Fish Heads: An Experiment on Differential Bone Preservation in a Salmonid Fish. Journal of Archaeological Science 23:175–181.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee 1994 Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee, and O'Brien, Michael J. 1987 Plow-Zone Zooarchaeology: Fragmentation and Identifiability. Journal of Field Archaeology 14:493–498.Google Scholar
Margalef, Ramon 1957 La teoría de la información en ecología. Memorias de la Real Academia de Ciencias Naturales y Artes de Barcelona 32:373–499. Translated by Hall, W. in General Systems 3:36–71.Google Scholar
Meighan, Clement W. 1961 Interrelationships of New World Cultures: Investigation by the Institute of Andean Research, Field Activities of Project A (West Mexico), 1960–1961. Unpublished manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Melville, Elinor G.K. 1994 A Plague of Sheep: Environmental Consequences of the Conquest of Mexico. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Mountjoy, Joseph B., and Claassen, Cheryl P. 2005 Middle Formative Diet and Seasonality on the Central Coast of Nayarit, Mexico. In Archaeology without Limits: Papers in Honor of Clement W. Meighan, edited by Dillon, Brian D. and Boxt, Matthew A., pp. 267–282. Labyrinthos, Lancaster, CA.Google Scholar
Nance, C. Roger, de Leeuw, Jan, Weigand, Phil C., Prado, Kathy, and Verity, David 2008 Sequencing Potsherds Through Correspondence Analysis: The Long-Glassow Collection from Etzatlan, Jalisco. Unpublished manuscript on file, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Henry B. 1962 Notes and News: Middle America. American Antiquity 27:617–624.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Henry B., and Meighan, Clement W. 1974 The UCLA Department of Anthropology Program in West Mexican Archaeology-Ethnohistory, 1956–1970. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by Bell, Betty, pp. 6–18. West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Rebecca A. 1996 Fish Bone Diagenesis in Different Soils. Archaeofauna 5:79–91.Google Scholar
Payne, Sebastian 1972 Partial Recovery and Sample Bias: The Results of Some Sieving Experiments. In Papers in Economic Prehistory, edited by Higgs, Eric S., pp. 49–64. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Pétrequin, Pierre, Arbogast, Rose-Marie, Bourquin-Mignot, Christine, Lavier, Catherine, and Viellet, Amandine 1998 Demographic Growth, Environmental Changes and Technical Adaptations: Responses of an Agricultural Community from the 32nd to the 30th Centuries B.C. World Archaeology 30:181–192.Google Scholar
Polaco, Oscar J., and Guzmán, A. Fabiola 1997 Arqueoictiofauna Mexicana. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen Perlstein 1997 Recent Research in West Mexico Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 5:345–384.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen Perlstein 2003 Development of a Tarascan Core: The Lake Patzcuaro Basin. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances, pp. 227–237. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen Perlstein 2005 From Imperial Core to Colonial Periphery: The Lake Patzcuaro Basin 1400–1800. In The Late Postclassic to Spanish Era Transition in Mesoamerica, edited by Alexander, Rani and Kepecs, Susan, pp. 65–76. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen P., and Cahue, Laura 1999 Mortuary Patterns of Regional Elites in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin of Western Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 10:259–280.Google Scholar
Porcasi, Judith F. 2008 Subsistence Patterns of Prehistoric Coastal California: Investigating Variations of Early Maritime Adaptation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester.Google Scholar
Porcasi, Judith F. 2010 Archaeological Evidence for Dietary Use of Bigfoot Leopard Frog (Lithobates megapoda) in Postclassic and Colonial Central Mexico. Culture & Agriculture 32(1):42–48.Google Scholar
Prescott, William H. 1936 The Conquest of Mexico and the Conquest of Peru. The Modern Library, New York.Google Scholar
Quitmyer, Irvy R. 2004 What Kind of Data Are in the Back Dirt? An Experiment on the Influence of Screen Size on Optimal Data Recovery. Archaeofauna 13:109–129.Google Scholar
Reitz, Elizabeth J., and Cumbaa, Stephen L. 1983 Diet and Foodways of Eighteenth-Century Spanish St. Augustine. In Spanish St. Augustine: The Archaeology of a Colonial Creole Community, edited by Deagan, Kathleen A., 151–185. Academic Press, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Reitz, Elizabeth J., and Wing, Elizabeth S. 2008 Zooarchaeology, 2nd ed.Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rick, Torben C., Erlandson, Jon M., and Vellanoweth, René 2001 Paleocoastal Marine Fishing on the Pacific Coast of the Americas: Perspectives from Daisy Cave, California. American Antiquity 66:595–613.Google Scholar
Ross, Anne, and Duffy, Ryan 2000 Fine Mesh Screening of Midden Material and the Recovery of Fishbone: The Development of Flotation and Deflocculation Techniques for an Efficient and Effective Procedure. Geoarchaeology 15:21–41.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Bernardino 1989 Conquest of New Spain, 1585 Revision. Translated by Cline, Howard F.. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Santley, Robert S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schibler, Jörg, Jacomet, Stephanie, Hüster-Plogmann, Heide, and Brombacher, Christoph 1997 Economic Crash in the 37th and 36th Centuries cal. B.C. in Neolithic Lake Shore Sites in Switzerland. Anthropozoologica 25/26:553–570.Google Scholar
