Ecological Theory and Cultural Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca [and Comments and Reply]

Recent Advances in Mixtec Archaeology

“…So far, researchers working on urbanism have argued that it developed as a result of population growth and favorable environmental conditions (Sanders and Nichols 1988), innovation in the face of interaction and/or threat from outside areas, mainly Monte Albán (Balkansky 1998(Balkansky , 2002Blanton 1978;Marcus and Flannery 1996, pp. 139-146;Spencer 2003), as a transition brought about by social actors (Flannery 1999;Spencer 1990), or tense sociopolitical negotiations and interactions taking place at both the individual and the community level in a structural setting (Joyce 2010;Workinger and Joyce 2009).…”

Grounding the Past: the Praxis of Participatory Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico

“…Willey 1953) and its early applications in Mesoamerica (MacNeish 197;Sanders et al 1979). Central to many of these studies is the concept of cultural ecology (Kowalewski and Finsten 1983;Sanders and Nichols 1988), being the identification and study of processes by which a human group adapts to a particular social and natural environment (Steward 1955:40-4). This has pushed archaeologists active in Oaxaca to develop strategies enabling the production of comprehensive explanatory models regarding cultural continuity and change.…”

Food and status in the prehispanic Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, Mexico

“…In this view, it is assumed that all people want high value goods and those who have them also have power. Power is thus achieved through economic means, including control or ownership of critical resources or production areas (Sanders and Nichols, 1988), by hosting feasts that serve to redistribute amassed goods (Fox, 1996;Hayden, 1996), or by controlling production or exchange, especially of wealth objects (Brumfiel and Earle, 1987;Stein, 1998, p. 23). Many researchers suggest that, even when not necessarily a prerequisite to the attainment of status, economic power is necessary to finance elite projects, and is necessary to the functioning of any socially complex system (Cobb, 1996, p. 252;DÕAltroy and Earle, 1985;Earle, 1994;Smyth, 1996;Stein, 1998, p. 23).…”

“…Expanding the correlates of status to include domestic residues is particularly relevant to the Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, Mexico, where architectural and stylistic evidence suggest that the prehispanic occupation was part of the socially complex Mesoamerican cultural tradition, yet the expression of social status appears to be different than other Mesoamerican urban settlements in which power is primarily based on the control of resources (Blanton et al, 1996;Sanders and Nichols, 1988) and prestige goods, elaborate burials, and architecture mark status (Brumfiel and Earle, 1987;Chase and Chase, 1992;Chase, 1992;Haviland and Moholy-Nagy, 1992;Healan, 1993;Hirth, 1993;Pendergast, 1992;Smith, 1987Smith, , 1993Stark and Hall, 1993). In the Malpaso Valley, there is a lack of prestige items or significant wealth (Berney, 2002;Nelson, 1995;, limited evidence for craft specialization (Darling, 1998;Kantor, 1995;Strazicich, 1995;Trombold, 1985a;Wells, 2000), and a near-absence of individual burial treatment (Falhauber, 1960;Lelgemann, 2000;Nelson and Schiavitti, 1992;Pijoan and Mansilla, 1990;.…”