Purepecha Kingdom

Native Americans of the state of Michoac�n, Mexico. Their language has no known relation to other languages, and their history prior to the 16th cent. is poorly understood. The polity present at the time of the Spanish conquest (1521) had roughly the same territorial outline as the contemporary state of Michoac�n, which it successfully defended against a protracted and bloody Aztec attack in the year 1479. Their capital, Tzintzuntz�n [place of the hummingbirds], was located on the shore of Lake P�tzcuaro and had a population of 25,000 to 35,000. Peculiar to Tarascan culture were T-shaped pyramids, rising in terraces and faced with stone slabs without mortar. They were skilled weavers, and were famous for their feathered mosaics made from hummingbird plumage. Most of the over 100,000 contemporary Tarascans are impoverished residents of small rural communities who supplement agricultural production with craft specializations (e.g., weaving, embroidery, woodworking, and lacquerware) and seasonal migration to the United States.

When Cristobal de Ol�d and his regiment of Spanish conquistadors first arrived at Lake P�tzcuaro in central Mexico in 1522, they found on its shores a city of 40,000, the capital of the Pur�pecha Indian Empire, the city of Tzintzuntzan.

 Over 450 years later, the modern explorer finds Tzintzuntzan a quiescent, almost sleeping little village of only a thousand souls. Yet tucked away in a corner of this lovely lake country, 7,000 feet in the pine-clad highlands of Michoac�n state, charming little Tzintzuntzan keeps safe a wonderful treasure of ancient monuments and legends that retell the early history of Michoac�n.  [Photo: Tzintzuntzan village from the old ruins]

From a plateau on the wooded hill overlooking Tzintzuntzan (seen-soon-sahn) and the lake, Don Alonso, the old caretaker of the local archeological zone, pointed out to me where the Spaniards first entered the basin. As we walked along the hillside he enlightened me with his own versions of local history and folklore. The plateau itself, he told me, was created by Indian workmen using great quantities of fill rock, covered by nine feet of packed earth to form a broad mesa on which the Pur�pecha (poo-RAY-pecha) rulers built their ceremonial center.

Here stand the yac�tas, or ruins, of five large Pur�pecha temples. The temples themselves do not survive; only their unusual terraced circular platforms, two of which have been restored.

 Preliminary excavations have shown that these platforms and temples were built over the tops of previous temples, erected on the hillside long before the mesa was created. Off to one side lie ruins believed to have been the dwellings of high priests. A large patio, originally covered by a pillared roof, was perhaps an altar to the local coyote deity. The tombs of high priests were unearthed beneath its floor, and on a nearby slope, archeologists have discovered a huge deposit of human bones, 20 meters by 10 meters and 2.5 meters deep.  [Photo: Ruins of temples, Lake Patzcuaro]

Close inspection of the buildings, as Don Alonso demonstrated, shows that different rooms, even sections of the same wall were built by different hands, in different patterns -- apparently the work of "tarea", tribute labor crews. In fact, only about ten percent of the 1.5 million people in the ancient Pur�pecha Empire were of the ruling Pur�pecha stock. The remainder spoke Chichimec and Nahuatl-related dialects and were apparently conquered subjects of the once powerful Purepecha. In central Mexico, the Pur�pecha language is unique in its relationship to the Mayan tongue and ultimately, some believe, to the roots of the Quechua language of the Incas.

The remnants of another, smaller platform structure lie in rubble on the opposing hillside, marking the community center of the original residential town of Tzintzuntzan, which blanketed the hillsides and spilled over toward Ihuatzio village (known then as Cuyuac�n) on the far side.

Over eight hundred years ago, nearby P�tzcuaro was the center of the indigenous world of Michoac�n -- as again today it is the center for visiting tourists. Some time after the fall of the Toltecs, the great Pur�pecha King Tariacuri succeeded in consolidating a vast empire that stretched from Lake Chapala in the north to the fringes of the rival Nahuatl-Aztec (Mex�ca) state to the south and east.

But a rift occurred when Tariacuri died, leaving a son and two nephews as heirs to the kingdom. His son Hiqugage remained in P�tzcuaro, but the two nephews seceded with their own followings to establish separate capitals. Nephew Hiriapan chose Cuyuac�n (today Ihuatzio), and Tangoxo�n moved to Tzintzuntzan (known then as Mechuac�n). However, the dedication of new capitals required a great number of sacrifices, and campaigns were launched at home as well as abroad to capture sacrificial victims. From their successful campaigns, the kings also brought back quantities of gold and silver.

This information comes down to us through the Relaci�n de Michoacan, a collection of native chronicles and ethnographic information compiled in Spanish about 1539, probably by Fray Mart�n de Jesus de la Coru�a and his Franciscan monks. The history states only that the son and one nephew died violent deaths, leaving Tangoxo�n, the sole heir, to rule from his new capital at Tzintzuntzan. But certainly this is the stuff legends are made of.

When Captain Ol�d, (one of the principals in Cortez' siege of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitl�n), advanced toward Tzintzuntzan in 1522, the Pur�pecha had already learned of the destruction of the powerful Aztec Empire. In fact, the devastation of the Spaniards had already arrived. The current Pur�pecha king died in a smallpox epidemic brought by Aztec messengers seeking aid. The new king, Tangoxo�n II, a meek descendant of the city's early founder, fearing a similar fate for his kingdom, went into hiding until after Ol�d arrived, then gave up without a fight.

The Spaniards soon labeled the local Indians Tarascos, from the native word tarascu�, meaning "relatives" or "in-laws". According to Friar Coru�a, it was a term the natives used mockingly for the Spaniards, who regularly violated their women. But the Spaniards mistakenly took it up, and the word Tarasco, (English: Tarascan), is commonly used today for the Indians who call themselves Pur�pecha.

