The research presented here explores why a few people left their valley-dwelling neighbors to build and live at El Pueblito on Cerro de Moctezuma, the only hilltop settlement constructed during the Casas Grandes Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) in what is today northwest Chihuahua, Mexico. These people also constructed the only currently recognized trails to a settlement, a massive rock agricultural system and subterranean oven, and an unparalleled crowning hill summit precinct. Comparative analyses of artifacts from limited excavations at El Pueblito to four other Medio period settlements shows that in terms of ceramics, chipped stone, and ground stone, El Pueblito was an ordinary residence. However, other evidence demonstrates that El Pueblito, and more comprehensively Cerro de Moctezuma, was beyond the ordinary. Wood preference, bird wings, remains of elk, an impractical use of construction materials, an imposing use of buildings, a unique architectural style, and an untypical settlement composition support a conclusion of specialized, ideological interests. Trails and wayside shrines at Cerro de Moctezuma were physical and symbolic places that initialized perceptions of the hill. Theories of ritualization, architecture, pilgrimage, and community; ethnographic analogy; and archaeological parallels provide vantages to orient Cerro de Moctezuma within a broader ritualized landscape of interactions involving hilltop shrines, feasting ovens, ball courts, and Paquimé, the premier capital of Medio times. Cerro de Moctezuma and Paquimé each concentrated the trappings of specialization. Tangible reproductions of ritual in the hinterland, such as ovens and ball courts, are less elaborately expressed than at Paquimé. Likewise, hilltop ritual facilities are most elaborate at Cerro de Moctezuma compared to those in the hinterland. Pilgrimage to both ritual centers as well as hinterland ritual leaders are envisioned. Within a trans-regional ideology and worldview of hill settlement and use, Cerro de Moctezuma was locally crafted from a ritual mandate to reinforce and maintain central beliefs and values emanating from Paquimé and was a physical and ideological part of that great center with ritual leadership residing periodically at both places.

Traditionally, the Onavas Valley located in the middle Ri­o Yaqui, has been identified as part of the Rio Sonora archaeological tradition. However, no archaeological research has taken place in this region to verify this cultural model. This work presents new data from the Onavas Valley Archaeological Project (OVAP), conducted in the summer of 2003 and 2004, which provide basic data to solidify our understanding of an archaeologically poorly researched area, examine its role in interactions with the neighboring archaeological areas, and contrast the Ri­o Sonora tradition model. The methodology used combine archaeological survey, artifact analysis, and ethnohistorical research. A full-coverage systematic pedestrian survey, at the center of the Onavas Valley, was conducted covering an area of 67 km² and recorded 122 new sites. Three research approaches where set to discern and define the archaeological tradition within the Onavas Valley and then examine extra-regional interactions with neighboring archaeological areas. Those are 1) building a local chronology and a diagnostic inventory of material culture; 2) establishing the landscape structure (settlement pattern and ritual landscape) of the area; and 3) collecting and analyzing evidence for the manufacture, use, and exchange of trade goods. At the end of the material analysis, the OVAP conclude that the Onavas Valley had more cultural relation with the Huatabampo archaeological tradition than to the Rio Sonora archaeological tradition. Finally a comparison of the cultural landscape of the Onavas Valley with those of the Marana, Cerro de Trincheras, and Paquime traditions was made, to see different cultural developments in similar geographical condition using same methodological and analytical framework.

In collaboration with members of the Comcaac (Seri Indians) community of the central coast of Sonora, Mexico, it has been possible to join oral historical evidence with archaeological, ethnographic, and documentary data towards a better understanding of the Comcaac past and its continuity into the present. Collaborative research creates opportunities for innovative frameworks and methodologies that can integrate diverse historical narratives while responding to Comcaac perspectives and desires. The research approach emphasizes the historical and social context-dependent dialectical nature of material culture and its acquired meaning through social practice. It defines a cultural landscape as an environmental setting that is simultaneously the medium for, and the outcome of, social action. The Comcaac cultural landscape is tied to history, culture, and society, where places localize, commemorate, and transmit traditional knowledge derived from the people's historical memory that is anchored to the land. This study formally, spatially and temporally documented a vast range of social practices that constructed and continues to construct the Comcaac cultural landscape. In tandem with standard archaeological survey techniques, we developed a distinctive methodology for simultaneously recording oral histories and traditions along successive landscape segments. This project improves the discipline of anthropology through methodological advances to build theory that better understands object and people relationships in the past and today. The results not only exemplify a productive collaboration endeavor but also enhance archaeological knowledge of the poorly known Comcaac region.

