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PRODUCTION INTENSIFICATION AND REGIONAL SPECIALIZATION
Abstract
Although textiles were important commodities in
the Aztec political economy, it is widely held that textile
production did not involve organized workshops. In the
late 1960s, Charlton (1971, 1981) found a concentration
of large spindle whorls at the Aztec city-state capital
of Otumba that he interpreted as remains of a maguey-fiber
workshop. A subsequent survey and surface collections made
by the Otumba Project discovered additional concentrations
of spindle whorls associated with fiber-processing tools
and manufacturing debris that provide substantial evidence
for organized maguey-fiber workshops at Otumba. An unusually
large sample of more than 1,600 spindle whorls was recovered
in surface collections from sites in the Aztec city-state
of Otumba where both small cotton whorls and large maguey
whorls occurred in low densities associated with concentrations
of domestic pottery (and in some cases house-mound remnants).
In the Aztec capital town of Otumba, maguey spindle whorls
were also present in localized dense concentrations within
a restricted area of the site. These concentrations also
included molds for making spindle whorls, “wasters,”
a high density of heavily worn obsidian blades and basalt
scrapers used in fiber production, and obsidian scrapers.
Based on the quantities and types of associated artifacts
we argue that these concentrations represent remains of
Late Aztec maguey-fiber workshops that were household based.
The workshops processed maguey fibers and made maguey spindle
whorls in a range of sizes for spinning thin and thick
threads and cordage. Secondary craft activities in one
workshop included making cotton spindle whorls and some
lapidary and figurine manufacturing. Maguey-fiber processing,
spinning, and, presumably, weaving also took place in rural
villages, but evidence of organized workshops has only
been found at the urban center. The growth of the maguey-fiber
industry at Otumba during the Late Postclassic period was
part of a broader economic trend of production intensification
in the northeastern Basin of Mexico that included xerophytic
plant cultivation and craft specialization.
... Long before consideration was given to evaluating agaves as bioenergy crops, several species were harvested both in the wild and under cultivation for fiber in their leaves (Nichols et al., 2000;Rousso, 2010;King, 2011). According to Parsons and Darling (2000), agave cultivation for fiber was widespread among the large civilizations in the highlands of central Mexico prior to Spanish colonization. ...
... Agave leaves were harvested to extract fibers to make various products, such as thread for cloth textiles, rope, bags, and footwear (Evans, 1990;Parsons and Parsons, 1990). Complex infrastructure was established for agave fiber processing, as reflected in the large production areas discovered in the Aztec city-state of Otumba (Nichols et al., 2000). However, vibrant household economies also existed where families would grow agaves in house gardens to extract, spin, and weave fibers to create their own clothing (Plunket and Urunuela, 2012), and possibly also for tributes to the Aztec state (Evans, 1990). ...
... Although cotton was also grown to make textiles, it was limited to warmer areas in fertile soils (Nichols et al., 2000). However, agave could be grown at much higher elevations in drier soils than cotton or even maize. ...
As climate change leads to drier and warmer conditions in semi-arid regions, growing resource-intensive C3 and C4 crops will become more challenging. Such crops will be subjected to increased frequency and intensity of drought and heat stress. However, agaves, even more than pineapple (Ananas comosus) and prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica and related species), typify highly productive plants that will respond favorably to global warming, both in natural and cultivated settings. With nearly 200 species spread throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, agaves have evolved traits, including crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), that allow them to survive extreme heat and drought. Agaves have been used as sources of food, beverage, and fiber by societies for hundreds of years. The varied uses of Agave, combined with its unique adaptations to environmental stress, warrant its consideration as a model CAM crop. Besides the damaging cycles of surplus and shortage that have long beset the tequila industry, the relatively long maturation cycle of Agave, its monocarpic flowering habit, and unique morphology comprise the biggest barriers to its widespread use as a crop suitable for mechanized production. Despite these challenges, agaves exhibit potential as crops since they can be grown on marginal lands, but with more resource input than is widely assumed. If these constraints can be reconciled, Agave shows considerable promise as an alternative source for food, alternative sweeteners, and even bioenergy. And despite the many unknowns regarding agaves, they provide a means to resolve disparities in resource availability and needs between natural and human systems in semi-arid regions.
