El Grillo and Epilogue. The Reestablishment of Community and Identity in Far Western Mexico Christopher Beekman (University of Colorado Denver) Christopher.beekman@ucdenver.edu Far western highland Mexico may provide the earliest evidence for the disruptions that emerged elsewhere during the Epiclassic. The distinctive Teuchitlán culture of the Late Formative and Early-Middle Classic was replaced with strikingly different architectural traditions, burial patterns, and ceramics (the El Grillo complex) with apparent origins to the east. I reconsider this material in light of recent proposals as to how community and identity are reestablished or reorganized after migration. Unlike central Mexico, the area remained politically fragmented at the time of the Conquest and no language ever became associated with greater prestige.

Diego de Coria’s 1525 description of western Mexico (Anónimo 1937; analyzed in Anguiano 1992; Soto de Arechavaleta 1994) noted that the towns visited in western Jalisco were occupied by Otomi and/or Naguatlatos, sometimes in multiethnic communities with separate caciques for each ethnolinguistic group. The term Otomi was used by the Spaniards as a counterpoint to indicate “not-Nahua” rather than to refer to an Otomanguean language (Yañez Rosales 2001). Later 16th and 17th century documents provide better detail for a range of languages and ethnic groups, suggesting that Southern Uto-Aztecan languages were common from Colima north through Sinaloa (Barragán Trejo and Yañez Rosales 2001; Valiñas 1994; Yañez Rosales 2001). Tepecano of northern Jalisco was closely related to Tepehuan, a Tepiman language largely from Durango (Mason 1916). Coca of central Jalisco (Baus de Czitrom 1982) was related to Cáhita languages from the Sinaloa-Sonora border (Dávila Garibi 1942, 1943). Most intriguingly, Caxcan of northeastern Jalisco has been argued to be a close variant of central Nahuatl (Dávila Garibi 1940, 1950; see Canger 1988) and may have been the language partially preserved in the Arte of Cortes y Zedeño in 1765 (in Yañez Rosales 1998; Valiñas 1994). To be sure, central Mexican Nahuatl was introduced and spread by native troops or Franciscan friars, but as a more successful overlay atop a prior substrate of related languages (Yañez Rosales 1994). The linguistic data thus point to the widespread presence in Jalisco at Contact of Southern Uto-Aztecan languages, at least three of which grouped with distant relatives. So how did Nahuatl get there? The classic migration story known from central Mexico is not attested in far western Mexican ethnohistory until 1650, when Antonio Tello (1891) recorded two interwoven versions that linked migrants from “Aztatlan” and Chicomoztoc to the Caxcanes of northern Jalisco and Zacatecas. What we do know is that going backwards from the Conquest period, central Jalisco displays a pattern similar to central Mexico, in that the greatest disruption to occur in the archaeology is not in the Postclassic, but with the Epiclassic. In previous publications, Alec Christensen and I (Beekman 1996a; Beekman and Christensen 2003, 2011) have gradually sharpened an argument that intensifying drought along the northern fringe of Mesoamerica led to political intensification and ultimately abandonment during the Epiclassic. Migrations of sedentary farmers into areas of greater climatic stability triggered a variety of local responses. This paper is meant to sketch the results of this migration into central Jalisco, to complement our prior analysis of the Mezquital valley of Hidalgo. El Grillo Around AD 500 on the calibrated timescale, the Teuchitlán culture of the Tequila and Atemajac valleys of central Jalisco was replaced by the El Grillo complex, with a thorough replacement of public architecture, burial patterns, and ceramics. The Teuchitlán culture may have already been undergoing a process of decentralization, with the gradual cessation of monumental building projects and the abandonment of some centers (Beekman 2007; Beekman and Weigand 2008). Few of the Teuchitlán sites include meaningful El Grillo occupations, or else the new architecture sits displaced at a distance from the earlier remains. Navajas was a singular exception, with an enclosed patio and El Grillo ceramics appended to one of the early examples of Teuchitlán architecture at the site. The important question of how we get from one complex to the other can no longer be addressed at Navajas, as the enclosed patio and the adjoining circle were bulldozed by an unfriendly landowner in 2004. Major El Grillo ceremonial centers include Ixtépete and the eponymous El Grillo in the Atemajac valley (Castro Leal and Ochoa 1975). Santa Cruz de Bárcenas (Weigand 1990), La Higuerita (López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2003; Montejano Esquivias 2007),

