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

Turkon, Paula

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2004.01.003

Cited by 41 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Farmers and intensive collectors along the coasts are the best studied to date. Investigations of diet based on bone isotope, phytolith, or faunal/malacological/macrobotanical analyses are being done by numerous specialists (Beltrán Medina 2001;Cahue et al 2002;Dvorak 2000;Elliott 2000Elliott , 2005Elliott , 2007; López Mestas and Ramos de la Vega 2005; Mountjoy and Claassen 2005;Schoenwetter and Benz 2004;Trombold Alcántara and Israde 2005), and some use the data to address social practices of food preparation and consumption (Turkon 2002(Turkon , 2004. Other data sets, such as the hollow shaft tomb figures, show great potential for food studies in their depictions of culturally appropriate foodstuffs (Schöndube 1998b).…”

Section: Date On Traditional Mesoamerican Periodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The site is most notorious for the widespread display of partial human remains (Nelson et al 1992), which may represent the display of sacrificed captives or venerated ancestors Pérez et al 2008). Studies at the site have tended to characterize the elite hierarchy as expressing their social position in more subtle ways, such as in food practices (Turkon 2004). Research has more often pointed to difference rather than hierarchy in La Quemada society (Millhauser 1999;Wells 1998Wells , 2000.…”

Section: The Late Archaic Period (5000-2000 Bc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology

Beekman

2009

J Archaeol Res

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Western Mexico is vast and geographically diverse and has received far less attention compared to other areas of Mesoamerica. Research over the past decade allows the definition of four major subregions characterized by cultural factors and distinct historical trajectories. A large proportion of the research in western Mexico is still culture-historical in nature, oriented toward establishing chronologies and relationships between regions. But along with a number of recent efforts toward synthesis and consolidation, current theoretical research contributes to the study of mortuary patterns and social organization, alternative forms of social complexity, agricultural intensification, empire formation, state involvement in the economy, human-land relationships, and the interlocking relationship between migration and sociopolitical reorganization.

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Section: Date On Traditional Mesoamerican Periodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Late Archaic Period (5000-2000 Bc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology

Beekman

2009

J Archaeol Res

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“…While we expect that agronomists, climatologists, or ecologists may have collected such data, we have been unable to find either a cursory or comprehensive summary of agave mortality or yield patterns under different rainfall regimes in published sources. At the same time, it shows a pressing need for more environmental data from the periods of ancient occupation to evaluate the interplay of social and ecological variables (Turkon 2004;Elliott 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interiors of a certain class of ceramic vessels at La Quemada are frequently acidetched, a likely indicator of having contained pulque (Nahuatl octli or neuctli, a traditional alcoholic beverage). Also at La Quemada, although maize is ubiquitous in middens (Turkon 2004;Weintraub 1992), systems of terraces were built in areas too dry to support maize. The discoidal-shaped scrapers have been found in association with these terrace systems (Trombold 1985;Nelson 1992) and the trapezoidal-shaped ground stone implements in residential areas (Nelson 1992).…”

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confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Impact of Agave Cultivation on Famine Risk in Arid Pre-Hispanic Northern Mexico

2008

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Cultivation of agave was common in preHispanic northern Mexico and the American Southwest, and scholars generally accept that it was a strategy to ensure food supply during years of drought when the maize crop failed. Some even suggest that incorporating agave cultivation make large, nucleated settlements possible in arid northern Mexico ca. 500-900 CE. Yet the environmental circumstances under which farmers could reasonably expect such a strategy to decrease the chances of agricultural failure are not well understood. We explore the potential of this crop complementarity by assessing the risk of famine-induced migration events in different idealized environmental settings. We use Monte Carlo simulation to analyze a simple discrete-time, age-structured stochastic model for maize and agave agroecology, deriving the climatological conditions under which agave could have significantly reduced the probability of short-and long-term famine events. Investments in agave production made the most sense where average annual rainfall was between the levels that would ensure maximum maize yield and those that would mean loss of the maize crop due to droughtrelated mortality. Cultivating agave had little impact on famine risk at high (maize yields sufficient) and low (failure of both maize and agave) rainfall levels. Perhaps more surprisingly, it had its highest impact at moderate rainfall levels when variance in rainfall was relatively low. While a higher variance in rainfall increased the number of 'good' years for maize-where production would exceed demand and allow for storage-it also increased the probability of simultaneous failures in both agave and maize production. These findings are difficult to apply to specific times and places in the past, because rainfall distribution in complex, environments change, and it is difficult to take all relevant human interventions into account. The analysis does, however, offer support for the proposition that agave cultivation could have significantly enhanced survival probabilities of large, nucleated settlements in certain circumstances. It remains for further study to identify such circumstances more precisely geographically and temporally.

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“…Paleoethnobotanical analyses of midden and household contexts at sites representing all levels of the Malpaso valley's settlement hierarchy indicate a 100% ubiquity of maize, demonstrating its fundamental importance to the diet (Turkon, 2004). Excavations at La Quemada have revealed no evidence of storehouses or redistributive activities, suggesting that individual household were responsible for provisioning themselves with food, and thus that farming was an important activity for all households in the valley.…”

Section: Agriculture In Arid and Semi-arid Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating evidence for warfare and environmental stress in settlement pattern data from the Malpaso valley, Zacatecas, Mexico

Elliott

2005

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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

Cited by 41 publications

References 71 publications

Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology

Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology

Analyzing the Impact of Agave Cultivation on Famine Risk in Arid Pre-Hispanic Northern Mexico

Evaluating evidence for warfare and environmental stress in settlement pattern data from the Malpaso valley, Zacatecas, Mexico

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