Negotiating Political Economy at Late Postclassic Tututepec (Yucu Dzaa), Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

Scholarship of ancient Mesoamerica has traditionally focused on ruling institutions and elite culture, contributing to the often-unchallenged assumption that elites dominated their unwitting commoner subjects. Similarly, the political economy is typically conceived of as an exclusive product of elite strategies. Researchers are now paying greater attention to commoner lives, yet many continue to think of social relationships dichotomously, in terms of elite domination and commoner resistance. I argue that an analysis of political economy through the lens of social negotiation, as informed by postructural theory, encourages more dynamic characterizations of commonerelite social relationships. I utilize this approach to examine the political economy of Late Postclassic Tututepec (Oaxaca), drawing on the results of household excavations and ethnohistoric data. I argue that commoners may have negotiated a favorable position with Tututepec elites by offering their support in return for a range of benefits, including a measure of economic autonomy and wealth. [household archaeology, Mixtec, Oaxaca, Postclassic, negotiation]ABSTRACTO Estudios de Mesoamérica antigua se han enfocado en las instituciones de gobernantes y cultura elitista. Esta mentalidad ha contribuido a la presunción que lasélites dominan a los sujetos inconscientemente.Típicamente se concibe la economía política como un producto exclusivo de estrategias de lasélites. Investigadores han empezado a prestar atención a la vida plebeya, pero muchos siguen pensando en relaciones sociales dicotómicamente, en términos de dominación elitista y resistencia plebeya. Sostengo que el análisis de economía política con una mirada de negociación social, inspirado en la teoría posestructuralista, promueve caracterizaciones más dinámicas en los relatos entre plebeyos y elites. Utilizo este método al examinar la economía política posclásica tardía de Tututepec basada en resultados de excavaciones de habitaciones e información etnohistórica. Sostengo que los plebeyos pudieron haber negociado una posición favorable con lasélites de Tututepec ofreciendo apoyo a cambio de beneficios, incluyendo medidas de autonomía económica y riqueza.

Identifying residences of ritual practitioners in the archaeological record as a proxy for social complexity

“…With the advent of micro-scale household archaeology, greater variability in ancient house sites has been detected than expected from the ethnographic and ethnohistoric record and archaeological models (Allison, 2001;Carballo, 2011;Carpenter et al, 2012;De Lucia and Overholtzer, 2014;Guengerich, 2014;Kahn, 2005;Levine, 2011;Nash, 2009;Pluckhahn, 2010;Robin, 2003). This is, in part, linked to social variability, such as gradations in status and rank, including lesser ranked chiefs or lineages, gender, or occupational specialization, that is not noted in historic accounts and ethnographies.…”

“…In addition, historic accounts sometimes present ''ideals'' or normative views of ancient dwellings and social relations that lack subtle distinctions seen in every-day life, where rigid dichotomies of social class and access to resources were negotiated on a daily basis. Current archaeological analyses of status roles have moved away from simple dichotomies (elite versus commoner) that can mask social identities (Casella and Fowler, 2005;Voss, 2005) to highlight variability found both within and among classes and how class is socially negotiated in a dynamic fashion (Dobres and Robb, 2005;Levine, 2011).…”

Recent Advances in Mixtec Archaeology

“…In this polity Cerro de la Cruz was a secondary site and Río Viejo was the capital. Subsequent work in the area by Joyce (2010), Workinger (2002), King (2003), Barber (2005;Barber and Joyce 2007), and Levine (2007Levine ( , 2011 has increasingly focused on the community and the household, leading to a reinterpretation of the Late/Terminal Formative data following a poststructuralist approach instead. Recent works argue against chiefdom-level organization in favor of communal forms of organization that are in constant negotiation with emergent rank, elites, and more exclusionary forms of power.…”

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

“…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.…”

“…In regard to the simultaneous formation of inequality and equality, Schortman and his colleagues (2001; see also Schortman and Urban, 2004:206-207) demonstrate that elaborately decorated ceramics with possible symbols of a polity identity were produced at the regional capital and were widely distributed to people of all ranks in the Naco Valley during the Late Classic (600-900 AD), whereas the use of elaborate masonry structures and sculptures was restricted to political elites. What is lacking in this kind of archaeological narrative, however, is the agency of consumers (but see Brumfiel, 1987a, b;Levine, 2011;Steel, 2002Steel, , 2013Wells, 2006). What defined the collective demand for such artifacts?…”