and Oconahua (Cach 2008; Smith 2008) present larger examples of these two basic architectural forms in the Tequila valleys to the west. The public architecture at each of these centers is either a rectangular platform with annexes, or an elaborated enclosed patio with a pyramid flanked by two long platforms around an open space. A second tier of ceremonial centers is represented by a large but solitary platform that I located in the intermediate La Venta Corridor linking these valleys (Beekman 1996b: 170-176). This platform was surmounted by three structures, and its size and arrangement are now duplicated in the northern Tequila valleys (Heredia Espinoza personal communication 2012). The major architecture makes use of adobe brick construction combined with stone. Tall talud-tablero facades on several of the platforms generally follow the proportions of Epiclassic centers in central Mexico. The two surveys in the area sufficiently detailed to address the issue of settlement patterns both found that population dispersed during the El Grillo phase (Beekman 1996a; Heredia Espinoza 2008). Each new ceremonial center was focused on a single example of public architecture, unlike the multiple circular temples in most of the earlier Teuchitlán sites, and centers were evenly spaced through the bottomlands of the Tequila and Atemajac valleys. Hence no older authorities prevented the new centers from being founded on prime agricultural lands. The centers of the El Grillo complex are radically different from the earlier Teuchitlán circles. Both represent the common Mesoamerican cosmological model (Beekman 2003; Kelly 1974; Aramoni Burguete 2004), but the architects chose to represent those features in very different ways with different emphases. The earlier Teuchitlán circles explicitly associated different structures with different lineages (Beekman 2008), and while lineage membership may have still granted access to economic or symbolic capital, there is no such particulate presence in the El Grillo architecture. The most important role for the public architecture would have been in re-establishing community for migrants by reproducing the social and sacred spaces associated with their prior homes. It wasn’t until the 1970s when Galván excavated two adjoining cemeteries from the Tabachines zone across the highway from El Grillo that the complex began to come together and its stark contrast with previous remains became apparent (Galván 1976; Schöndube and Galván 1978). The Tabachines cemeteries include 21 shaft tombs from the Late Formative and Early Classic Tabachines phase, and 27 box tombs with El Grillo phase ceramics. The shaft tombs are typical of rural cemeteries of the period, with shafts leading to one or more chambers with one or more extended interments within. Some were reused for later interments. The El Grillo phase box tombs were meant for a single seated and flexed bundle burial. While offerings in the earlier shaft tombs were largely ceramics and hollow figures with signs of prior use, the narrow range of offerings from the box tombs were made in almost assembly line fashion specifically for burial (Aronson 1993, 1996). Imported materials such as jade and turquoise appeared with the burials at La Higuerita (López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2003), signaling that those interred in public architecture held considerably greater access to wealth than those in the rural box tomb cemetery. The cluster of burials at La Higuerita suggested veneration of lineage ancestors to the excavators, but the presence of only one individual per box tomb suggests a rather different relationship with the ancestors than that found in the reused shaft tombs. The El Grillo complex of ceramics has been identified extending from eastern (Lopez Mestas et al. 1994) through central Jalisco, where it has been described based on both tomb (Aronson 1993, 1996; Galván 1976, 2005; Gomez Gastélum 1996; Schöndube 1983; Schöndube and Galván 1978) and living contexts (Castro Leal and Ochoa 1975; López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2003; Montejano 2007; Smith 2008). The ceramic complex includes