... For the most part, the ceramic spindle whorls recovered in central Mexico are of Postclassic date, whereas the majority of the spindle whorls from the Maya area date to the Late Classic and are of stone. The central Mexican spindle whorls are also concentrated in centers of production, specifically Cholula (McCafferty and McCafferty 2000) and Otumba (Nichols et al. 2000), but even surveys of outlying areas have produced sizeable numbers of ceramic spindle whorls in contrast to the Maya situation. Sharisse McCafferty and Geoffrey McCafferty (2000:42) note that 245 whorls were recovered in the Texcoco Valley survey; 228 whorls were collected from the Teotihucan Valley (Parsons 1972:45); 85 whorls came from a survey of western Morelos ( Smith and Hirth 1988); 64 whorls were recovered from Chalcatzingo (Norr 1987); and 131 whorls were recovered from three different sites in the eastern, northern, and southeastern Valley of Mexico (Brumfiel 1991:233). ...
... Outside central Mexico in central Veracruz, Barbara Stark and her colleagues (1998) recovered 361 spindle whorls that were interpreted as providing evidence for the dispersed production of textiles among many households. An even greater number of ceramic spindle whorls, some 1,670, were recovered from Otumba in highland Mexico (Nichols et al. 2000); at this regional capital, this data class can be used to delineate the general household production of cotton in conjunction with the barrio production of maguey. More than 800 spindle whorls have also been recovered from Cholula, 237 of them from three specific contexts, suggesting that "Cholula was intensively involved in fiber processing" (McCafferty and McCafferty 2000:42-43). ...
... This status differentiation in clothing materials may have derived from the fact that cotton could not be grown in the highlands of central Mexico; thus, most of it was imported into the region from areas of lower elevation (Berdan 1987). While there were clear differences in what was being spun in highland Mexico both within and between communities and regions ( McCafferty and McCafferty 2000:44;Nichols et al. 2000), a long-distance trade in finished fabrics is also in evidence. In fact, it is clear that some of the cotton and textiles in central Mexico derived from the Maya area. ...
Textiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for the production and distribution of cloth that is found in the pre-Columbian Maya area and then focuses on archaeological data relative to textiles from the ancient Maya city of Caracol, Belize. Archaeologyat Caracol has been carried out annually from 1985 to the present and has resulted in the collection of datathat permits insight into the economic production and social distribution of cloth at the site. This is accomplished through examining the contexts and distributions of spindle whorls, bone needles, bone pins and hairpins, bone awls, and limestone bars. All of these artifacts can be related to weaving, netting, or cloth in some way. Importantly, perforated ceramic disks are not included in this grouping because of contextual information from the archaeological record that these artifacts likely functioned as backings for ear assemblages. Spindle whorls are the artifacts most clearly associated with textile production and 57 of these have been recovered at Caracol, 38 of them in 20 different burials. Several of these interments are of high-status women placed in the most important architectural constructions at the site. The contextual placement of these burials stresses not only the link between women and weaving, but also the high status associated with such an activity, thus signaling the importance of cloth and spinning in ancient Maya society. The prevalence of female interments in the major ritual buildings at Caracol also reflects the importance of women to Maya social structure during the Classic period (A.D. 250-900), pointing to difficulties in hieroglyphically based interpretations of ancient Maya social organization and suggesting that the traditional focus on males
... These whorls averaged less than 10 g in weight, ranged between 15 and 35 mm in diameter, and had hole diameters between 1.5 and 5.5 mm (Parsons 1972). For this reason, whorls weighing less than about 10 g are routinely interpreted as cotton-spinning whorls (see Brumfiel 1991Brumfiel , 1997Feinman and Nicholas 1995;Feinman et al. 1994Feinman et al. , 2002aNichols et al. 2000;Norr 1987;Parsons 1975;Smith and Hirth 1988;Stark et al. 1998). More recently, McCafferty and McCafferty (2000) have argued that this rule of thumb does not necessarily apply outside of the Valley of Mexico. ...
