A World-Systems Perspective on the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Mesoamerican/Lower Central American Border

Bibliographic Data

ID6033935
AuthorsRobert M Carmack (University at Albany, State University of New York, corresponding author), Silvia Salgado González (Universidad de Costa Rica)
Year2006
Volume17
Issue2
Pages219-229
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s095653610606007x
OpenAlexW2107450411
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited8

The authors challenge the argument by other world-system scholars that Lower Central America fell outside the Mesoamerican world-system during the late Postclassic period. Drawing on ethnohistoric and archaeological information, it is argued that native peoples along the Pacific Coast of Central America from El Salvador to the Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica) are best understood as part of the Mesoamerican periphery. The Central American peoples south of Nicoya formed both a chiefly world-system of their own and part of the Mesoamerican frontier by engaging in networks of trade and preciosity exchanges with the coastal Mesoamericans in Nicoya and Nicaragua. Support for this argument is based primarily on two “microhistoric” case studies of peoples located on both sides of the Mesoamerican/Lower Central America border, specifically the Chorotegans of the Masaya/Granada area of Nicaragua and the Chibchans of the Diquis/Buenos Aires area of Costa Rica. Archaeological information on sites in both areas and documentation from Spanish colonial sources that refer to native peoples in these areas strongly indicate that the Masaya/Granada peoples were active participants in the Mesoamerican regional network. In contrast, information from the Diquis/Buenos Aires area for this period reveals only weak Mesoamerican ties but strong relations with a Chibchan intersocietal network of chiefdoms

Ancient history · Archaeology · Chiefdom · Colonialism · Ethnohistory · Ethnology · Frontier · Geography · Mesoamerica · Peninsula · Political science · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Studies in Central America · History · World Systems and Global Transformations

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