The Biocultural Consequences of Contact in Mexico

Examining the long-lasting effects

of European colonization on Mexican populations



The Biocultural Consequences of

Contact in Mexico explores

how Mexican populations have been shaped both culturally and biologically by

the arrival of Spanish conquistadors and the years following the defeat of the

Aztec empire in 1521. Contributors to this volume draw on a diverse set of

methods from archaeology, bioarchaeology, genetics, and history to examine the

response to European colonization, providing evidence for the resilience of the

Mexican people in the face of tumultuous change.



Essays focus on Central Mexico,

Yucatan, and Oaxaca, providing a cross-regional perspective, and they highlight

Mexican scholars' work and viewpoints. They examine the effects of the castas

system--which the colonizers used to organize society according to parentage and

the social construction of race--on individuals' and groups' access to power,

social mobility, health, and mate choice. Contributors illuminate the poorly

understood extent that this system--and the national identity of mestizaje that replaced it--caused

structural inequality and the structural violence of stress and health

disparities, as well as genetic admixture.



Five hundred years after the Spanish

first clashed with Aztec forces and began to influence modern Mexico, this

volume adds to discussions of colonialism, the reconstruction of biosocial

relationships, and the work of decolonization. Students and scholars in

anthropology and history will gain insights into how human populations transform

and adapt in the wake of major historical events that result in migration,

demographic change, and social upheaval.





A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human

Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen