Mesoamerica:A Working Model for Archaeology

The essays in this volume provide insight into the range of theoretical issues and topical debates of concern to archaeologists currently studying the Mesoamerican societies that flourished in Mexico and Central American prior to European contact and Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. But what is meant by the term Mesoamerica, and why do we group together essays on widely separated sites, distinct groups of people, and vastly different time periods? In this introduction, I will explore some of the meanings of Mesoamerica that have supported its use as an organizing framework for archaeological debate for over 50 years. In the process, I will make explicit a number of background assumptions shared by the contributors to this volume, and will specify some of the common knowledge that contributors have that readers may not share. Along the way, I will review some of the major theoretical and methodological approaches to Mesoamerican archaeology that have historically been important, many of which are mentioned in the chapters that follow. This discussion also touches on the complex relationships between the practice of archaeology and broader social and political developments, dramatized by the significance of archaeological materials in the development of nationalism in the region. I also address where Mesoamerican archaeology stands today, introducing some of the critical concepts in contemporary archaeology shared by authors who have contributed to this volume, and some of the productive differences in their approaches to developing an understanding of the early history of the region through the study of material remains of past human action documented in context (a rough definition of archaeology as practiced by all the contributors).