Christopher Beekman
My research has since graduate school revolved around issues in ancient political organization and scales of social identity (individual agency, corporate group, and ethnic identity). The sociopolitical system of the Tequila valleys, Jalisco, from ca. 1000 BC to AD 500 provides a distinctive case study in which power was shared between multiple lineages, subverting both individual identity and hierarchical power structures based on a single royal lineage. I have pursued this research through excavation at the settlements of Navajas and Llano Grande, study of the depiction of rulership in contemporary artwork, and surveys and laboratory analysis with Dr. Verenice Heredia of the Colegio de Michoacan. She and I are currently encouraging graduate students to work with the excavated collections from Los Guachimontones and with our survey collections from the Magdalena Lake Basin, both in central Jalisco. We plan to begin residential excavations at Los Guachimontones in 2022.
A second research thread has been the study of ancient migration in Mesoamerica through the integration of different datasets. This began with the integration of biological, ethnohistoric, linguistic, and archaeological evidence for the 6th century migrations of Nahua speakers out of north-central Mexico. Two more detailed analyses followed that examined these migrations to the west into the Tequila valleys of Jalisco and east into the Mezquital valley of Hidalgo, focusing on their distinctive features. This project has led to separate analyses of migrant enclaves in western and central Mexico. This line of research also led to the study of long-distance connections between Mexico and northwestern South America.
Many of the publications and papers from my CV are available here, but I also have most of them in electronic format if you want to email me for a copy. I am gradually posting papers presented in conferences, so people can see the evolution in my thinking.
Phone: 303-868-7233
Address: Department of Anthropology
Campus Box 103
University of Colorado-Denver
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364
A second research thread has been the study of ancient migration in Mesoamerica through the integration of different datasets. This began with the integration of biological, ethnohistoric, linguistic, and archaeological evidence for the 6th century migrations of Nahua speakers out of north-central Mexico. Two more detailed analyses followed that examined these migrations to the west into the Tequila valleys of Jalisco and east into the Mezquital valley of Hidalgo, focusing on their distinctive features. This project has led to separate analyses of migrant enclaves in western and central Mexico. This line of research also led to the study of long-distance connections between Mexico and northwestern South America.
Many of the publications and papers from my CV are available here, but I also have most of them in electronic format if you want to email me for a copy. I am gradually posting papers presented in conferences, so people can see the evolution in my thinking.
Phone: 303-868-7233
Address: Department of Anthropology
Campus Box 103
University of Colorado-Denver
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364
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Authored/Edited Books and Monographs by Christopher Beekman
Beekman, Christopher S., and Colin McEwan, editors. 2022. Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks connecting Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
In a series of data-rich chapters that address specific evidence for movement in their respective study areas, an international group of scholars assesses mobility through the isotopic and demographic analysis of human remains, stratigraphic identification of gaps in occupation, and local intensification of water capture in the Maya lowlands. Others examine migration through the integration of historic and archaeological evidence in Michoacán and Yucatán and by registering how daily life changed in response to the influx of new people in the Basin of Mexico.
Offering a range of critical insights into the vital and under-studied role that mobility and migration played in complex agrarian societies, Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities will be of value to Mesoamericanist archaeologists, ethnohistorians, and bioarchaeologists and to any scholars working on complex societies.
Contributors:
Jaime J. Awe, Meggan Bullock, Sarah C. Clayton, Andrea Cucina, Véronique Darras, Nicholas P. Dunning, Mélanie Forné, Marion Forest, Carolyn Freiwald, Elizabeth Graham, Nancy Gonlin, Julie A. Hoggarth, Linda Howie, Elsa Jadot, Kristin V. Landau, Eva Lemonnier, Dominique Michelet, David Ortegón Zapata, Prudence M. Rice, Thelma N. Sierra Sosa, Michael P. Smyth, Vera Tiesler, Eric Weaver
Arnauld, Marie-Charlotte, Christopher S. Beekman, and Gregory Pereira, editors. 2021. Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities. University Press of Colorado, Louisville.