 It was Tangoxo�n II himself, on a visit to Mexico City, who asked the bishop to send Catholic priests to Michoac�n. Six Franciscan missionaries, led by Fray Mart�n de Jesus de la Coru�a arrived in Tzintzuntzan in 1525. Their initial task was the construction, begun in 1526, of the large Franciscan monastery of Santa Ana in Tzintzuntzan. They saved a great deal of labor by tearing down much of the Pur�pecha temples and platforms, using the quarried stones for their own buildings.  [Photo: Front of the Franciscan monastery]

The monastery thrived for over one hundred years, before being converted into a school, a function it served until 1964. The Mexican government completed restoration work in 1974 and today the ancient 'convento' is open to the public at no charge. Much of the original two-story quadrangle remains, and fragments of original frescoes over 400 years old can still be seen in the large arched entryway that leads to the inner patio.

 The monastery faces a spacious churchyard where an original stone cross still stands where Fray Mart�n placed it in the 16th century. Santa Ana now serves as an informal museum, displaying a number of religious paintings, wooden statues, stone carvings and other artifacts of the early years of Catholicism in Michoac�n. The Templo de la Soledad, called 'La Capilla', (the chapel) with its beautiful three-tiered bell tower, also faces the church grounds, and nearby on separate grounds stands the smaller 17th century Capilla Abierta (open chapel) de la Concepci�n.  [Photo: Churchyard of the Franciscan monastery]

Nu�o Guzm�n de Beltran plays the heavy in local history. Named by Charles V. to head the first audencia (governing committee) to replace Cortez' rule in Mexico City, Guzm�n abused his power and was excommunicated by the church. Anticipating loss of his position as well, he set off for Jalisco and Michoac�n, bent on plunder.

 Guzm�n arrived in Tzintzuntzan in 1530 and promptly subverted all progress toward conversion of the Indians. He officially claimed the area for Spain and demanded that all tribute of gold be brought to him. He was displeased however, with the paltry amount of gold he received, and although he cruelly tortured the king and his advisors, little more gold was produced. In fact, much of the Pur�pecha treasure of precious metals had already been sent to Cortez in Mexico City.  [Photo: Chapel of the Conception, left, Templo de la Soledad, right]

A local legend maintains that Tangoxoan II had hidden part of the treasure in small boats and sunk them into Lake P�tzcuaro, but that Guzm�n was informed of the deception. Whether or not this is true, the displeased Guzm�n finally had the unfortunate king dragged through town behind a horse, then garroted him to death and burned him at the stake. Guzm�n now declared himself "King of the Tarascan Empire" and led a brief reign of terror that drove most of the Indians far into the mountains, before he left to plunder Jalisco, taking with him 8,000 Pur�pecha men as soldiers. Good relations with the Spaniards had been destroyed, but a beneficent figure was soon to arrive.

 Don Vasco de Quir�ga arrived in Mexico in 1530 at the age of 60 and first visited Tzintzuntzan in 1533. A royal edict of 1534 awarded Tzintzuntzan the title of 'City of Michoac�n', and in 1536 it became the seat of a newly created bishporic. In 1538 Don Vasco became the Bishop of Michoac�n. He succeeded in implanting himself in the minds and hearts of the natives as "Tata", or "Daddy" Vasco, the benefactor and protector of the Indians.  [Photo: View over the village from the bell tower]

In 1530 Lake P�tzcuaro was considerably higher than we see it today, covering most of the flatlands where the present village lies. Fray Mart�n wrote that Santa Ana was built by the shore, not 70 meters from the lake; today it sits over 400 meters away, with much of the present village in between. The Indians, in those days, lived on the mountainsides, surrounding the church site, but after the tyranny of Guzm�n, they stayed far away from the compound of the intruders.

 To attract the Indians to come down and hear the Word (according to Don Alonso), Don Vasco staged performances of a dance called "Los Toritos", a dance which is performed today in the streets of local villages on festival occasions. All the dancers wear colorful costumes and masks, one of which is a great bull's head. The bull prances to the music of guitars and trumpets as the others try to capture him with capes and ropes.  [Photo: Front of the Templo de la Conception]

Soon a few of the Indians came to investigate this strange phenomenon and Don Vasco befriended them with gifts. He treated the Indians with enlightened compassion and soon many families came down from the hills to settle near the monastery, as much for protection as to embrace the new faith. Don Vasco stood at odds with the cruel treatment the Spanish soldiers meted out to the Indians, and with his influence and personal power, he put an end to the crippling tribute system the Spaniards had inherited from the Pur�pecha kings.

In 1540 the Spaniards moved their administrative center to abandoned P�tzcuaro, when Don Vasco decided (against much protestation) to build his new cathedral there. Although Tzintzuntzan remained the Franciscan headquarters, it soon dwindled in size and significance. and the royal title of City of Michoac�n passed to P�tzcuaro.

 During his ministry Don Vasco also sent to Spain for a battery of artisans to teach the Indians home crafts. To Santa Clara he sent a coppersmith; to P�tzcuaro, artists in lacquer ware and silver; weavers to Erongar�cuaro; woodcarvers to Jan�tzio; and to Tzintzuntzan, potters and basket weavers who taught the Indians to fashion mats from the tule reeds that grow abundantly along the shores of the lake. These crafts, taken up by Indians already highly proficient in stone, shell, and metal crafts, have been passed on from generation to generation and thrive in these villages today as a substantial tourist trade and an enduring legacy from their beloved "Tata" Vasco.  [Photo: Belltower of the Templo de la Concepcion from below; this was the back cover of the Am�ricas issue]

P�tzcuaro became the scene of all subsequent local history and today is a popular and attractive tourist town, protected as a national historical monument. Only twenty minutes away by car, Tzintzuntzan is today a small and poor village. Tzintzuntzan: "The Place of the Hummingbirds", even the hummingbirds are gone now, hunted to extinction by the Pur�pecha, who prized their iridescent feathers to adorn their clothing.

 In contrast to the ubiquitous red and white buildings of P�tzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan is a study in brown. Ancient adobe walls, unadorned by paint or whitewash, are covered only with a crumbling plaster of the same adobe, made as it was by the Spaniards hundreds of years ago. Away from the highway that cuts through the village, I didn't see a single vehicle in the dusty, deserted streets.

A few shops and stalls line the highway, offering distinctive Tzintzuntzan pottery and a variety of tule crafts, but not a single hotel or even a cafe is to be found in Tzintzuntzan. The local pottery, while simple by international standards, is as innovative and attractive as any in the area.