abstract: Unlike traditional frontier studies that treat the frontier as monolithic and focus on core-periphery interactions involving colonialism and acculturation, this dissertation seeks to characterize the internal social dynamics of frontier regions using the collective social identification framework. Concentrating on the intraregional and intrasite scales makes it possible to directly evaluate the bottom-up processes involved in the formation of collective social identities within frontier zones (i.e., sociopolitical development divorced from core-centric actions). Derived from social science research aimed at understanding the development of modern nation-states and social movements, the theoretical framework implemented in this research centers on the idea that sustained collective action depends on the degree to which groups of individuals share networks of social interaction (i.e., relational identification) and recognize membership in the same social categories (i.e. categorical identification). Applying this model to the site of La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico, provides a methodology for assessing the potential for collective action through time and across spatial scales based on the degree of categorical commonality or the strength of relational connections among the site’s inhabitants. Dating to the Epiclassic period (600-900 CE), La Quemada was founded during the cultural florescence of the northern frontier of Mesoamerica, but the site was abandoned ca. 800-900 CE while other polities persisted. Therefore, it is hypothesized that a change in how the occupants of La Quemada identified with one another decreased the potential for collective action over time and contributed to site abandonment. Material proxies in the form of ceramic-style categories (i.e., shared styles expressing categorical affiliation) and fabric classes (i.e., shared pastes indicative of relational networks) are used to assess the temporal and spatial consistency of social identification at multiple socio-spatial scales within the site of La Quemada. The results of this research, however, find that despite fluctuations in the expression of categorical identification among La Quemada residents it was the strength of their relational ties that gave them the capacity to recover. Furthermore, the capacity for collective action was high preceding site abandonment, suggesting that a disruption in the social fabric of La Quemada did not contribute to its decline and abandonment. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2018

In order to improve our understanding of poorly studied Mexican Porphyry Copper Deposits in the SW regional metallogenetic province, a detailed study of the hydrothermal fluid evolution of La Caridad porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit, and its connection to a high sulfidation epithermal deposit, was performed using oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur stable isotopes combined with fluid inclusion studies. In addition, UPb and Re-Os geochronology from La Caridad, Milpillas and El Arco porphyry deposit were performed to constrain the timing of mineralization and magmatism in northwest Mexico. Uranium-lead zircon ages from La Caridad suggest a short period of magmatism, between 55.5 and 53.0 Ma. Re-Os molybdenite ages from potassic and phyllic hydrothermal veins yielded identical ages within error, 53.6 ± 0.3 Ma and 53.8 ± 0.3 Ma, respectively. Four stages of hypogene alteration and mineralization are recognized at La Caridad porphyry copper deposit. The isotopic composition of the water in equilibrium with hydrothermal alteration minerals is consistent with highly evaporated lacustrine waters mixed with magmatic waters or vapor separated from magmatic fluids, however, sulfur isotopes and fluid inclusions data support the lacustrine-magmatic water hypothesis. Milpillas porphyry copper deposit in the Cananea Mining District, yielded a crystallization age of 63.9 ± 1.3 Ma. Two Re-Os molybdenite ages yielded an identical age of 63.1 ± 0.4 Ma, Suggesting a restricted period of mineralization. Re-Os data indicate that mineralization in Cananea District, spanned ~4 m.y. in three discrete pulses at ~59 Ma, ~61 Ma and ~63Ma. El Arco porphyry copper deposit, Baja California, Mexico, yielded a Middle Jurassic crystallization age (U-Pb) of 164.7 ± 6.7 Ma and a Re-Os mineralization age of 164.1 ± 0.4 Ma and not ~100 Ma as previously determinated. Porphyry copper deposits in Mexico range in age from 164 Ma to 54 Ma and the mineralization in Sonora state occurred in two different periods, but magmatism overlaps in space and time.

xvii, 133 p. : ill., maps. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The objective of this dissertation is to address violence at the archaeological site of Casas Grandes (Paquimé) in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico. The reasons for the abandonment of Paquimé are uncertain. The prevailing theory claims this geographic area endured centuries of warfare, ritual sacrifice, and at least one massacre; this theory is supported by numerous unburied bodies recovered at the site. These assertions of violence have never been corroborated by osteological data. Data were collected from a sample of Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) human skeletal remains recovered from the 1958-1961 excavations at Casas Grandes. These data were synthesized with accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates, fluoride ion dates, population demographics, and burial context. Frequencies of ante-, peri-, and postmortem trauma were compared to other studies from the Old and New Worlds. I argue that warfare was not endemic to this region and that a massacre did not occur. Moreover, cannibalism and probably human sacrifice were practiced. I assert that these activities may have been related to the proliferation of the Mesoamerican ballgame in the American Southwest and to Paquimé's role as the distribution center of the region's ritual and exotic goods. This dissertation underscores the importance of including skeletal analysis with other lines of archaeological inquiry when answering questions about human behavior. / Committee in charge: John Lukacs, Chairperson, Anthropology; Guy Tasa, Member, Anthropology; Frances White, Member, Anthropology; John Orbell, Outside Member, Political Science