Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica

The AztatlÁn tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudied and enigmatic cultural developments in the Americas. This volume presents a spectrum of interdisciplinary research into AztatlÁn societies, combining innovative archaeological methods with historical and ethnographic investigations. The results offer significant revelations about west Mexico’s critical role in over a millennium of cultural interaction between Indigenous societies in northwest and northeast Mexico, the Greater U.S. Southwest, Mesoamerica, lower Central America, and beyond. Volume contributors show how those responsible for the AztatlÁn tradition were direct ancestors of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the NÁayeri (Cora), WixÁrika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former AztatlÁn region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the AztatlÁn tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.