... The range for hole diameter falls slightly outside Parsons' range for cotton whorls, between 3.5 and 7.0 mm and an average of 4.8 mm ( Figure 6). The average whorl weight of 10.5 g is above the 10 g threshold for cotton-spinning whorls established by Parsons (Figure 7), but still fits within the cotton (and non-maguey) ranges that other authors have adopted (Arroyo 1993;McCafferty and McCafferty 2000;Nichols et al. 2000;Smith and Hirth 1988). ...
... In Mesoamerica, researchers usually rely on frequency data of spinning paraphernalia relative to either some portion of the ceramic assemblage (rim sherds or total sherds) or to the overall artifact assemblage (Brumfiel 1991;Fauman-Fichman 1999;Feinman and Nicholas 2000;Levine 2007;Masson 2003;Smith 2003a;Smith and Hirth 1988;Stark et al. 1998). Others present frequency data on the total number of spindle whorls, which sometimes is (or can be) converted into an areal density measure based on square meters of survey or excavation (Hendon 1992;McCafferty and McCafferty 2000;Nichols et al. 2000;Norr 1987;Parsons 1971Parsons , 1972Parsons , 1975Voorhies and Gasco 2004). Other researchers present volumetric whorl density measures based on the number of whorls found and amount of sediment excavated in given contexts (Evans 1988;King 2003;Nichols et al. 2000). ...
Excavations at the site of Río Viejo in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, yielded evidence of intensive cotton thread production during the Early Postclassic (a.d. 975–1220). Spindle whorls were recovered in relatively large quantities in and around houses at Río Viejo, indicating that thread production was interspersed with other household activities and residents likely produced enough thread for local use and for export. Measurements of coastal spindle whorls show that the Río Viejo thread was unique compared to other coastal and highland sites in Oaxaca and Mesoamerica beyond. I argue that this uniqueness may in part stem from the particular variety of cotton that they were spinning, but also might reflect an interregional demand for their thread. The whorl data are presented in multiple ways to compare to other sites where intensive thread production has been proposed. Here, I discuss the problems inherent in whorl calculations and make a call for more standardized recording, ideally with volumetric density measures. In the final section of the paper, I use mortuary data and other lines of evidence to re-evaluate the ethnohistorically-documented relationship between women and textile production. In coastal Oaxaca, the evidence suggests that thread production was not linked to specific gender identities in a way that is marked archaeologically. Instead, adult members of households in coastal Oaxaca materially emphasized a shared group identity over any specific gender-based identities. The production of thread was a broadly shared household-level practice that involved multiple producers, which both created and reinforced social bonds between residents and provided Early Postclassic residents with secure and comfortable access to highland goods, paving the way for the more developed thread production industry in the Late Postclassic period.
... Some of the most notable advances in the analysis of Mesoamerican craft production and its social implications have occurred in the realms of metallurgy (Hosler, 1994(Hosler, , 1999Torres Montes and Franco Velázquez, 1996) and textiles (Hendon, 1992;McCafferty and McCafferty, 2000;Nichols et al., 2000;Pohl, 1994;Stark et al., 1998), two crafts with longer histories of research in the Andes (e.g., Benson, 1979;King, 2000). Other craft industries receiving considerable attention in both regions are ceramics (Arnold et al., 1993;Balkansky et al., 1997;Costin and Hagstrum, 1995;Druc, 1998;Foias and Bishop, 1997;Hernández Reyes et al., 1999;Reents-Budet et al., 2000;Shimada, 1994), shell (Feinman and Nicholas, 1993;Owen, 2001;Velázquez Castro, 1999), and rubber (Filloy Nadal, 2001;Hosler et al., 1999). ...