During the week, only a few cars stop on their way to P�tzcuaro to peruse the few small shops in Tzintzuntzan, and few tourists venture to step beyond the main street, where 13th century Indian legend and 16th century conquest history wait to be rediscovered.

Yet, just one block off the highway -- there, in the quiet of the vast churchyard, dotted with old trees, grizzled now and dying of old age -- you may still hear the echoes of horses hooves, as Spanish soldiers draw up to the Santa Ana monastery to hear Mass, and perhaps a lecture, from Don Vasco de Quir�ga.

"Two Worlds Between Two Empires" by: Jay Silverstein (Research/Penn State, Vol. 20, no. 3 (September, 1999))

In the town of Arcelia in the northern part of the state of Guerrero, Mexico, a statue depicting the last Aztec emperor, Cuatehmoc, stands vigilant in the central plaza, spear in hand. Not far to the northeast, in a town called Ichcateopan, a local museum displays charred and mutilated bones purported to be those of Cuatehmoc. These remains bear witness to the agony the Spanish conquistador Hern�n Cortez inflicted upon the man before executing him on February 28, 1525, thus ending both his life and his empire. Yet despite the statue and the bones, Cuatehmoc never visited the town of Arcelia. Indeed, the name 'Arcelia', unlike most of the place names in this region, is not in one of the indigenous languages. It is much more recent, a combination of the names of the 19th century governor of Guerrero, Anselmo Arce, and his wife, Celia.

 
 
The remains at Cuatehmoc, the last Aztec emperor, on display in Ichcateopan, Mexico. (Photo: Jay Silverstein)  
Five hundred years ago, no one lived where Arcelia sits now. Possibly no one could, because this land was a place where the armies of two empires clashed. When Cortez landed in Veracruz, the Aztec Empire was engaged in other struggles. Among them was a generations-old conflict that separated Central Mexico from Western Mexico. Arcelia is situated in what has been described as the "no-man's-land" between the two empires.

West of Arcelia the land is broken, cut by a ridge of steep cliffs that seems to shed gargantuan boulders as a tree sheds leaves in autumn. From atop the cliffs one can trace the Palos Altos River as it winds its way through the rugged landscape. Below, along the river banks, sit groups of temple mounds, houses, and ballcourts. Most of these towns were long abandoned when the Aztec armies arrived, but others were probably abandoned because of the war that broke out between the Aztecs and their enemies, the Tarascans. Here on the ridge, however, basins carved in the stony soil still gather water in stagnant pools. Here, where no crops could be sown, where there is no reason to live except for the view, the soldiers of the Tarascan Empire sat in their watchpost, making points for their arrows, blading their swords with obsidian, and watching the path that led eventually to Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

East of Arcelia, the highway winds up the foothills of the central highlands. The valleys grow deeper and the hills taller, the climate cooler and the flora greener. Soon you come to Cerro La Malinche. There, half-hidden on the mountaintop, lie the fallen parapets of the Aztec fortress of Oztuma. Although the highway passes below the ridge, few travelers are aware of the fortress. Beyond La Malinche stands the citadel, the place where, according to a 1579 document, the Aztec captain sacrificed Tarascan prisoners that were brought to him.

The people of this ancient frontier rarely think of their history in terms of empires and war. Tidbits of history, passed down through a score of generations, mix with tales of UFOs and of buried gold from the revolution. The weather-worn mounds bear an undeniable aura of mystery, but those who search dig not for answers but for riches, the endless lure of forgotten but ultimately illusory gold. The denuded walls, temples, and ballcourts, their stones stolen to build dams or simpler houses, attest to the cultural loss that followed in the wake of the Spanish conquest.

I grew to know these people and they me. A few would pass and say, "Gringo, why do you treat Mexicans so bad in your country?" But far more welcomed me into their homes, shared their food, and gave friendship, aid, and trust more freely than is our custom. As we walked through the hills and valleys and crossed the rivers and streams, my guide, Aurelio, told me of the plants and their uses: How the people still used a particular type of camote roots to prevent pregnancy, or how to eat the wild grape but not the acidic skin. Many of the ancient mounds were still guarded by a copal tree whose resin, when burned, was said to open a path to the gods. This knowledge was timeless, their connection to the past. In truth, my interest lay with the dead, not with the living, but it soon became apparent that the past is inseparable from the present and the living inextricably linked to the dead. During my archaeological survey of this portion of the Aztec-Tarascan frontier, I visited places known to shepherds and hunters, to old folks and to the adventurous young. Perhaps three thousand years of history lie fossilized in ancient plazas on mountain tops, in enormous stone temples built beside the Balsas River, and in palaces standing on remote hillsides. Almost all of them have been defiled by looters, and some had been leveled by industrialized agriculture, but most remain willing to tell of their dead, willing to yield their secrets to science � if science could arrive before the bulldozer or the next treasure seeker.

Many times I was too late.

In El Paso de Amatitlan stood the ancient foundations of Prehispanic houses, perhaps a thousand years old. I can see them clearly on ten-year-old air photos, but when I visited the site during my survey, I discovered I had arrived three months too late: a soccer field had been put in on top of the ruins.

Three years ago at the town of San Miguel Totolapan, bulldozers came at the behest of an American melon-growing company to level the site where the ancient town stood. A local school teacher salvaged a few objects from the momoxtlis, as the locals call the ancient mounds. A bronze ax head, a cranium, a pot, a grinding stone, and other items from this once-magnificent site sit gathering dust in a small locked room.

As an archaeologist, I naively thought I could stop the destruction. There was little I could do, however, when even local and regional authorities could not enforce the laws protecting archaeological sites. As my friend Lamberto said, "You will go home, but we will stay and things will be the same." I came as a guest and the people of Arcelia welcomed me as such, but a guest moves on and cannot expect to change much.

Yet through our friendship, the townspeople of Arcelia and I discovered a mutual interest in their ancestors and in the history of their region, known as the Tierra Caliente � the hot land. We began to make plans, to plant a seed of knowledge, the seed of a tree that would tell of their past and what can be learned about it if only we can preserve the ruins, the momoxtlis of their fathers and mothers. With this knowledge they can themselves fill in the legends and oral traditions that are often all that is left of an ancient and venerable culture. They can, perhaps, revitalize the traditions that, like the ruins, are fading under new economic and social pressures.

