From Teotihuacan to Chaco Canyon: New Perspective on Relations Between Mesoamerica and the Southwestern United States

Abstract

Studies of relations between the southwestern United States and Mesoamerica tend to pay little attention to the groups that populated northern Mesoamerica and played a direct part in those relations. Recent work in the Sierra Madre Occidental and Michoacan allows us to elucidate some of the processes involved in the history of what might be called the ancient Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. In particular, they lead us to recognize the importance of Teotihuacan in the history of the north, not as a metropolis in expansion, as had previously been proposed, but in the framework of the diaspora of its population resulting from its violent destruction. These advances facilitate a fruitful dialogue with the present efforts of Hopi scholars to confront the contributions of archeology with their own oral tradition telling of the migration of several of their clans from a place of origin called Palatkwapi, which might be identical with Teotihuacan.