... Mesoamericanists have found that most craft production activities took place within the domestic setting (e.g., Feinman, 1999;Feinman and Nicholas, 2000;Iannone and Connell, 2003;McAnany, 1993;Otis Charlton et al., 1993;Sugiura Yamamoto, 1996), and several studies have found evidence for the presence of more than one craft specialty in a single domestic "workshop" location (Feinman, 1999;Feinman and Nicholas, 2000;Widmer, 1991). It appears that many or most craft items were produced in both rural and urban settings (Finsten, 1995;King and Potter, 1994;Nichols, 1994;Nichols et al., 2000;Smith, 2003a, pp. 78-105). ...
We take a critical perspective in discussing recent publications on the archaeological study of the ancient state-level societies of Latin America. For some topics, such as intensive agriculture and exchange, data are far ahead of theory, whereas for others (e.g., gender and ethnicity), theory has outstripped data. Craft production, a topic that has achieved a good balance of data and theory, is one of the success stories of recent Latin American archaeology. After a discussion of sources of data, we review these and other topics (e.g., consumption patterns, household studies, social organization) in terms of both data and theory. In a second review article, we cover the topics of politics, religion, urbanism, and the processes of change.
... Mold-made whorls may be a sign of increasing specialization in artifact production. By the Postclassic period, for example, Otumba in the Basin of Mexico yielded large quantities of maguey-sized whorls and numerous molds to produce them for maguey fiber specialists (Nichols et al., 2000). ...
Mesoamerican cotton textile production shows a long-term process of craft extensification (the geographic and social expansion of cotton processing and weaving without a notable increase in productivity per person). Few economies of scale, high labor input, restrictions in the environments in which cotton can be grown, and increasing social demand for textiles contributed to craft extensification. The western lower Papaloapan basin in south-central Veracruz provides a case study showing the inception of craft extensification by the Early Classic period, CE 300–600. Production was not concentrated at elite residences and was widespread in commoner households and environmental zones. Environmental variation in the basin and related agricultural techniques raise the possibility of selection for annualized traits in cotton. Annualized varieties were important in the spread of cotton cultivation to more upland environments from the tropical coastal areas to which the plant was initially adapted. Craft extensification contributed strongly to regional and community specialization and trade, which are traits relevant to monitor long-term economic change and growth.
... Both of these designs were associated with the goddess Xochiquetzal, a patron deity of spinning and of women. Nichols et al. (2000) argue that these designs were tied to female identity, and that their use on spindle-whorls tied together femininity, Xochiquetzal, and the important work of spinning. Four fired clay stamps, which may have been used for printing designs on textiles (Toby Evans and Webster, 2001, p. 131), were also found during the excavations and ascribed to the Postclassic period based on their style. ...
At the time of European contact in Mexico, the small community of La Laguna lived on the edge of the altepetl of Tecoac, itself peripheral to the Tlaxcallan confederacy. Yet this area was historically important: after a battle at Tecoac, Cortés allied with the Tlaxcaltecas, who proved essential to the conquest. Archaeological materials from the site provide an opportunity to understand social dynamics on the periphery of an autonomous confederacy surrounded by the Aztec empire. This multi-method study of the small contact-period ceramic assemblage of La Laguna illuminates these dynamics. The wares are similar to those of the ethnically Nahua residents of central Tlaxcallan (approximately 30 km away), not to those of the neighboring Otomí ethnic minority. INAA shows all wares falling into one chemical group, but petrography shows two recipes, indicating possible access to multiple potters. These lines of evidence suggest strong connections to the markets of central Tlaxcallan. La Laguna was geographically peripheral, yet the styles, symbols, and pastes of their pottery shows that its rural inhabitants, described as fractious borderland Otomís by early colonial histories, were engaged with the economic and religious trends of Tlaxcallan and the Postclassic International World System.