new forms even for daily wares such as serving bowls and ollas. Completely new forms include convex rectangular trays of unknown function and the first ring-bases and molcajetes in the Jalisco sequence. Most distinctive are the specially made copas and ollas. These are miniaturized versions of everyday ceramics, and are neatly paired in high status contexts. Holien (1977) suggested decades ago that these pairings were part of new and highly stylized mortuary drinking rituals. Novel decorative techniques also set the El Grillo ceramics apart. Engraved and incised decoration, almost completely unknown in central Jalisco previously, became very common. Pseudo-Cloisonné decoration, previously known within this area, was now used on the new copa and olla forms and for a new iconographic set. This brings us to the imagery found as part of the El Grillo complex. A wide array of designs previously unknown or of very limited use in Jalisco became heavily standardized in their appearance and position on the decorated surfaces of ceramics. Figural imagery appears primarily on Pseudo-Cloisonné vessels, and my attempts to fund a project to publish the existing corpus of imagery continue without success. More common are abstract symbols that occupy almost formulaic positions on vessels, particularly the miniature copas and ollas. There have unfortunately been no attempts to interpret this imagery using current forms of visual analysis. There appears to be a notable uniformity in terms of the forms, rims, designs, and decorative media employed across the El Grillo phase. No evidence exists here for the community-specific ceramic complexes noted by Mastache and Cobean (1989) among the earliest migrants to the Mezquital valley and prior to the emergence of Coyotlatelco (and now noted in the Basin of Mexico – Crider 2011: 89-170). Christensen and I (Beekman and Christensen 2011) have proposed elsewhere that the Mezquital pattern is indicative of a migration in which groups were compelled to establish new communities with others of similar origin, but with distinct enough identities to construct their own locus of public buildings within the new settlement. The eventual emergence of Coyotlatelco we argued to represent a resolution of prior conflicts among migrants and between migrants and local groups. We do not have the chronological resolution in Jalisco to sketch out a full scenario, but the early and widespread uniformity of the El Grillo ceramics probably indicates a more decisive shift to a new social identity. In a previous article, I (Beekman 1996a) compared the El Grillo complex to neighboring sequences, identifying a clear series of links to Epiclassic phases from Alta Vista in Zacatecas through Guanajuato and Michoacán and leading into Coyotlatelco and scattered earlier contexts in central Mexico. I emphasize that these complexes hold designs, multiple decorative techniques, vessel forms, public architecture, and burial patterns in common – they are not simply a “red-on-buff” or iconographic complex. These parallel phases are certainly not uniform in their content, but they delineate the vulnerable northern frontier of Epiclassic Mesoamerica, an area that would be largely abandoned by the Early Postclassic. The U-shaped architecture in particular probably has its gestation in the Classic period western Bajío tradition of elaborated enclosed patios (Cárdenas 1999). At the time, I felt that the few radiocarbon dates for the related phases indicated a starting date of AD 550 calibrated. More recently Lorenza López (López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2009: Cuadro 1) has reported the first 8 radiocarbon dates for the complex in central Jalisco that probably push that date back to AD 500 or maybe AD 450. The dates make it clear that El Grillo followed quickly upon the heels of the last dates from major Teuchitlán ceremonial centers. The transition appears considerably more rapid than events from the Mezquital valley, but El Grillo may in fact be slightly earlier. Epilogue

In sum, Nahuatl or a variant of it was present in Jalisco in the very earliest Spanish records of the region, but never rose to prominence as the language of a powerful regional polity as it did in central Mexico. It remained embedded within multiethnic communities rather than spreading as a status language. Migration legends existed but are not very helpful in establishing the date or mechanism of Nahuatl into far western Mexico. The one clear disruption in the archaeological record occurs around AD 500. Based on the prior discussion, the El Grillo complex appears to represent a large-scale organized intrusion out of the western Bajío following the path of the Rio Lerma and Lake Chapala into the heart of the regions discussed here. The intrusive sites display greater uniformity and political content than in the Mezquital valley as we previously reconstructed it. Rather than climate change refugees, the migrants into central Jalisco were organized and able to establish themselves in prime agricultural territory. Their dominant position allowed them to define the new norms to a greater degree, and prior populations remained present but rejected or avoided displays of material culture associated with the failed Teuchitlán system. By the Early Postclassic, population had declined precipitously along the northern margins of western Mesoamerica, separating central and western Mexican migrants.

