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War and Defense on Cerros de Trincheras in Sonora, México

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Randall H. McGuire  and
Maria Elisa Villalpando
Randall H. McGuire
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, 13902-6000(rmcguire@binghamton.edu)
Maria Elisa Villalpando
Affiliation:
Centro INAH Sonora, Jesús Garcίa Final y Presbίtero Esteban Sarmiento. Antigua Penitenciarίa del Estado, Col. La Matanza. C.P. 83080. Hermosillo, Sonora, México(elisavillalpando@hotmail.com)
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Abstract

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At the turn of the twenty-first century, critics suggested that warfare profoundly shaped cultural change in the prehistoric Southwest/Northwest. This challenge was part of a much larger debate concerning violence and warfare before civilization. It has become clear that scholars need to consider violence and warfare to understand the aboriginal history of the Southwest/ Northwest. Increasingly, archaeologists are asking: How did indigenous peoples practice war? How did warfare relate to social organization, adaptation, and religion? How did these relations change over time? Many authors have argued that we best answer these questions in well researched and carefully considered case studies. In Sonora, México, prehispanic peoples constructed terraces on isolated volcanic hills and built rooms, compounds, and other edifices on their summits to create cerros de trincheras. The Cerros de Trincheras and Defense Project mapped and collected Trincheras Tradition cerros de trincheras in Sonora. We used Geographic Information Systems analysis to demonstrate how these cerros de trincheras were defensive, what defenses protected, and how these relationships changed over time. This article compares Trincheras Tradition cerros de trincheras to general models of “primitive “ war, Yuman warfare, Andean Colla pukaras, and New Zealand Maori pas in order to infer a Trinchereño way of war.

Résumé

Résumé

Al inicio del siglo XXI los críticos sugirieron que la guerra delineó de manera profunda el cambio cultural en el SuroestelNoroeste prehispánico. Esta interpretación es parte de un debate mayor sobre las condiciones de violencia y la prdctica de la guerra antes de la existencia de las sociedades urbanas, resultando claro que se debe tomar en cuenta la violencia y la guerra para entender la historia nativa del SuroestelNoroeste. Los arqueólogos se preguntan con mayor frecuencia ¿Cómo es que los pueblos indigenas practicaron la guerra? ¿Cómo se relacionan la guerra con la organización social, la adaptacion y la religion? ¿Cómo cambiaron con el tiempo estas relaciones? Muchos autores han argumentado que es mejor responder a estas preguntas con estudios de caso bien investigados y consideraciones cuidadosas. En Sonora, México, los pueblos prehispdnicos construyeron terrazas en cerros volcánicos aislados, además de cuartos, recintos y otros edificios en las cimas, creando lo que se conoce cómo cerros de trincheras. El proyecto Análisis de los Aspectos Defensivos de los cerros de trincheras, maped y realizó recolecciones de superficie en cerros de trincheras de la Tradición Trincheras en Sonora durante 2006. Utilizamos andlisis de Sistemas de Informacion Geogrdfica para demostrar cómo estos cerros de trincheras fueron defensivos, quefue lo que protegieron y cdmofue que estas relaciones cambiaron a troves del tiempo. En este articulo comparamos los cerros de trincheras de la tradición Trincheras con modelos generales de guerra “primitiva,” formas de guerra Yumana, pukaras Colla andinos y pas de los maories de Nueva Zelanda, con elfin de inferir una forma Trinchereha de hacer la guerra.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 429 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2015

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