Fuzzy limits, dynamic interaction: Sinaloa before the Spanish Conquest

Abstract

The conjunction of the most recent archaeological data with a new reading of the documentary sources of the first entry of Europeans to Sinaloa, allowed us to establish the political-territorial organization of coastal groups in the last centuries before the Spanish Conquest, with particular emphasis on the extension and conformation of its limits. Contrary to what has been considered so far, the “provinces” or poli-tical-territorial units were relatively small and circumscribed to the rivers, while the areas between rivers were, apparently, “no man’s land”, politically speaking, but the relationships between the capitals were constant and dynamic.