Abstract
Mineral procurement is an enduring theme in both northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Mining and mining settlements have given this great area much of its distinctive historical and cultural character (see, for example, West 1949; Spicer 1962; Bakewell 1976; Mecham 1927; Powell 1975). The popular mind forcefully associates mining with these signatures: the vivid imagery of field rushes; unstable social situations; transitory populations; quick flowerings and equally fast declines of settlements; and hardship. But much of what we regard as Colonial period mining activity appears to have had deeper roots. It is our contention that mineral exploitation and procurement was in fact one of the organizing postulates in the formation of the ancient Mesoamerican trade structure and that this activity was important, in select areas, at many or all levels of economic organization (a la Braudel 1972 and 1982). Within this context of early mineral procurement, we deal in this chapter with turquoise and its particular role in the Mesoamerican trade structure.
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Weigand, P.C., Harbottle, G. (1993). The Role of Turquoises in the Ancient Mesoamerican Trade Structure. In: Ericson, J.E., Baugh, T.G. (eds) The American Southwest and Mesoamerica. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1149-0_6
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