Anguiano, Marina. 1992. Nayarit. Costa y Altiplanicie en el Momento del Contacto. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, D.F. Anónimo. 1937. Nuño de Guzmán contra Hernán Cortés sobre los descubrimientos y conquistas en Jalisco y Tepic, 1531. Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación VIII: 541-576. Aramoni Burguete, Maria Elena. 2004. Dioses y símbolos mesoamericanos en Plazuelas. In Tradiciones Arqueológicas, edited by Efraín Cárdenas, pp.161-179. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora. Aronson, Meredith A. 1993. Technological Change: West Mexican Mortuary Ceramics, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Material Science, University of Arizona. Aronson, Meredith A. 1996. Technological change: Ceramic mortuary technology in the Valley of Atemajac from the Late Formative to the Classic periods. Ancient Mesoamerica 7: 163–170. Barragán Trejo, D., and Yañez Rosales, R. 2001. Investigaciones sobre las lenguas indígenas en Jalisco durante el siglo XX. Estudios del Hombre 13/14: 61–93. Baus de Czitrom, Carolyn. 1982. Tecuexes y Cocas. Dos grupos de la región Jalisco en el siglo XVI, INAH, México, DF. Beekman, Christopher S. 1996a. El Complejo El Grillo del Centro de Jalisco: Una Revisión de su Cronología y Significado. In Las Cuencas del Occidente de México: Época Prehispánica, edited by Eduardo Williams and Phil C. Weigand, pp. 247-291. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, México. Beekman, Christopher S. 1996b. The Long-Term Evolution of a Political Boundary: Archaeological Research in Jalisco, México. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beekman, Christopher S. 2003. Agricultural Pole Rituals and Rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco. Ancient Mesoamerica 14(2): 299-318. Beekman, Christopher S. 2007. Transition and trajectory: the Late Formative to Classic shift in the highland lakes district of central Jalisco. Invited paper presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin. Beekman, Christopher S. 2008. Corporate Power Strategies in the Late Formative to Early Classic Tequila valleys of central Jalisco. Latin American Antiquity 19(4): 414-434. Beekman, Christopher S. and Alexander F. Christensen. 2003. Controlling for Doubt and Uncertainty through multiple lines of evidence: A new look at the Mesoamerican Nahua migrations. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 10(2): 111-164.

Beekman, Christopher S. and Alexander F. Christensen. 2011. Power, Agency, and Identity: Migration and Aftermath in the Mezquital Area of North-Central Mexico. In Rethinking Anthropological Perspectives on Migration, edited by Graciela S. Cabana and Jeffrey J. Clark, pp. 147-171, University Press of Florida, Gainesville. Beekman, Christopher S. and Phil C. Weigand. 2008. Conclusiones, Cronología, y un Intento a Síntesis. In Tradición Teuchitlán, edited by Phil C. Weigand, Christopher Beekman, and Rodrigo Esparza, pp. 303-337. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, México. Cach Avendaño, Eric Orlando. 2008. Valle de Tequila: Tiempo, Dioses, y Orden Social. Estudios Jaliscienses 71: 56-71. Canger, Una. 1988. Nahuatl Dialectology: A Survey and Some Suggestions. International Journal of American Linguistics 54: 28-72. Cárdenas Garcia, Efraín. 1999. El Bajío en el Clásico, El Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora. Castro Leal, Marcia and Lorenzo Ochoa. 1975. El Ixtépete como un ejemplo de desarrollo cultural en el Occidente de México. Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia Época 7, 5: 121-154. Cortes y Zedeño, Gerónimo Thomas de Aquino. 1765. Arte, vocabulario y confessionario en el Idioma Mexicano, como se usa en el Obispado de Guadalaxara. Imprenta del Colegio Real de San Ignacio de la Puebla de los Ángeles, Puebla. Crider, Destiny L. 2011. Epiclassic and Early Postclassic interaction in Central Mexico as evidenced by decorated pottery. Ph.D. dissertation, department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe. Dávila Garibi, Ignacio. 1940. Cazcanos y Tochos. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Americanos. Tomo IV, No. 3: 203-224. Dávila Garibi, Ignacio. 1942. Algunas afinidades entre las lenguas coca y cáhita. El México Antiguo Tomo VI (1-3): 47-60. Dávila Garibi, Ignacio. 1943. El problema de la clasificación de la lengua coca. Librería Editorial, San Ignacio, México, D.F. Dávila Garibi, Ignacio. 1950. Los Cazcanes. Editorial Cultura, T.G., S.A., México, D.F. Galván Villegas, Luis Javier. 1975. Informe preliminar de las exploraciones efectuadas en la zona arqueológica de “El Ixtépete”, Jal., durante el mes de Mayo de 1973. In Balance y Perspectiva, XIII Mesa Redonda, Vol. I, pp. 395-410. Xalapa, México. Galván Villegas, Luis Javier. 1976. Rescate arqueológico en el fraccionamiento Tabachines, Zapopan, Jalisco, Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, México, DF.