With this object in mind, my friends in Arcelia and I worked to put a museum in a vacant portion of the municipal library. Where once armies fought on the frontier of empires, we wrestled with modern bureaucracy. Eventually, the state director of libraries gave permission for us to proceed.

On July 28, 1998, in that unused portion of the municipal library, we opened El Museo de La Frontera: the Museum of the Frontier. A carved stone altar serves as the center piece of the exhibit, and display cases with obsidian spear points, carved stone monuments, ceramic pots and figurines, spindle whorls, and shell and stone jewelry are presented with historical descriptions. Already, I am told, the local museum committee has added to the original collection a display of photographs of the town from the time of the revolution. Through such means, the children of Arcelia will better understand their roots, and knowledge of the past will feed the pride of the present. It is in ways like this that the dead, through the living, can communicate to the future.

Jay Silverstein is a doctoral candidate in anthropology, College

Mesoamerican Anomaly?

The Pre-Conquest Tarascan State

 Julie Adkins

Within days of the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitl�n, the Aztec capital, Cort�s wrote to Charles V that there was a lord of a very great province called Michoac�n, which extended to the Pacific Ocean� (Gorenstein1993iii).

In reality, the Tarascans had only a colony on the Pacific coast, at Epatl�n (Warren 1985:3).  Even so, the Spaniards already had certain knowledge of and interest in the Tarascan kingdom.  The Aztecs knew the Tarascans all too well, having attempted unsuccessfully on several occasions to expand their empire into Tarascan territory.  Until recently, however, modern-day historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scholars � even within Mexico � have had little knowledge of or interest in the Tarascans.  From the information available, they seemed much less interesting than the Aztec or the Maya; some doubted whether they had in fact ever attained the level of a state society.  Recent investigations, particularly over the past twenty years, have revealed a complex culture far more interesting than anyone had imagined.  Not only did the Tarascans rule a substantial empire at the time of the Conquest, second in geographical size only to the Aztec � they had also created a culture which was in many ways unlike anything else in Mesoamerica.

 Sources of Information
One of the great advantages of studying societies in existence at the time of European contact is the documentary record left by colonial explorers, mission-aries, and administrators describing a prehistoric world.  In the case of the Tarascans this is especially valuable because they kept no written records them-selves, despite their knowledge of such documents in other parts of Mesoamerica (Pollard 1993:17).

It is unclear from Pollard�s comment whether the Tarascans had no written language at all at the time of the Conquest, or whether they simply felt no need to keep records  Given the intricate economic and political network they administered, the former seems more likely.  Had they had a system of writing, surely it would have been pressed into service, for purposes of accounting if nothing else.  Given the absence of such primary source docu-ments, those interested in learning about the Tarascans have depended on four major sources of information (Gorenstein and Pollard 1983:55):

-         extrapolation from 20th-century data

-         extrapolation from the early Hispanic period (1520-1550)

-         evidence from archaeology

-         evidence from ethnohistorical records

The first two sources have primarily to do with environmental/geographical issues; e.g., we can make estimates about the size and shape of Lake P�tzcuaro in the Prehispanic period based on what we know of its size and shape today.  We can guess what towns and hamlets might have existed before the Conquest by observing what is present a few years after the Conquest.  Current data on rainfall, agricultural productivity, fish catches, wildlife present in the region, etc. should help us to ascertain what conditions were five hundred years ago.

                          Evidence from archaeology is intriguing but still fairly sparse.  Gorenstein and Pollard comment, �Considering that the existence of the Prehispanic Tarascans of the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin is well known to Mesoamericanists, it is remarkable how little archaeo-logical work has been done in the Basin� (1983:9).  More recently, however, Pollard has noted that archaeologists� attention has turned away from the relatively-few monumental works left by the Tarascans, and toward excavations which hope to reveal more about the everyday life of the common people (personal communication).  Indeed, a Web search for the words �Tarascan� and �archaeology� together yields several hundred hits, including Web pages for a number of young archaeologists investigating the region.  The recent meeting of the American Anthropological Association held a session on Tarascan studies, with archaeologists reporting on the use of obsidian (Healan 2001), copper production (Maldonado 2001), ceramic analyses (Hern�ndez 2001), and surveying of the empire�s southeastern frontier (Silverstein 2001).  One can only hope that this trend will continue, providing more depth and breadth of information from the field of archaeology.

                          At present, however, the richest source of information on the Tarascans is the early Spanish colonial documents, particularly the Relaci�n de Michoac�n, which was recorded in 1540-1541 in Tzintzuntzan, the capital of the Tarascan empire.  Fray Jer�nimo de Alcal�, a Franciscan priest, attempted to capture the stories and culture of the indigenous people through a process of transcribing and translating the narratives and information given him by a group of Tarascan noblemen, including one of the last of the royal family (Pollard 1993:17).  Additional useful documentary sources, according to Pollard, are [1] documents written within the Tarascan regime as part of the early colonial administration, [2] various 16th-century dictionaries and grammars of the Tarascan language, and [3] relevant documents from other parts of Mexico, especially the Basin of Mexico, which make reference to the Tarascans (1993:18-19).  Needless to say, one must always use caution when utilizing the documentary records of the conquerors to try to understand the conquered (cf. Roskamp 2001).  Nevertheless, particularly in the absence of records from the Tarascans themselves, these early Spanish records have at the very least helped modern-day scholars to discern what kinds of questions they need to be asking of the other kinds of data available.

Tarascan Origins and Rise of the State
It is possible that less is known about the origin and historical antecedents of the Tarascan indios than of any other important Mexican group (Foster 2000, translation mine).

Though a great deal more is known now than when Foster first published those words in 1948, it seems likely that they are largely still true. For a number of reasons, the Tarascans� origins are still shrouded in mystery and likely to remain so for some time to come.  Their own tradition, as recorded in the Relaci�n de Michoac�n, does not trace their beginnings back to their arrival in Michoac�n (Warren 1985:7), and this is where the mystery begins.