Contributors: Laura Almendros López | Christopher S. Beekman | Mijaely Castañón | Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña | Manuel Dueñas García | Joshua D. Englehardt | Rafael García de Quevedo-Machain | Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza | Erika Ibarra | Stephen A. Kowalewski | Martha Lorenza López Mestas Camberos | Michael Mathiowetz | Joseph B. Mountjoy | David Muñiz García | M. Nicolás Caretta | José Luis Punzo Díaz | Diego Rangel | Kimberly Sumano Ortega | Jesús Zarco
Englehardt, Joshua D., Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza, and Christopher S. Beekman, editors. 2020. Ancient West Mexicos: Time, Space, and Diversity. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Using case studies covering a broad span of highlands prehistory—Classic Teotihuacan divine iconography, ceramic figures in Late Formative West Mexico, Epiclassic Puebla-Tlaxcala costumed figurines, earth sculptures in Prehispanic Oaxaca, Early Postclassic Tula symbolic burials, Late Postclassic representations of Aztec Kings, and more—contributors examine both Mesoamerican representations of the body in changing social, political, and economic conditions and the multivalent emic meanings of these representations. They explore the technology of artifact production, the body’s place in social structures and rituals, the language of the body as expressed in postures and gestures, hybrid and transformative combinations of human and animal bodies, bodily representations of social categories, body modification, and the significance of portable and fixed representations.
Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands provides a wide range of insights into Mesoamerican concepts of personhood and identity, the constitution of the human body, and human relationships with gods and ancestors. It will be of great value to students and scholars of the archaeology and art history of Mexico.
Contributors: Claire Billard, Danièle Dehouve, Cynthia Kristan-Graham, Melissa Logan, Sylvie Peperstraete, Patricia Plunket, Mari Carmen Serra Puche, Juliette Testard, Andrew Turner, Gabriela Uruñuela, Marcus Winter
Faugère, Brigitte and Christopher S. Beekman, editors. 2020. Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands: Gods, Ancestors, and Human Beings. University Press of Colorado, Louisville.
Beekman, Christopher S., editor. 2019. Migrations in Late Mesoamerica. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Fourteen insightful chapters present new research in four thematic sections: (1) Case studies: Archaeological and biological studies, (2) Broader perspectives: The contexts of figures and tombs across larger areas, (3) Collections-based research: Natural science or statistical perspectives, and (4) Collections-based research: Visual culture perspectives. In addition, the editors provide a comprehensive historical overview of research on the figures and tombs and a discussion of archaeology’s twin evils, looting and faking. In the final chapter, the editors propose avenues for productive new research that integrates different disciplinary approaches and takes advantage of new technologies that help scientists explore the past in new ways.
This volume aims to expose current researchers in western Mexico and Mesoamerica at large to the productive lines of study currently taking place in the field, the laboratory, and the museum, and to increase awareness of the potential that exists for integrative and collaborative research.
Beekman, Christopher S. and Robert B. Pickering, editors. 2016. Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexican Society: A Reassessment. Gilcrease Ancient Americas Series, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa.
Solórzano, Federico, Otto Schöndube, Fernando González Zozaya, Daniel Zizumbo Villarreal, Christopher S. Beekman, José M. Muriá, and Heriberto Moreno. 2015. Historia de Jalisco. Volumen I. Desde los Orígenes hasta Mediados del Siglo XVI. Second edition, six volume set. Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco, El Colegio de Jalisco, and Miguel Angel Porrua, México, D.F.
Weigand, Phil C., Christopher Beekman, and Rodrigo Esparza, editors. 2008. La Tradición Teuchitlán. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, México.
Beekman, Christopher S. and William W. Baden, editors. 2005. Nonlinear Models for Archaeology and Anthropology: Continuing the Revolution. Ashgate Press, Aldershot, U.K.
