A dos y a cuatro patas: el Occidente de Mesoamérica y la relación entre el perro, el humano y viceversa. Una aproximación a través de estudios de caso

Abstract

The Canis familiaris becomes a paradigmatic field of study, and it has yielded sig- nificant results in Mexican research. However, when discussing this phenomenon in the region of the West of Mesoamerica, the need to make an integrative approach arises beyond etnohistoric data. With the theoretical perspective that the Social Zooarchaeology offers, we develop an in- vestigative strategy based on the case studies that are assigned to three different sub-areas. La Mina is in the Eastern Highlands, a housing platform at the end of the Epiclassic (AD 500/600- 900.), with burials at its base where puppies appear next to humans. Los Guachimontones is in the center of the Western Highlands, a neuralgic city between Late Formative and Early Classic (BC 100-AD 250) in which domestic canids are documented in various contexts until the Post- classic (AD 900-1521). Lastly, in the Coastal Plains, we studied a funerary hill in TGNLM and the residential-funeral area of Chocohuistle in PMTII. The methodological bases used have a hermeneutical orientation, in which the inductive data and the collaboration between transdisciplinary fields prevail. We use analysis of bone remains in primary and secondary levels, estimation of paleodiethetic ten- dencies by XRF and AMS dating. In this way we access the analysis of the relationship between the dog, the human and viceversa in their own terms, with the main objective of recognizing the social context in which this symbiosis occurred.