The Late Postclassic Eastern Frontier of Mesoamerica: Cultural Innovation Along the Periphery [and Comments and Replies]

A far-reaching frontier culture area emerged along the eastern periphery of southern Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic. Here linguistically diverse peoples (e.g., Rabinal, Pokom, Akahal, Xinca) shared a pattern in material culture. With the frontier commencing along the borders of the Quinche and Cakchiquel conquest states, it is theorized that a principal variable in the development of the frontier cultural pattern was militaristic expansionism. Ethnohistory chronicles that the Quiche and Chakchiquel displaced Pokom and Akahal peoples, who in turn displaced others. Migrations into these borderlands from the Epiclassic onward had established a frontier cultural base that was reformulated under the pressures generated by Late Postclassic expansions. Adaptation to militaristic pressures is suggested by sites demonstrating linear regression in various indexes of political centralization/militarization. Proximity to conquest states is more signifant than ethnicity in predicting the values of these indexes. Additional variables, such as trade and population growth/local ecology, are assessed for their contribution to the formation of a distinctive frontier pattern.