Materialism, Mode of Production, and a Millennium of Change in Southern Mexico

Abstract

In this paper, I ask why the insights of classical (i.e., materialist) Marxism are not more commonly used by archaeologists of recent academic generations. With evidence from the Soconusco region of Mexico, I explore the relationship between the economic base and political superstructure of the region's inhabitants as well as evidence for the transformation from a kin-ordered to a tributary mode of production. Major esthetic and political transformations occurred across the region when naturalistic standards were replaced by abstract Olmec-style representation beginning approximately 1,

Is it agriculture yet? Intensified maize-use at 1000 cal BC in the Soconusco and Mesoamerica

“…However, the different uses to which increased maize production were put necessitates accounting for local historical processes to understand what occurred in each region. We conclude that consideration of both ultimate and proximate causes that integrate adaptation, environment and political economy provides a more accurate reconstruction of complex developments such as the origins of agriculture (e.g., Robb, 2013;Rosenswig, 2012aRosenswig, , 2015. We return to a fuller discussion of ultimate and proximate causation of this paper, following the presentation of data from the broader Soconusco region and Cuauhtémoc site specifically.…”

“…After 1000 cal BC in the Soconusco, the La Blanca polity coalesced in the southeastern end of the region (Fig. 1), and the surrounding Mazatán and Rio Jesus zones were abandoned as virtually all of the local population was drawn to this newly established society (Blake and Clark, 1999;Love, 1999bLove, , 2002Love, , 2007Love and Guernsey, 2011;Rosenswig, 2010Rosenswig, , 2012a. At the apex of a multi-tiered settlement hierarchy, the site of La Blanca covered 300 ha and was built around a 25 m high central mound (Love, 2002;Guernsey, 2007, 2011).…”

“…A new form of regional organization was established at this time with formalized hierarchical relations signaled by, among other things, a system of conical mounds defining political centers. Rosenswig (2012a) has argued that the La Blanca polity was the first stratified society in the Soconusco defined by exploitative economic relations, and Michael Love (2011) contends that it was the region's first urban city. As Love and Guernsey (2011: 172) have recently described it:…”

“…Population levels in multiple regions clearly increased, and large conical pyramid mounds were constructed for the first time (e.g., Diehl, 1981;Inomata et al, 2013;Love, 1999a: 144-148). Numerous authors working in both the lowland Soconusco and Gulf Coast regions argue that an increased level of maize production also began at this time (Arnold, 2000(Arnold, , 2009Blake, 2006: 67;Blake et al, 1995: 179-180;Blake et al, 1992a;Blake and Neff, 2011;Cyphers and Zurita-Noguera, 2012;Clark and Pye, 2000;Clark et al, , 2010Clark and Knoll, 2005: 289;Killion, 2008Killion, , 2013Love, 1999bLove, , 2007Love and Guernsey, 2011;Rosenswig, 2006aRosenswig, , 2012aVanDerwarker, 2006;VanDerwarker and Kruger, 2012). This was also when new forms of social differentiation were documented at the household level in the Soconusco (Love, 1991;Love and Guernsey, 2011;Rosenswig, 2012a,b and see Lesure and Blake, 2002).…”

Lidar data and the Izapa polity: new results and methodological issues from tropical Mesoamerica

“…c Aerial photo (1/2/2012, ©Digital Globe via Google Earth). d Ground cover depicted as the vegetation height above ground (HAG) classified in five height intervals banana plantations to provide reliable estimates of the number of hectares of occupation for each Prehispanic phase (Rosenswig 2008(Rosenswig , 2010(Rosenswig , 2012b. During the winter of 2011, the IRSP augmented this survey so that we now have 70 km 2 of 100 % coverage survey from the coastal plain with sites documented as the number of hectares over which temporally diagnostic artifacts were recorded.…”