... In contrast, both the range and distribution of variables among a group of whorls provides significantly more information on local technologies, craft production, and trade. Whorls have been used to investigate a wide range of topics, including the organization of craft production (Ardren et al. 2010;Nichols et al. 2000;Otis Charlton et al. 1993), the effects of political change (Fauman-Fichman 1999;Levine 2011), and gender identity and ideology (Brumfiel 2001; Lugo Ramírez and Hernández Rivero 2008; McCafferty and McCafferty 1994). Whorl size, shape, decoration, and excavated frequency have all been subject to study. ...
Archaeologists often overlook museum collections for research purposes due to concerns about the representativeness of the artifacts in the collection. Such concerns can be addressed by comparing non-scientifically produced collections to collections of known standing, such as those
from more modern projects, using the same exploratory data analysis and basic statistical methods that archaeologists use to compare sets of artifacts in other situations. As a case study, this article compares spindle whorls recovered during the 2007 excavations at the Aztec site of Calixtlahuaca
with two museum collections of whorls attributed to the site. A variety of metric and non-metric traits were recorded for each item in the three collections and were compared using Kolmogrov-Smirnov, Chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests. Both museum collections show a bias toward more elaborately
decorated pieces, but with varying side effects on other attributes of analytical interest.
... Ember 1983). Both Evans and Nichols, who analyzed maguey-processing tools from Otumba (Nichols et al. 2000), connect the intensification of xerophytic plant use in the northeastern Basin of Mexico with population growth during the Postclassic. Bonafil Olivera (2005) describes a range of artifacts associated with maguey processing and other forms of domestic production at the Epiclassic community of La Mesa in the Tula region. ...
Recent investigations and reconsideration of households in the Mesoamerican highlands illustrate the central role of domestic
spheres of interaction to the broader cultural dynamics of the region over four millennia. Methodological advances in the
analysis of past houses permit more sophisticated social reconstructions of the spaces and activities that constituted domestic
life for the diverse peoples of the region. Current studies highlight the economic interdependence and diversification of
households, their strategic flexibility in affiliation, the integrative ritual practices undertaken within domestic spaces,
the material correlates of prestige competition between households, and the manner in which households articulated with a
larger social universe.
KeywordsHousehold–Domestic–Archaeology–Mexico
... Aztec ceramic workshops have been extensively documented at Otumba, a citystate capital in the northeastern Basin (Charlton et al. 1991Charlton et al. , 2000Nichols 1994;). There, production debris, such molds for incense burners, figurines, and spindle whorls, unfired, malformed, and misfired artifacts mark locations where manufacturing occurred during the Late Postclassic and Early Colonial periods (Charlton et al. 2000;Charlton and Otis Charlton 1994;Nichols and Charlton 1996;Nichols et al. 2000;Otis Charlton 1994). Other workshops in the town made obsidian core-blades, ornaments of obsidian and rare stones, and basalt grinding tools while workshops in rural villages produced bifaces from the local Otumba obsidian (Biskowski 2000;Parry 2001). ...
We use instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of ceramics from three centers, Cerro Portezuelo, Chalco, and Xaltocan, in the Basin of Mexico, whose occupations span the Postclassic to examine the changing role of markets and evaluate models of political economy. Our results suggest that production and distribution of Epiclassic serving wares was highly localized conforming closely to a solar market model. Ceramic exchange within the Basin increased during the Early and Middle Postclassic, in some cases paralleling political alliance networks. The Late Postclassic marketing pattern incorporated both increased regionalism and increased exchange between hinterlands and imperial cities. These patterns are probably not unique to the Basin of Mexico. INAA is a fruitful means to explore the development of preindustrial markets related to fluctuating economic, demographic, and political processes.
