Cooperation and tensions in multiethnic corporate societies using Teotihuacan, Central Mexico, as a case study

Abstract

In this paper, I address the case of a corporate society in Central Mexico. After volcanic eruptions triggered population displacements in the southern Basin of Mexico during the first and fourth centuries A.D., Teotihuacan became a multiethnic settlement. Groups from different backgrounds settled primarily on the periphery of the metropolis; nevertheless, around the core, intermediate elites actively fostered the movement of sumptuary goods and the arrival of workers from diverse homelands for a range of specialized tasks. Some of these skilled craftsmen acquired status and perhaps economic power as a result of the dynamic competition among neighborhoods to display the most lavish sumptuary goods, as well as to manufacture specific symbols of identity that distinguished one neighborhood from another, such as elaborate garments and headdresses. Cotton attire worn by the Teotihuacan elite may have been one of the goods that granted economic importance to neighborhood centers such as Teopancazco, a compound that displayed strong ties to the Gulf Coast where cotton cloth was made. The ruling elite controlled raw materials that came from afar whereas the intermediate elite may have been more active in providing other sumptuary goods: pigments, cosmetics, slate, greenstone, travertine, and foreign pottery. The contrast between the corporate organization at the base and top of Teotihuacan society and the exclusionary organization of the neighborhoods headed by the highly competitive intermediate elite introduced tensions that set the stage for Teotihuacan’s collapse.

Teotihuacan

“…Apartment compounds of intermediate elites, such as Teopancazco, also housed servants, retainers, and specialists of lower status (Manzanilla 2006a(Manzanilla , 2015. At Teopancazco, specialists made clothing, regalia, and jewelry for wealthy patrons.…”

“…Patios were centers of household religious cults focused on patron or domestic deities (Manzanilla 2002a). The interdisciplinary approach developed by Manzanilla (2005aManzanilla ( , 2015 and colleagues to identify activities in Teotihuacan apartment compounds offers a valuable model more generally for household archaeology. Along with work, kinship, and ethnicity, as shared experiences, rituals also fostered a corporate identity among compound members, reinforced their responsibilities to ancestors, and socialized the next generation ( Barba and Manzanilla 2007;Manzanilla 2002a, b;Sempowski , 1999.…”

Beauty and Health in the Ancient City of Teotihuacan: Skin and Its Aesthetic and Therapeutic Treatments

“…These neighborhoods had coordination centers, probably headed and managed by the intermediate elite, an entrepreneurial class who competed to bring to the city the most exotic and unusual ornaments and garments for public display [4,5]. We have counted around twenty-two such centers in the city, each surrounded by numerous apartment compounds [6].…”

“…Their migratory status was identified through strontium and oxygen isotopes, and their diversity was expressed in their genetic haplogroups [5].…”

Dynamics of change in multiethnic societies

“…Six others deal with ancient-state societies in the Near East (3, 4), China (9), Mesoamerica (7,5), and the Andean Region (6). Another contribution discusses multiethnic societies in settler, managerial, or missionary colonies in North America (8).…”