                          Noted Mesoamericanist Richard W. E. Adams notes that the Tarascans �are anthropologically famous for having a language that is unrelated to any other known Mesoamerican language� (1991:324).  Swadesh concluded that its closest cognates are Zuni, in the North American Southwest, and Quechua, in the Andes (cited in Pollard 1993:15).  Indeed, both the linguistic similarities and commonalities in metallurgical technology � along with the notable differences in both from surrounding cultures such as the Aztec � have led to some interesting theories about a Tarascan origin from among seafaring people of the Andes� coastal plain (Torres Mendez and Franco Vel�squez 1996).  Greenberg has hypothesized that Tarascan belongs with the Chibchan language group, found in lower Central America and modern-day Colombia.  He notes, however, that linguistic differences suggest that the divergence of Tarascan occurred no later than the Archaic Period, ca. 7000-2000 B.C. (cited in Pollard 1993:15-16).  In either case, linguistic issues offer us more questions than answers in our search for the Tarascans� origins.

                          In addition, the lack of written records from the Tarascans themselves has led to a different, but related, problem:  We are not even certain what the Tarascans called them-selves.  We do know that they were not called �Tarascans� until after the Conquest, and that the name apparently arose from a misunderstanding.  Their word tarascue means �son-in-law� or �father-in-law,� and its application appears to have arisen out of the early marriages of Spaniards to daughters of the Tarascan caciques: when some of their new family members were introduced to them as tarascue, the Spaniards incorrectly interpreted this to be the name of the entire people (Warren 1985:6).  It seems still to be the term most commonly used by scholars today, but always with the caveat that whatever the people called themselves, this was not it.

                          According to the 16th-century Franciscan linguist Juan Baptista de Lagunas, �all of the natives do not call the province and language anything but the province and language of Cintzuntza� [i.e., Tzintzuntzan, the imperial capital] (Warren 1985:5).  I have not found other sources for this claim; however, it is true that we also do not know the name which the Tarascans gave to their land, their empire.  The name Michoac�n derives from the Nahuatl, meaning �the place of the fish� � referring to Lake P�tzcuaro � and it was the Aztecs� name for the region, not the Tarascans�.

                          Another frequently-encountered name for the Tarascans is uac�secha (�eagles�).  This name refers specifically to a group of Chichimec believed to have arrived in the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin fairly late, who became the founders of the Tarascan empire and were themselves the lineage of the royal family (Castro-Leal 1986:182).  However, the current majority of opinion seems to be that the closest we can approximate to a �native� name for the Tarascans is Pur�pecha (or one of its variant spellings: Purh�pecha, P�urh�pecha, Phur�pecha.)  The Relaci�n de Cuitzeo of 1579 states that this was the name which they used for themselves, and that it held the meaning of �working men� or �common men� (Warren 1985:7).

                          Somewhat less mysterious is the question of the Tarascans� more recent arrival and expansion into the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin, where the empire was ultimately centered, and of the emergence of Tarascan culture as a distinguishable entity.  Adams hypothesizes a starting point possibly as early as A.D. 1000, noting that things certainly must have been well under way by 1250 in order to have reached the level of complexity at which the Spaniards found them (Adams 1991:322).  Incidentally, we should note in passing that although the term �Tarascan� is used to refer to the entire empire and all its people, there was in fact a small elite of �pure Tarascans� which comprised about 10 percent of the population, and who dominated the rest (Coe 1994:154).  Gorenstein and Pollard describe four major ethno-linguistic groups found in the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin, from which combin-ation the kingdom arose (1983:111):

-         indigenous Basin people, who probably spoke a �proto-Tarascan� language

-         Nahuatl speakers (naguatatos)

-         early-arriving Chichimecs

-         late-arriving Chichimecs, the uac�secha mentioned above.

To complicate the picture somewhat, lest we begin to feel too much certainty about any-thing having to do with the Tarascans, Michelet has challenged this picture somewhat, asserting that the Tarascans were a pseudo-nomadic group which appropriated for itself the Nahuatl term �chichimeca,� and which migrated fairly late to the Zacapu Basin and even later to the Lake P�tzcuaro region (1996:124).  We may look forward to the publication of some of Pollard�s most recent work, about which she claims, �Archaeological, ecological, and ethno-historic research of the last decade is now making it possible to discern the deeper cultural roots of the regional populations �� (Pollard 2001).  Perhaps a few of the mysteries will begin to be solved.

                          It is at approximately this point � with the arrival of numerous different settled groups in the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin � that the Tarascans� own legendary history, as related in the Relaci�n de Michoac�n,  picks up the story.  Somewhere around 1325, the great king, military, leader, and culture hero Tar�acuri � one of the uac�secha, who had estab-lished themselves as an elite lineage � declared himself as lord and P�tzcuaro as his capital.  He furthermore set his nephews up as secondary rulers: Hiripan at Ihuatzio, and Tang�xoan at Tzintzuntzan.  By 1350, the three of them had begun a successful series of military conquests in and around the P�tzcuaro Basin; and, after Tar�acuri�s death, his nephews continued to expand their sphere of influence to the area around Lake Cuitzeo (Coe 1994:154; see also Pollard 1993:88 for greater detail).

                          At some point in this early period of expansion, Tzintzuntzan became the regional capital in place of P�tzcuaro.  Located on the south shore of the northern arm of Lake P�tzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan was founded ca. A.D. 1000 as a worship center (Adams:324-325).  Gorenstein believes that the change came about because Tzintzuntzan was able somehow to gain control over the major zone of irrigable land in the region.  This exclusive access to resources, combined with the presence of resident royal elites, gave Tzintzuntzan the �edge� it needed to bring the four other primary regional polities under its control.  From this point forward, those four became administrative centers in the service of Tzintzuntzan, with four others created to serve along with them.  Power was not shared among the nine administrative centers but was held exclusively at Tzintzuntzan, which grew to be a �strongly primate urban center� with a population at least five times greater than the next-ranked centers (Gorenstein 1985:3-5).

