La territorialidad en el norte de Mesoamérica: el señorío de Oxitipa en el siglo XVI

Based on archival, ethnohistorical, cartographic, and field information, this paper reconstructs the territorial organization of Oxitipa, one of the most important señoríos (lordships) of northern Mesoarnerica during the 16th century. To achieve its objective, this paper first analyzes the antecedent theoretical and empirical studies on this topic; second, it briefly describes the methodology deployed and the sources of information tapped; third, the paper depicts the l6th century Oxitipa señorío and reconstructs its territorial arrangement; finally, it presents some preliminary conclusions. Over ah, it argues that the survival of the prehispanic territorial organization helped make possible the continuity of the agrarian and political structure of the indigenous pueblos conquered by the Spaniards. This paper further contends that the territorial arrangement of l6th century Oxitipa was a sort of synthesis made up of the surviving prehispanic spatial structures — e.g., the altepeme or pueblos cabeceras (head towns), the revolving pivots of Mesoamerican rural life — and those introduced by the Spaniards such as the repúblicas de indios.