Galván Villegas, Luis Javier. 2005. Propuesta de Periodificación de la Etapa Mesoamericana del Valle de Atemajac, Jalisco: Fases Tabachines, El Grillo y Atemajac. Invited paper presented at the Segundo Seminario-Taller sobre Problemáticas Regionales, a workshop organized by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, held in Guadalajara, México. Gómez Gastélum, Luis. 1996. Cacicazgos prehispánicos en el Valle de Atemajac, Jalisco. Instituto Jalisciense de Antropologia e Historia, Guadalajara. Heredia Espinoza, Verenice Y. 2008. The agave landscape and its archaeological context in the Tequila Volcano area. Report submitted to the Foundation for Ancient Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., http://www.famsi.org/reports/07012/, accessed March 25, 2012. Holien, Thomas. 1977. Mesoamerican Pseudo-Cloisonné and Other Decorative Investments, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Kelley, J. Charles. 1974. Speculations on the culture history of northwestern Mesoamerica. In The Archaeology of West Mexico, edited by Betty Bell, pp. 19-39. Sociedad de Estudios Avanzados del Occidente de México, Ajijic. López Mestas, Lorenza. 2007. La ideología: un punto de acercamiento para el estudio de la interacción entre el occidente de México y Mesoamérica. In Dinámicas culturales entre el Occidente, el centro-norte y la Cuenca de México, del Preclásico al Epiclásico, edited by Brigitte Faugère, pp. 37–50. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora. López Mestas, Lorenza., and Montejano Esquivias, M. 2003. Investigaciones arqueológicas en la Higuerita, Tala. In Arqueología del centro de Jalisco, edited by Eric Cach Avendaño. Revista del Seminario de Historia Mexicana IV: 11–34. López Mestas C. Lorenza, Jorge Ramos de la Vega, and Carlos Santos Rodríguez. 1994. Sitios y materiales: Avances del proyecto arqueológico Altos de Jalisco. In Contribuciones a la Arqueología y Etnohistoria del Occidente de México, edited by Eduardo Williams, pp. 279-295. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora. Mason, J. Alden. 1916. Tepecano, a Piman Language of Western Mexico. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences XXV: 309-416. Mastache, Alba Guadalupe, and Robert H. Cobean. 1989. The Coyotlatelco culture and the origins of the Toltec state. In Mesoamerica after the Decline of Teotihuacan, A.D.700-900, edited by Richard Diehl and Janet Berlo, pp. 49-67. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Montejano Esquivias, Marisol del Carmen. 2007. El complejo El Grillo en la porción oriental del valle de Atemajac, Jalisco. Desarrollo Cultural en Tonalá, durante el Clásico Tardío/ Epiclásico (450-900 d.C.). Tesis de Licenciatura, Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara. Schöndube Baumbach, Otto. 1983. Hallazgos en el Hospital de Belén. Pantoc 5: 51-68.