                          Dates and personages become somewhat unclear at this point, because, if the Relaci�n is to be believed, both Tar�acuri and his nephews reigned and campaigned actively for more than ninety years.  This seems unlikely.  What does seem fairly clear is that some time around 1440, steps were taken to institutionalize the military gains already made, and to produce a tributary state.  A bureaucracy was created to administer these concerns, centered at Tzintzuntzan, and this cleared the way for a period of much broader expansion in the years 1440-1500 (Pollard 1993:88-90)  The motivation for this greatly-increased territorial expansion remains unknown, but two results of it were seen quite early:  first, it brought a large number and variety of resources into an established eco-nomic network, thus helping to maintain a dense core population which was far beyond the carrying capacity of the available land; second, it meant that military defense of the core was carried out at a distance of more than 100 km from the capital (Gorenstein 1985:5).

State Expansion and the Role of Warfare
But most singular, [the Tarascans] played the Aztec warfare game and did not lose.  It was the last that captured my attention.  The place of investigation was obviously the Tarascan-Aztec frontier.  I learned there how the Tarascans ran their frontier and how management skills, not simply military technology, won the wars and kept the territory intact.  It is perhaps administrative organization, not cultural traits, that made the Tarascans an anomaly in Mesoamerica.  That quality permeated and characterized the Tarascan cultural system, and it is seen clearly on the frontier where the Tarascans did not simply engage in battle but conducted administered warfare (Gorenstein 1985:1).

In the period of approximately eighty years between the creation of the centralized bureau-cracy at Tzintzuntzan and the Spanish Conquest, the Tarascan empire expanded greatly, incorporating into itself a diversity of ethnic populations and defending itself successfully against covetous neighbors.  The expansion came about primarily, if not exclusively, through the use of warfare against neighboring populations; in fact, Pollard tells us that the Tarascans succeeded through both conquest and intimidation.  She notes that according to the Relaci�n de Michoac�n, villages which did not surrender but were conquered had their entire populations removed.  Infants, the aged, and the wounded were immediately killed (sacrificed) on the battleground; adults were brought back to major temples in the core region (most often Tzintzuntzan) to be sacrificed in major rituals; children also were brought back to the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin and put to work as slaves in the king�s fields.  In an interesting glimpse into the mindset of the Tarascans, Pollard adds that they insisted that these slaves were not acquired by warfare, but were purchased in trade with blankets (Pollard 1993:106).

                          Though the state grew through warfare and aggression, processes of state formation and maintenance were for the most part peaceable and rational.  Pollard�s description of Tarascan statecraft is worth describing at some length, because it appears to have been carefully thought out and structured.  She postulates two seemingly contradictory ways in which the Tarascans interacted with the different ethnic groups they encountered in their expansion: two concurrent processes, each at work in different regions of the empire � ethnic assimilation and ethnic segregation (Pollard 1993:101-104).

                          Ethnic assimilation obviously took place in the heartland zone, the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin.  Political unity arose through the emergence of a Tarascan identity, which included universal use of the Tarascan language and incorporation of the four groups already there (see above).  There was also what she terms a �zone of active assimilation� outside the core, where local groups began to assume a Tarascan identity following their conquest by the heartland.  Assimilation in this zone was aided by the resettlement of Tarascans from the core region into these outlying areas.

                          Ethnic segregation also had two aspects:  in the first place, there were numerous ethnic enclaves within the zone of assimilation, groups which maintained their separate ethnic identity while nevertheless being subsumed into the Tarascan political and economic sphere.  Secondly, there were large territories along the military frontiers where a variety of ethnic groups lived and were incorporated into the empire system in varying degrees.  For example, in her work at the frontier settlement of Ac�mbaro, Gorenstein discovered that the three separate ethnic-linguistic groups present (Otomi, Chichimec, and Tarascan) maintained separate ethnic identities, residential areas, and social systems.  While the Tarascans had full political control of the community � Otomi and Chichimec leaders were appointed by the Tarascan king � there was no attempt to �make Tarascans� out of the other ethnic groups (Gorenstein 1985:22).

                          Expansion was not the only reason for the Tarascans to go to war.  Threats to their way of life and resource networks could trigger military action.  Lameiras notes a war conducted against Tarascan allies (pueblos confederados) in the south of Jalisco who were attempting to control access to the saltpeter beds at Sayula (1996:156).  And of course, defense � primarily against incursions by the Aztecs � continued to necessitate a standing army and military network even after the empire had reached an impressive size.

                           Traditional weapons used by the Tarascans included the bow and arrow, lances, and the atlatl, with some use also of maces and slingshots.  Weapon points might be made of metal or obsidian, or a combination of both materials (Lameiras 137).  Protection against the enemy�s weapons came from shields and cotton armor.  Additionally, non-Tarascan soldiers were encouraged to use their traditional weapons, and did so to great effect:  the Chichimecs at Ac�mbaro were skilled archers, and the Otomi were expert with the macana and slings, and in hand-to-hand combat (Pollard 1993:105).

                          Gorenstein�s work at Ac�mbaro, on the eastern frontier of the Tarascan empire (and, therefore, the western edge of the Aztec empire), provides one of the best summaries to date of how the Tarascan defense system was planned and administered (Gorenstein 1985).  She notes that it appears the Tarascans were very selective about the conquests they made on the frontier, with an eye to holding and maintaining strategic points in the recog-nition that the Aztec were and would continue to be a formidable enemy, both militarily and politically (108).  She surveyed four neighboring settlements along with Ac�mbaro, and discovered that they were strategically superior.  All were on hills, which allowed them a wide field of vision and even permitted them to take surprise offensive action if the need arose.  The sites were sufficiently near to one another to be able to coordinate strategy and tactics, through a system of bonfires and smoke signals, or by means of messengers and scouts.  �All the settlements of the frontier zone could have been informed of an event or directive within a week and possibly within days depending on the position of the frontier settlement disseminating and receiving the information� (15).

                          Along with this impressive internal communication network, the Tarascans also maintained a cadre of spies in order to try to ascertain external information � especially along the volatile eastern border (Pollard 1993:105-106).  They may also have been long-distance merchants as well (Adams 1991:329); as will be seen below, in the Tarascans� polity, trade between empires and/or conducted over long distances was the province of paid employees of the king.  Therefore, since they were already employed by the government, it would be a small matter to add spying to their job descriptions.

