RITUAL EQUIVALENCY OF MACAWS AND COPPER BELLS IN MESOAMERICA AND THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

This paper contributes to an understanding of the connections among indigenous societies in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Southwest of the United States by investigating the depositional contexts of two items of Mesoamerican origin, copper bells and macaws. The analysis shows that Southwestern peoples possibly emulated Mesoamerican ritual practices imperfectly; macaw iconography and the use of copper bells are similar in both regions, but the ritual burial of sacrificed macaws is a solely Southwestern practice.