Community Transformations at the Northern Aztatlán Frontier: Mortuary Networks and Social Differentiation in Guasave

Abstract Using social networks analysis and centrality measures, this study examines the funerary assemblage of El Ombligo (ca. AD 650/700–1370) in northwestern Mexico to evaluate how local communities navigated the Aztatlán tradition expansion. Results indicate the pre-Mesoamerican Huatabampo period (AD 650/700–1022) reflects a relatively integrated corporate social system characterized by broad ritual participation. With the arrival of the Aztatlán tradition, corresponding to the Guasave period (AD 1022–1370), society became more materially differentiated yet more standardized in nonmaterial ritual practices, reflecting the persistence of a Huatabampo ritual doxa and the continuous use of the funerary mound over seven centuries. The Guasave period results indicate dual processes of horizontal and vertical social differentiation, suggesting that emerging ontologies and an incipient political economy were reshaping society. These findings show that inequality in Guasave was externally influenced but locally negotiated within an enduring local identity.