                          The military and the frontier regions were firmly integrated into the Tarascan economic and political systems.  These will be described in greater detail below, but suffice it to say for the moment that the tribute received from all over the empire helped to support its standing army and defenses.  In fact, groups such as the Otomi and Chichimec at Ac�mbaro were exempt from paying product tribute to the heartland; it was recognized that their military service was their tribute.  Gorenstein comments:

The relationship between the Tarascan core and periphery was not merely an economic one in which the resources of the periphery were extracted to the accumulative benefit of the core.  It was also, and probably primarily, a political one in which the economic periphery became a political frontier to be supported when necessary by the core�s accumulated surplus.  The Tarascan government, in this regard as well as others, recognized political interests above economic ones (Gorenstein 1985:104, emphasis in original).

                          The Tarascans had been correct in assuming that they would need to defend themselves against the Aztec.  Both empires were undergoing expansion during the 15th century, and it was inevitable that they would confront one another sooner or later.  During the reign of the Aztec king Axayacatl (1469-1481), the Aztec armies tried on several occasions to conquer the Tarascans, and were repelled each time, often with great loss of life (Coe 1994:171).  Even in the decades immediately preceding the Conquest, the Aztecs still mounted occasional attacks against the Tarascans� eastern frontier and were sent home in defeat (Warren 1985i).  Gorenstein and Pollard discuss the differences between Tarascan and Aztec military organization, with some intriguing implications about why the Tarascans were inevitably able to hold their own against the armies of a larger and more powerful empire:

Among the Tarascans there were professional soldiers who were occupied full time with the military and were considered members of government � The military as an arm of the government was employed to carry out the directives of the adminis-

tration, which was to extend administration and thereby Basin political control into the territory.

In contrast, among the Aztecs,

� military organization was essentially part of the social system and the develop-ment of the military as a professional specialization was subverted to the interests of maintaining the social elite.  Military functions were carried out through the social system often with ineptitude and always inefficiently.  The goal was not to extend administration, but to extend the economy (1983:130).

Thanks in large part to this capable and efficient military, the Tarascan empire had expanded, by the time of the Conquest, to include virtually all of the present-day state of Michoac�n, as well as pieces of Jalisco and Guanajuato (Warren 1985:3).  Pollard des-cribes the Tarascans as spanning the area between two of Mexico�s greatest rivers:  the Lerma-Santiago on the north, and the Balsos to the south (1993:24).  When the Spaniards arrived, the Tarascan empire was second only to the Aztec in terms of geographical size.

Political, Economic, Social, and Religious Organization
[The king] has his governor and a captain-general in the wars and [he was] equipped as the Cazonci himself.  He had in place four very prominent men on [the] four frontiers of the province; and his kingdom was divided into four parts.  He had in every town caciques whom he had placed [there] and they were respon-sible for bringing firewood for the qu�s (�temples,� in Tarascan), with the people that each one had in his town, and for going with their people into wars for conquest.  There were others called ach�echa, who were chiefs that continually accompanied the Cazonci and were his court.  Likewise, most of the time the caciques of the province were with the Cazonci; these were called car�chacapacha.  There are others called oc�nbecha who have charge of counting the people and for gathering them together for public works and for receiving the tribute; each one of these has a barrio entrusted [to him]  (Alcal� 2000:558; translation mine).

By the time of the Conquest, the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin held a population of 60,000  to 100,000 inhabitants, spread among 91 settlements of varying sizes.  To administer this dense population and the outlying regions, effective social, economic, and administrative structures were needed.  Indeed, these were in place by the Protohistoric period (1450-1520), and they continued to evolve with the expansion of the empire and incorporation of new peoples, trade goods, religious philosophies, etc. (Gorenstein 1985:3).

                          Underlying and supporting the social, political, and economic structures of the empire was its state religion, which probably assumed its final form within the last 150 years before the Conquest (Coe 1994:156).  The Tarascan religion centered on adoration of the god Curicaueri, who was identified with the sun and whose name meant �Great Bonfire� (Warren 1985:11).  Other important deities were Cuerau�peri, the goddess who produces clouds, and who apparently also controls fertility, as her name means �she who causes to be born;� and Xaratanga, an agricultural goddess.  There were innumerable other deities as well, a veritable pantheon of gods of the heavens, the earth, and the underworld (Warren 1985:16), each with his/her own temples and sacred locations throughout the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin.  Coe notes that in several aspects the Tarascan religion was �remarkably un-Mesoamerican:�  they had no rain-god equivalent to the Aztec Tlaloc, and no Feathered Serpent.  In addition, their calendrical system did not use the 260-day count found widely throughout Mesoamerica, and they did not use the calendar for divinatory purposes (Coe 1994:156).

                          Tzintzuntzan was the major religious center, as well as being the political and eco-nomic center of the empire.  (I can find no evidence to support the claim made by Cabrera V. and Perez Gonz�lez [1991:27-28] that, while Tzintzuntzan functioned as the �political capital,� the religious capital was at Zacapu and the military capital at P�tzcuaro.)  Here the king or Cazonci (alternately spelled Kasons�, Ca�on�i, or the Nahuatl Caltzontzin) functioned as a representative of Curicaueri whose principal duties were to conquer land in the god�s name, and to ensure that the perpetual fires in the temples were kept supplied with wood (Warren 1985:11).  Here, human sacrifices in great number were made, with the usual victims being prisoners of war.  These were believed to be taking on the personality of Curita-caheri, the messenger to the gods, and were therefore venerated.  Given almost enough strong drink to knock them out, they were taken to the stone of sacrifice, and their hearts cut out and offered to the sun (Warren 1985:14-15).

                          Although the civil and religious hierarchies were defined separately from one another, in actuality there was a tremendous amount of overlap.  The Cazonci was also a member of the priestly hierarchy whose function it was to sacrifice the human victims (Warren 1985:11); in addition, the high priest, the pet�muti, was expected to exercise the office of judge in the name of the Cazonci (Warren 1985:16).  Priests in general were distinguishable by their gourd container for tobacco, worn strapped to their backs.  Unlike the Aztec priesthood, Tarascan priests were not expected to be celibate (Coe 1994:155).

