Changes in indigenous population structure in colonial Mexico City and Morelos

Abstract

The Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico had disastrous effects on indigenous people. Disease, coupled with drastic changes in the economic, political, and religious structures, led to an enormous depopulation event throughout the colony of New Spain. What remains unclear in historic and archaeological accounts of Spanish colonization in Mexico is the effects of these changes on indigenous population structure and variation. In this study, we use biological distance and population structure analyses of two Mexico City church ossuary samples from the 16^th to 17^th centuries, as well as a sample of burials from a convent in nearby Morelos, to investigate these relationships at the center of the Spanish colony in Central Mexico. Colonial samples are compared with a large dataset of pre‐contact samples from Central Mexico and the surrounding regions, to evaluate changes in population structures. We compare colonial and pre‐contact samples using biological distance analysis and a population structure program commonly applied in genetic analyses and modified for phenotypic data. Our results show that the colonial Mexico City samples are more biologically similar to the pre‐contact samples from Veracruz, Toluca Valley, and West Mexico than to other pre‐contact samples from the Valley of Mexico. The sample from Yecapixtla in Morelos is also most similar to the Veracruz, Toluca Valley, and West Mexico samples, but is also somewhat similar to the pre‐contact sample from Morelos and the nearby Oaxaca Valley. Generally, biological similarities among colonial samples and pre‐contact samples do not correlate with geographic proximity or population size, but coincide with cultural changes. Our study provides bioarchaeological evidence of some degree of population replacement, resulting from either forced migration from surrounding areas for labor, or through indigenous alliances with the Spanish conquerors. Our results also show concordance between traditional biodistance analysis, and non‐traditional analyses employed in population genetics studies.

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