A True and Faithful Copy: Reproducing Indian Maps in the Seventeenth-Century Valley of Oaxaca

The use of indigenous maps in central and southern Mexico is well-documented for the sixteenth century but scholars have consistently overlooked later cartographic activities. Although the number of maps made by native hands decreased in the early seventeenth century, a small output of maps at the end of the century and into the eighteenth suggests indigenous mapping practices continued to inform spatial routines in the Valley of Oaxaca. This article examines the case of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, a Mixtec town that litigated on different occasions for half a century over a livestock ranch defined by an assortment of trees and stone markers. During one of these phases, officials from the town introduced an old map that required a copy. Copies circulated primarily in the Valley of Oaxaca where competition over natural resources intensified after the 1680s revealing the way social actors engaged with, maintained and generated collective memories about the past to negotiate the natural environment.