Abstract :
The Izalcos Pipil were pre-Hispanic residents of the Río Ceniza Valley of western El Salvador and had clear linguistic ties to the Aztecs
and other Nahuas of central Mexico. Both archaeological and documentary data are presented that show strong evidence that the Izalcos
Pipil also maintained Nahua social and political institutions. The Izalcos Pipil emphasized characteristics of Nahua social practices that
depend on dynamic mobility on the landscape to articulate discrete cultural elements, and these characteristics are observable in Izalcos
inter- and intrasite settlement organization and the distribution of Nahua settlement in southern Mesoamerica. The degree of mobility on
the landscapewas shown in the internal organization of sites, architectural arrangements, and the relationships among sites and is indicated
in historical documents. Pipil concepts, institutions, and boundaries provided the foundation for the Spanish colonial political economy.
This region became a jewel in the Spanish Crown in part because of prodigious cacao production that the Izalcos Pipil established long
before Spanish contact. The degree of nucleation before and after conquest did not change dramatically, but the analysis of mobility
showed that even though some elements of patterning appeared superficially the same, underlying causes were fundamentally different.
The most important conquest-induced change was the transition to capitalism, which created a static, disarticulated landscape of nucleated
settlements, enclosures, and private property that discouraged human movement. The tensions between these two contrasting systems of
landscape use heightened with the passage of time.