Scott, Stuart D. 1974 Archaeology and the Estuary: Researching Prehistory and Paleoecology in the Marismas Nacionales, Sinaloa and Nayarit, Mexico. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by Bell, Betty, pp. 51–56. West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Seibert, Joan J. 1972 Faunal Remains from the Morett Site, Appendix E. In Archaeology of the Morett Site, Colima, University of California Publications in Anthropology, Vol. 7, edited by Meighan, Clement W., pp. 97. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Shenkel, J. Richard 1974 Quantitative Analysis and Population Estimates of the Shell Mounds of the Marismas Nacionales, West Mexico. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by Bell, Betty, pp. 57–67. West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Shennan, Stephen 2002 Genes, Memes and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Smith, Eric A. 1991 Inujjuamiut Foraging Strategies: Evolutionary Ecology of an Arctic Hunting Economy. Aldine De Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, M.L., and Miller, R.R. 1980 Allotoca maculata: A New Species of Goodeid Fish from Western Mexico, with Comments on Allotoca dugesi. Copeia 3:408–417.Google Scholar
Stephens, David W., and Krebs, John R. 1986 Foraging Theory. University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Susia, Margaret 1961 The Morrett (sic) Sequence. Unpublished manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Takács, István, and Bartosiewicz, László 1998 Data on the History of Fish Exploitation in Hungary. Electronic document, http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue4/takacs_index.html, accessed September 1, 2009.Google Scholar
Taylor, R.E. 1970 Chronological Problems in West Mexican Archaeology: A Study in the Application of a Dating Systems Approach in Archaeological Research. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Ugan, Andrew 2005 Does Size Matter? Body Size, Mass Collecting, and Their Implications for Understanding Prehistoric Foraging Behavior. American Antiquity 70:75–89.Google Scholar
Voorhies, Barbara, Kennett, Douglas J., Jones, John G., and Wake, Thomas A. 2002 A Middle Archaic Archaeological Site on the West Coast of Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 13:179–200.Google Scholar
Voorhies, Barbara, Gusick, Amy, Kennett, Douglas, and Wake, Thomas A. 2008 Subsistence Practices at Puerto Marqués, Guerrero, Mexico, During the Late Archaic Period. Paper presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Wake, Thomas A. 2004 On the Paramount Importance of Adequate Comparative Collection and Recovery Techniques in the Identification and Interpretation of Vertebrate Archaeofaunas: A Reply to Vale and Gargett (2002). Archaeofauna 13:173–182.Google Scholar
Wake, Thomas A., Anikouchine, N., and Voorhies, Barbara 2004 Food Procurement and Processing: Fish and Game Remains at Shellmound Sites. In Coastal Collectors in the Holocene: The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico, edited by Voorhies, Barbara, pp. 158–206. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil C. 1974 The Ahualulco Site and the Shaft-Tomb Complex of the Etzatlan Area. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by Bell, Betty, pp. 120–131. West Mexican Society for Advanced Study, Ajijic, Jalisco.Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil C. 1985 Evidence for Complex Societies During the Western Mesoamerican Classic Period. In The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by Foster, Michael S. and Weigand, Phil C., pp. 47–91. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil C. 2000 The Evolution and Decline of a Core of Civilization: The Teuchitlán Tradition and the Archaeology of Jalisco. In Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mexico, edited by Foster, Michael S. and Gorenstein, Shirley, pp. 43–58. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil C. 2001 Etzatlan. In Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America. edited by Evans, Susan T. and Webster, David L., pp. 249. Garland, New York.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Alwyne, and Jones, Andrew K.G. 1989 Fishes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
White, Theodore E. 1953 A Method of Calculating the Dietary Percentages of Various Food Animals Utilized by Aboriginal Peoples. American Antiquity 18:396–398.Google Scholar
Williams, Eduardo 2009 Exploitation of Aquatic Resources at Lake Cuitzeo, Michoacan, Mexico: An Ethnoarchaeological Study. Latin American Antiquity 20:607–627.Google Scholar
Williams, Sartor O. III 1982 Notes on the Breeding and Occurrence of Western Grebe on the Mexican Plateau. Condor 84(1):127–130.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeth S. 1968 Preliminary Note on the Faunal Remains Excavated from Several Sites in Sinaloa and Nayarit, Mexico. In West Mexican Prehistory, Part 2, pp. 150–152. State University of New York, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeth S. 1969 Preliminary Analysis of the Subsistence Economy of Two Small Communities in the Marismas Nacionales of Sinaloa and Nayarit, Mexico. In West Mexican Prehistory, Part 3, pp. 96–109. State University of New York, Buffalo.Google Scholar
Wing, Elizabeth A., and Steadman, David W. 1980 Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Dzibilchaltun. In Excavations at Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Andrews, E. Wyllys IV and Andrews, E. Wyllys V, pp. 326–331. Middle American Research Institute Publication No. 48, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Zohar, Irit, Dayan, Tamar, Galili, Ehud, and Spanier, Ehud 2001 Fish Processing During the Early Holocene: A Taphonomic Case Study from Coastal Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 28:1041–1053.Google Scholar