Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:14:11.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Salt Production and Commerce in Guerrero, Mexico. An ethnographic contribution to historical reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2010

Catharine Good
Catharine Good
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico, DF, Mexico
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper provides data on the salt industry along Guerrero's Costa Chica and on itinerant salt trading conducted by highland Nahuatl villagers. The findings are compared with studies of salt production elsewhere in Mesoamerica, and the nature and quality of oral-historical sources are evaluated. Based primarily on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the paper explores technical and social-organizational features of salt production and marketing useful for model building among archaeologists and ethnohistorians. In crossing disciplinary boundaries the paper raises methodological issues of concern to scholars who attempt to reconstruct historical or contemporary Mesoamerican cultural and economic patterns.

Resumen

El presente artículo aporta datos sobre la industria de la sal en la Costa Chica de Guerrero y sobre el comercio de la sal practicado por indígenas Nahuas de la cuenca del Río Balsas. Se comparan los resultados con las investigaciones sobre la sal realizadas en otras regiones, y se evalúa la calidad de los datos obtenidos a través de la historia oral. Basado principalmente en el trabajo de campo etnográfico a largo plazo, el articulo examina los aspectos técnicos y sociales en la producción y comercio de la sal; este material puede ser útil para construir modelos arqueológicos y etnohistóricos. Por su enfoque inter-disciplinario el presente trabajo aborda temas metodológicos importantes para investigadores quienes pretenden reconstruir patrones culturales y económicos en Mesoamérica.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 6 , Spring 1995 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acuña, René (editor) 1984 Tlaxcala. Relaciones geográficas del siglo XVI, vol. II. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, Mexico.Google Scholar
Aguirre Beltrán, Gonzalo 1956 Cuijla, etnografia de un pueblo negro. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Andrews, Anthony P. 1983 Maya Salt Production and Trade. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Andrews, Anthony P. 1991 Las salinas de El Salvador: Bosquejo histórico, etnográfico y arqueológico. Mesoamerica 21:71–93.Google Scholar
Dehouve, Daniele 1990 Quand les banquiers etaient des saints. Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.Google Scholar
Dillon, Brian, Pope, Kevin, and Love, Michael 1988 An Ancient Extractive Industry: Maya Saltmaking at Salinas de las Nueve Cerros, Guatemala. Journal of New World Archaeology 7(2-3):37–107.Google Scholar
Ewald, Ursula 1985 The Mexican Salt Industry 1560-1980: A Study in Change. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Good, Catharine 1988 Haciendo la lucha: Arte y comercio nahuas de Guerrero. Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Good, Catharine 1993 Work and Exchange in Nahuatl Society: Local Values and the Dynamics of Indigenous Economy.? Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Ian 1982 Ranchero Revolt: The Mexican Revolution in Guerrero. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Mendizábal, Miguel Othón de 1946 Influencia de la sal en la distributión geográfica de los grupos indígenas de México. In Obras completasy? vol. 2, pp. 181–340. Mexico.Google Scholar
Nance, C. Roger 1992 Guzmán Mound: A Late Preclassic Salt Works on the South Coast of Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 3:27–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochoa Campos, Moises 1968 Historia del estado de Guerrero. Porrúa, Mexico.Google Scholar
Reina, Ruben, and Monaghan, John 1981 The Ways of the Maya: Salt Production in Sacapulas, Guatemala. Expedition 23(2): 13–33.Google Scholar
Sisson, Edward B. 1973 First Annual Report of the Coxcatldn Project. Tehuacan Project Report No. 3. R.S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA.Google Scholar