Schöndube Baumbach, Otto and Luis Javier Galván Villegas. 1978. Salvage archaeology at El Grillo-Tabachines, Zapopan, Jalisco, México. In Across the Chichimec Sea: Papers in Honor of J. Charles Kelley, edited by Carroll L. Riley and Basil C. Hedrick, pp. 144-164. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Smith Márquez, Sean Montgomery. 2008. Informe del Proyecto de Mapificación y Delimitación del Palacio de Ocomo. Informe presented to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Soto de Arechavaleta, Ma. de los Dolores. 1994. El Primer Censo Neogallego. ‘Treslado de una Vesitación… de 1525’. In Contribuciones a la Arqueología y Etnohistoria del Occidente de México, edited by Eduardo Williams, pp. 341-353. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora. Tello, Antonio. 1891 [1653]. Crónica miscelánea en que se trata de la conquista espiritual y temporal de la sancta provincia de Xalisco en el Nuevo Reino de la Galicia y Nueva Vizcaya, República Literaria, Guadalajara. Valiñas C., Leopoldo. 1994. Transiciones lingüisticas mayores en Occidente. In Transformaciones mayores en el Occidente de México, edited by Ricardo A. Palafox, pp. 127-166. Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara. Weigand, Phil C. 1990. Discontinuity: The collapse of the Teuchitlán tradition and the Early Postclassic cultures of western Mesoamerica. In Mesoamérica y norte de México, siglo IX–XII, Vol. 1, edited by Federica Sodi Miranda, pp. 215-222. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Yáñez Rosales, Rosa H. 1994. Dinámica de desplazamiento de las lenguas indígenas en el Occidente de México: época colonial. In El Occidente de México en el Tiempo, edited by Ricardo Ávila Palafox, pp. 59-76. Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara. Yáñez Rosales, Rosa H. 1998. La construcción del Nahuatl como lengua general y la supresión de las lenguas indígenas locales: El caso del occidente novohispano. In El occidente de México: arqueología, historia y medio ambiente: perspectivas regionales: actas del IV Coloquio Internacional de Occidentalistas, edited by Ricardo Ávila Palafox, Jean Pierre Emphoux, Luis Gómez Gastélum, Susana Ramírez, Otto Schöndube, and Francisco Valdez, pp. 55-64. Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara. Yáñez Rosales, Rosa H. 2001. Rostro, palabra y memoria indígenas: el occidente de México: 1524–1816. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social, México, D.F.

Christopher S. BeekmanUniversity of Colorado Denver

SAA MemphisApril 2012

Map of towns visited by Diego de Coria in 1525

Anguiano 1992

Linguistic map of far western Mexico as reconstructed by Gerhard

Yañez 2001

Comparison of terms from the Vocabulario of Molina with two west Mexican sources

Yañez 1998

Antonio Tello’s Crónica miscelánea… of 1653 intertwined a traditional Aztlan narrative of central Mexico with local toponyms, and a second migration specifically related to the Cazcan.

Yañez 2001

Original proposal of migrations out of the vulnerable northern frontier of Mesoamerica

Yañez 2001Beekman 1996

Central JaliscoTeuchitlán culture El Grillo300 BC-AD 500 AD 500-900

SCJ 2005; Corona Nuñez 1955 Galván 1975, 1976

TVRAP 2002

El Grillo phase public architecture

Galvan 1975, n.d.; photo Beekman 2000

El Grillo – U-shaped structure of a central pyramid flanked by two side platforms of around 90 x90m

Ixtépete –Rectangular platform of 45 x 60m with annexes

Intermediate level of political organizationOcotán – platform of 55 x 50 with three structures on top

Beekman 1996

Map of Tequila and Atemajac valleys, with major El Grillo centers

López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2009

Contrast in public architecture with Classic predecessorsSite of Navajas Site of Ixtépete

TVRAP 2002; photos Beekman

Tabachines cemeteriesTabachines shaft tombs El Grillo box tombs

Galvan 1976, 1991; López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2009

El Grillo ceramics

Castro Leal & Ochoa 1975; Montejano 2007; Galván 1976; Photos Beekman or Herrejón 2008

El Grillo phase figural and abstract imagery

Aronson 1993; Galván 1976; Lumholtz 1904

Complexes related to El Grillo across the northern Mesoamerican frontier

Beekman 1996

Radiocarbon dates for La Higuerita, Jalisco

López Mestas Camberos and Montejano Esquivias 2009

Summary• El Grillo complex includes a wide range of formal changes

in material culture that by themselves suggest a range of interpretations, migration being one of them.

• Totality of evidence reconstructs expected pattern of large-scale organized intrusion into area, with new established polities within very short time after Teuchitlán collapse

• Accompanied by rapid re-establishment of community among migrants, including appropriate public spaces, burial and drinking rituals.

• Unlikely that migrants and material culture are congruent, and prior populations were probably rejecting prior Teuchitlán culture as well.

• Aided in rapid establishment of new material culture.

Christopher S. BeekmanUniversity of Colorado Denver

SAA MemphisApril 2012