Alternative pathways to power in late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica

Materiality, regimes of value, and the politics of craft production, exchange, and consumption: A case of lime plaster at Teotihuacan, Mexico

“…The suggested strong control of the production processes and administration of distribution (either through redistribution and/or market) implies a great degree of infrastructural power exercised by the state (Mann, 1984) and is consistent with some characteristics of a service-oriented bureaucracy (Eisenstadt, 1963:281-287) and collective states (Blanton andFargher, 2008, 2011;Fargher et al, 2011). Bureaucracy is usually formed to implement the political goals of rulers, but at the same time it needs to meet the demands of major social groups, from which the rulers mobilize resources.…”

“…Infrastructural power not only represents the ability of a polity, but also the power of the populace to influence the central decision-making processes. Implications of infrastructural power, specifically regarding how the actions and decisions of the state and its subjects are articulated with each other, have been extensively discussed in terms of collective action and cooperation, which points to the importance of the provisioning of public goods and services by the polity among others (e.g., Blanton andFargher, 2008, 2011;Carballo, 2013;Carballo et al, 2014a;Fargher et al, 2010Fargher et al, , 2011).…”

“…Thus, the study of ancient political economies necessarily employed top-down perspectives and developed a set of concepts and methodologies to discern various ways through which political elites controlled the production and/or exchange of resources to finance the polity (e.g., Algaze, 1993;Chase-Dunn and Hall, 2011;Yoffee, 1991). Furthermore, a series of recent studies demonstrate that corporate strategies, collective action, and cooperation, which may result in an equal access to resources, are important elements for the successful operation of polities (e.g., Blanton andFargher, 2008, 2011;Carballo, 2013;Carballo et al, 2014a;Fargher et al, 2010Fargher et al, , 2011Levine, 2011). In this paper, I argue that an explicit focus on consumption and its integration into the study of production and exchange are essential for understanding the formation of both inequality and equality.…”

Regional Archaeology and Local Interests in Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca

“…Kings employed aggrandizing, individualizing network strategies; they appropriated land and people (well attested in the sixteenth century as the system was collapsing, e.g., Spores 2007;Terraciano 2001). This was the moment of Mixteca Alta society emphasized by Fargher et al (2011).…”

5 Bridging House to Neighborhood: The Social Dynamics of Space in Burkina Faso, West Africa

“…Models for the development of socio‐political complexity in archaeology have increasingly recognized diversity worldwide in the degree to which power and authority can be centralized or more widely distributed (Blanton ; Blanton and Fargher ; Brumfiel ; Carballo, Roscoe, and Feinman ; Dueppen ; Fargher, Heredia Espinoza, and Blanton ; Jennings ; S. McIntosh ). However, until recently, definitions of complexity had privileged centralization.…”