                          As noted above, one of the king�s duties was to conquer new lands for the god Curicaueri.  Thus, it is not surprising to find that religion and warfare were intimately linked together as well.  Following a decision to go to war, an important religious act occurred: The priests at Tzintzuntzan lit huge bonfires which, when seen, were to be duplicated by priests at the other eight administrative centers.  All 91 settlements in the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin were able to see the fires from one or more of these centers, and thus the message to prepare for war was received (Gorenstein 1985:4).  We have already noted above how the fires were frequently used to communicate messages between border settle-ments; it now becomes apparent how the fires of war were symbolically linked to the �Great Bonfire� himself, Curicaueri.  Many personnel of the religious centers were also actively involved in the conduct of war:  some moved out with the army, carrying statues of the gods, and remaining throughout the fighting; others led captives/prisoners of war back to the religious centers; still others executed or sacrificed the captives and performed the related rituals (Gorenstein and Pollard 1983:124).

                          Not only on the field of war, but also infusing much of the state�s life, the religion of the Tarascans gave meaning and structure to the way they lived.  �What is remarkable about the Tarascan religious system,� notes Gorenstein, �is how much it was devoted to carrying out political decisions and to working within the administrative system� (1985:4).

                          No doubt help in any form was welcome in the administration of an empire of over 25,000 square miles, incorporating many various ethnic and linguistic groups.  At the top of the administrative structure was, of course, the Cazonci.  There is some disagreement even within the Relaci�n de Michoac�n itself about whether the kingship was inherited or elected.  Don Antonio Huitzim�ngari, son of the last Cazonci and one of the nobles who provided information for the Relaci�n, stated that kingship had been inherited by the eldest son in his family for more than 700 years.  This might be more plausible if there were any evidence at all that the Tarascans had been around for that long � at any rate, another section of the Relaci�n narrates a change in leadership where one king was elected as his father�s successor.  Still another section may provide a way out of the dilemma:  it suggests that an aging Cazonci would choose one of his sons to be his heir, and that after his death the council of nobles and officials would confirm the choice (Warren 1985:10).

                          Regardless of how one got to be Cazonci, once the role had been achieved it was all-encompassing.  As mentioned above, the king functioned in the priestly hierarchy and as a representative of the gods; he was also war chief and supreme judge of the nation, and was the ruler of the city of Tzintzuntzan.  He was in large part responsible for the conduct of diplomatic affairs, when such became necessary: on at least one occasion, it is recorded that rulers from the Tarascan kingdom attended coronation festivities for a new Aztec emperor (Coe 1994:174).  Apparently the two polities were not in a constant state of war! The royal court was large, with a wide variety of officials and other functionaries in residence, such as the king�s zookeeper and the head of his war spies; and also including the heads of various occupational groups: masons, drum-makers, doctors, makers of obsidian knives, anglers, silversmiths, and decorators of cups (Coe 1994:155).  The Relaci�n describes in detail the funeral of at least one Cazonci:  accompanied with music and elaborate rituals, the king was carried to his final resting place attended by Tarascan and foreign lords.  �Accompanying him in death� were seven important women from the palace, including the �keeper of the gold and turquoise lip-ornaments� and the �keeper of his urinal,� the cook, and the wine-bearer.  Also sacrificed were forty male attendants, including, in this case, the doctor who had failed to cure the Cazonci of his final illness!  Clearly, it was believed that the royal court was to be replicated for him in the land of the dead (cited in Coe 1994:155).

                          As suggested by the debate over succession to the role of Cazonci, kinship was extremely important to the Tarascans.  Social class was essentially determined at birth, with only minimal movement between classes.  Gorenstein and Pollard have discerned three hereditary social classes, based on information in the Relaci�n de Michoac�n and on excavations made at Tzintzuntzan:

-         the Cazonci, sometimes also called irecha; and the royal lineage (lords, se�ores)

-         nobility, also known as principales, caciques, se�ores naturales; who were connected with and had responsibility in certain settlements

-         commoners, also called pur�pecha, la gente baja, gente com�n

There were also slaves, found only in connection with the royal lineage.  Each class could be distinguished by dress, household structure, marriage, wealth, responsibilities and privi-leges accorded, and access to occupations.  There also appear to be certain connections between social stratification and the religious system: for example, the level of engagement in religious activities by se�ores suggests that there were certain religious responsibilities incumbent upon persons in this class.  In addition, and somewhat interestingly, a priest�s presence was required at marriages of royalty and nobility but not at the weddings of commoners (Gorenstein and Pollard 1983:75-76; Pollard 1993:60).

                          Kinship also functioned, as noted above, to restrict access to occupations and political office, which sometimes went hand-in-hand.  Political succession was somewhat flexible, with consideration given to personal ability and leadership qualities, but also �organized by a form of ambilateral kin reckoning still imperfectly understood by scholars� (Roth-Seneff and Kemper 1995:244).  The eight administrative regions in the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin � those secondary in importance to Tzintzuntzan � were governed by se�ores (i.e., hereditary nobility) who reported directly back to the Cazonci.  These centers were located at Pareo, Eronguar�cuaro, Pech�taro, Urichu, Pacandan-Xar�cuaro, Itziparamucu, Uayaneo, and P�tzcuaro; each region contained a number of dependent villages and hamlets (Pollard 1993:82).  As suggested by the reading from the Relaci�n which began this section, many other minor civil and military officials had jobs throughout the empire such as overseeing the workers� guilds.  These offices were hereditary within the family that held them (Warren 1985:12) � there may have been some choice as to who within the kinship system would inherit a particular office, but there was no question that the job would remain within the family.

                          Of course, there would be little use for such a carefully-crafted administrative and political structure without an economy of some type to manage.  There were three major markets known in the empire:  two within the Lake P�tzcuaro Basin at Tzintzuntzan and Pareo, and one just outside the Basin to the northwest at Asajo (Gorenstein and Pollard 1983:64).  Commoners in particular obtained most of their goods and services either through their own subsistence activities or in these regional marketplaces. The elite, on the other hand, received most of their goods and services, whether local or from afar, through government-controlled agencies such as the tribute network (Gorenstein and Pollard 1983:104). Noting this and other issues, Paredes suggests that further study needs to be done on the question of markets, especially in the outlying/border regions.  How did commoners who were far from th