This was reprinted in 2016, and is in hardback, paperback, and Kindle.
Beekman, Christopher S. and Phil C. Weigand. 2000. La Cerámica Arqueológica de la Tradición Teuchitlán, Jalisco. Colegio de Michoacán and the Secretaría de Cultura del Estado de Jalisco, Zamora, Michoacán.
Beekman, Christopher S., Phil C. Weigand, John J. Pint, and Susana Pint. 1996. El Qanat La Venta: Sistemas Hidráulicos de la Época Colonial en el Centro de Jalisco. Antropología en Jalisco: Una Visión Actual no. 6. Secretaría de Cultura Gobierno de Jalisco, Guadalajara. [reprint of Beekman, et al. 1995 between two covers].
Beekman, Christopher S. 1996. The Long-Term Evolution of a Political Boundary: Archaeological Research in Jalisco, México. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Christopher Beekman
Beekman, Christopher S., and Colin McEwan, editors. 2022. Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks connecting Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
In a series of data-rich chapters that address specific evidence for movement in their respective study areas, an international group of scholars assesses mobility through the isotopic and demographic analysis of human remains, stratigraphic identification of gaps in occupation, and local intensification of water capture in the Maya lowlands. Others examine migration through the integration of historic and archaeological evidence in Michoacán and Yucatán and by registering how daily life changed in response to the influx of new people in the Basin of Mexico.
Offering a range of critical insights into the vital and under-studied role that mobility and migration played in complex agrarian societies, Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities will be of value to Mesoamericanist archaeologists, ethnohistorians, and bioarchaeologists and to any scholars working on complex societies.
Contributors:
Jaime J. Awe, Meggan Bullock, Sarah C. Clayton, Andrea Cucina, Véronique Darras, Nicholas P. Dunning, Mélanie Forné, Marion Forest, Carolyn Freiwald, Elizabeth Graham, Nancy Gonlin, Julie A. Hoggarth, Linda Howie, Elsa Jadot, Kristin V. Landau, Eva Lemonnier, Dominique Michelet, David Ortegón Zapata, Prudence M. Rice, Thelma N. Sierra Sosa, Michael P. Smyth, Vera Tiesler, Eric Weaver
Arnauld, Marie-Charlotte, Christopher S. Beekman, and Gregory Pereira, editors. 2021. Mobility and Migration in Ancient Mesoamerican Cities. University Press of Colorado, Louisville.
Contributors: Laura Almendros López | Christopher S. Beekman | Mijaely Castañón | Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña | Manuel Dueñas García | Joshua D. Englehardt | Rafael García de Quevedo-Machain | Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza | Erika Ibarra | Stephen A. Kowalewski | Martha Lorenza López Mestas Camberos | Michael Mathiowetz | Joseph B. Mountjoy | David Muñiz García | M. Nicolás Caretta | José Luis Punzo Díaz | Diego Rangel | Kimberly Sumano Ortega | Jesús Zarco
Englehardt, Joshua D., Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza, and Christopher S. Beekman, editors. 2020. Ancient West Mexicos: Time, Space, and Diversity. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Using case studies covering a broad span of highlands prehistory—Classic Teotihuacan divine iconography, ceramic figures in Late Formative West Mexico, Epiclassic Puebla-Tlaxcala costumed figurines, earth sculptures in Prehispanic Oaxaca, Early Postclassic Tula symbolic burials, Late Postclassic representations of Aztec Kings, and more—contributors examine both Mesoamerican representations of the body in changing social, political, and economic conditions and the multivalent emic meanings of these representations. They explore the technology of artifact production, the body’s place in social structures and rituals, the language of the body as expressed in postures and gestures, hybrid and transformative combinations of human and animal bodies, bodily representations of social categories, body modification, and the significance of portable and fixed representations.
Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands provides a wide range of insights into Mesoamerican concepts of personhood and identity, the constitution of the human body, and human relationships with gods and ancestors. It will be of great value to students and scholars of the archaeology and art history of Mexico.
Contributors: Claire Billard, Danièle Dehouve, Cynthia Kristan-Graham, Melissa Logan, Sylvie Peperstraete, Patricia Plunket, Mari Carmen Serra Puche, Juliette Testard, Andrew Turner, Gabriela Uruñuela, Marcus Winter
Faugère, Brigitte and Christopher S. Beekman, editors. 2020. Anthropomorphic Imagery in the Mesoamerican Highlands: Gods, Ancestors, and Human Beings. University Press of Colorado, Louisville.
Beekman, Christopher S., editor. 2019. Migrations in Late Mesoamerica. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Fourteen insightful chapters present new research in four thematic sections: (1) Case studies: Archaeological and biological studies, (2) Broader perspectives: The contexts of figures and tombs across larger areas, (3) Collections-based research: Natural science or statistical perspectives, and (4) Collections-based research: Visual culture perspectives. In addition, the editors provide a comprehensive historical overview of research on the figures and tombs and a discussion of archaeology’s twin evils, looting and faking. In the final chapter, the editors propose avenues for productive new research that integrates different disciplinary approaches and takes advantage of new technologies that help scientists explore the past in new ways.
This volume aims to expose current researchers in western Mexico and Mesoamerica at large to the productive lines of study currently taking place in the field, the laboratory, and the museum, and to increase awareness of the potential that exists for integrative and collaborative research.
Beekman, Christopher S. and Robert B. Pickering, editors. 2016. Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexican Society: A Reassessment. Gilcrease Ancient Americas Series, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa.
Solórzano, Federico, Otto Schöndube, Fernando González Zozaya, Daniel Zizumbo Villarreal, Christopher S. Beekman, José M. Muriá, and Heriberto Moreno. 2015. Historia de Jalisco. Volumen I. Desde los Orígenes hasta Mediados del Siglo XVI. Second edition, six volume set. Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco, El Colegio de Jalisco, and Miguel Angel Porrua, México, D.F.
Weigand, Phil C., Christopher Beekman, and Rodrigo Esparza, editors. 2008. La Tradición Teuchitlán. Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, México.
Beekman, Christopher S. and William W. Baden, editors. 2005. Nonlinear Models for Archaeology and Anthropology: Continuing the Revolution. Ashgate Press, Aldershot, U.K.
This was reprinted in 2016, and is in hardback, paperback, and Kindle.
Beekman, Christopher S. and Phil C. Weigand. 2000. La Cerámica Arqueológica de la Tradición Teuchitlán, Jalisco. Colegio de Michoacán and the Secretaría de Cultura del Estado de Jalisco, Zamora, Michoacán.
Beekman, Christopher S., Phil C. Weigand, John J. Pint, and Susana Pint. 1996. El Qanat La Venta: Sistemas Hidráulicos de la Época Colonial en el Centro de Jalisco. Antropología en Jalisco: Una Visión Actual no. 6. Secretaría de Cultura Gobierno de Jalisco, Guadalajara. [reprint of Beekman, et al. 1995 between two covers].
Beekman, Christopher S. 1996. The Long-Term Evolution of a Political Boundary: Archaeological Research in Jalisco, México. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Please cite this publication as follows:
2023 Beekman, Christopher S., Justin Jennings, and Michael D. Mathiowetz. Struktur und Geschichte der amerikanischen Kontinente 600–1350: Abgeschlossen und vernetzt? In 600-1350. Geteilte Welten (Geschichte der Welt, 2), Herausgegeben von Daniel G. König, 47-174. Geschichte der Welt 2, Herausgegeben von Akira Iriye und Jürgen Osterhammel. C. H. Beck, Munich.
The volume is available at the following link:
https://www.chbeck.de/geteilte-welten/product/10493954