The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology provides a current guide to the recent and on-going archaeology of Mesoamerica. Though the emphasis is on prehispanic societies, this text also includes coverage of important new work by archaeologists on the Colonial and Republican periods. Unique among recent works, the text brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. The first section of the text provides an overview of recent history and trends of Mesoamerica, and articles on national archaeology programs and practice in Central America and Mexico written by archaeologists from these countries. These are followed regional syntheses organized by time period, beginning with early hunter-gatherer societies and the first farmers of Mesoamerica and concluding with a discussion of the Spanish Conquest and frontiers and peripheries of Mesoamerica. Topical and comparative articles comprise the remainder of book. They cover important dimensions of prehispanic societies—from ecology, economy, and environment to social and political relations—and discuss significant methodological contributions, such as geo-chemical source studies, as well as new theories and diverse theoretical perspectives. The book concludes with a section on the archaeology of the Spanish conquest and the Colonial and Republican periods to connect the prehispanic, proto-historic, and historic periods.
The Aztec Economy provides a synthesis and updated examination of the Aztec economy (1325–1521 AD). It is organized around seven components that recur with other Elements in this series: historic and geographic background, domestic economy, institutional economy, specialization, forms of distribution and commercialization, economic development, and future directions. The Aztec world was complex, hierarchical, and multifaceted, and was in a constant state of demographic growth, recoveries from natural disasters, political alignments and realignments, and aggressive military engagements. The economy was likewise complex and dynamic, and characterized by intensive agriculture, exploitation of non-agricultural resources, utilitarian and luxury manufacturing, wide-scale specialization, merchants, markets, commodity monies, and tribute systems.
This chapter illustrates a socially oriented, microarchaeological approach to Aztec households that considers family genealogies and histories and reconstructs the shared lived experiences of individual family members, as they can be inferred from burials interred in the patio space ( ithualli ) that was the heart of the Aztec home. Mesoamerican archaeologists have long recognized the importance of past domestic contexts and the opportunities they provide to reconstruct household social organization, the spatial patterning of both specialized and universal household production practices, and even gendered divisions of labor. Household archaeology projects have focused on wealth and class differences between households and on the economic impact of Aztec imperialism. Xaltocan was eventually defeated by the Tepanec empire (a precursor to the Aztec empire that was also located in the Basin of Mexico) in 1395, after a protracted war.
This study examines small-scale household ceramic production at the site of Xaltocan, Mexico, to understand the organization of household ceramic production prior to the development of the Aztec Empire. We examine utilitarian vessels and serving wares from an Early Postclassic ( a.d. 900–1200) domestic context using neutron activation analysis (NAA). We also examine archaeological evidence for ceramic manufacture. The NAA data reveal that similar raw materials and paste recipes were used for both utilitarian and decorated wares, suggesting that households produced both plain and decorated pottery. We conclude that ceramic production was an intermittent activity that took place alongside other crafts and agriculture. By looking at ceramics within their contexts of use and production, we consider the practices and choices made by individual social units, which is crucial to interpreting broader Early Postclassic economic systems and the ways in which commoners influenced these systems.
Material culture studies demonstrate how objects may act to communicate information regarding social identity. In this study we consider ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence for Postclassic spinning and weaving as symbols relating to female ideology in ancient Mexico. We then relate a contextual interpretation of texts and images to contemporary symbolism, particularly associated with members of the female earth/fertility deity complex depicted and described in precolumbian and early colonial pictorial manuscripts. For our case study we analyze decorative imagery found on baked-clay spindle whorls from Postclassic Cholula, Mexico. This collection is representative of an iconographic system relating to female ideology. Whorls, as well as other spinning and weaving tools, paralleled male-oriented weapons to create a symbolic equivalence or, as we argue, a usurpation of the male symbols within a female worldview as a form of resistance to male domination. We conclude that the symbolic system used on spindle whorls and in other aspects of female practice created a communication network understood by Postclassic women.
