The Pipil-Nicarao of Central America

Abstract

From possibly as early as A.D. 700 to 1350, a complex series of population movements took many groups of Nahuat speakers from central and southern Mexico to Central America. In Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, these groups were known as the Pipil. In Nicaragua they were called the Nicarao. For the purposes of this thesis, they are considered a single cultural entity, the Pipil-Nicarao, unified by a common cultural background, history, ideology, and language. There are sufficient archaeological, historical linguistic, and ethnohistoric data to write an ethnography of the ancient Pipil-Nicarao. The overall objective is to analyze and interpret data from various lines of inquiry-primarily archaeology, linguistics, and ethnohistory, but also geology, geography, environmental studies, botany, and zoology--and to weave the data together within an anthropological framework to create an ethnographic synthesis of Pipil-Nicarao culture, cultural adaptations, and history.