This work analyses the technological–functional performance of 283 archaeological spindle whorls from the site of Tepeticpac, Tlaxcala, Mexico, a Late Postclassic (ad 1250/1300–1519) state‐level political entity from highland Mesoamerica. We evaluate spindle whorl morphology and their performance associated with different fibre processing and thread quality production. Statistical analysis, in conjunction with an experimental study, supports the existence of two large groups of archaeological whorls, which can be correlated with two spinning techniques. Also, we found an association between thread quality and artisan's skill. The methodology developed here is applicable and comparable to samples from Mesoamerican and worldwide archaeological sites.
The complexity of the organization of craft production mirrors multiple aspects of the larger political economies of premodern states. At the late Maya urban center of Mayapán, variation in the social contexts of crafting within a single settlement defies simple classificatory models that once held sway in the literature of nonWestern state societies. Most surplus crafters were independent and affluent commoners; notable exceptions include artisans working under direct elite supervision or elites who were directly engaged in crafting. Although household workshops concentrated around the city’s epicenter, others were dispersed across the site in unassuming residential neighborhoods or near outlying monumental groups. We consider the significance of pronounced household and regional economic interdependencies founded on well-developed surplus crafting practices, imported raw materials, market exchange, and tribute obligations at Mayapán. As for other premodern states, craft production also gave rise to greater opportunities for wealth differentiation within the commoner class. Producers in this urban political capital contributed in significant ways to a stable political economy by supplying goods that were required at all levels of the social hierarchy.
If we accept Good's (2001:211) definition of a textile as a "web of interlaced threads produced on a loom," we may say that textiles have a long and storied existence in ancient Mesoamerica. In this Special Section we present four new studies on Mesoamerican textile production. All four papers are based primarily on archaeological data and analyses, but, because of the nature of the material, they cross disciplinary boundaries. At the risk of indulging in a rather hackneyed metaphor, we might envision the archaeological elements of each study as the warp embellished with a weft of ethnohistoric, ethnographic, art historical, iconographic, and epigraphic data and interpretations. In this Introduction we range across the boundaries touching first on the archaeological evidence for the antiquity of weaving and textiles in Mesoamerica, the nature of textiles as a commodity, and the theoretical foundations from political economy that influenced anthropology in the 1980s and generated a seminal article on cotton in the Aztec economy. Then we reference recent research dealing with cloth as costume that signifies ethnic and gender identity, and ideological associations with female deities. Finally, we return to the archaeology and the difficulties of preservation of textiles in Mesoamerica, setting the stage for comments on individual papers since they depend on the indirect evidence of spindle whorls and weaving implements.
The emergence of the Triple Alliance empire and the consolidation of political power in the Basin of Mexico is traditionally associated with a high level of economic integration achieved through regional market exchange. Although researchers debate whether the market system was dominated by commercial factors or political forces, the assumption that the pax azteca led to a single, basin-wide exchange system is not generally challenged. Yet an increasing number of stylistic and compositional analyses indicate that significant regional subdivisions existed within the Aztec core, although the spatial scale, nature, and significance of these systems remains poorly understood. This study contributes to the body of evidence suggesting that economic divisions existed under the Triple Alliance, by presenting spatial patterning in Aztec Red Wares (guinda or rojo pulido) ceramics. By combining both stylistic and compositional analyses of this ceramic ware, it is possible to demonstrate both the strength of economic divisions as well as map their boundaries for a significant portion of the Basin. The regional patterns in artifact distribution highlighted in this and prior studies underscore the complexity of exchange interactions that evolved under Aztec rule and which must be explained by future models of the Aztec market system.
We use excavations of low-status houses to explore Postclassic political and economic transformations in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca. Following the collapse of Classic period political institutions, commoners experienced greater economic and political autonomy. Residential excavations at Río Viejo indicate that commoners took advantage of the absence of regional authority to gain greater control over surplus craft products, especially cotton thread, as well as access to social valuables and long distance trade. By the Late Postclassic period, the region was once again dominated by powerful rulers. Yet household excavations at Tututepec show that Late Postclassic commoners continued to control some surplus craft production and had access to social valuables like copper and polychrome pottery via market exchange. We argue that Late Postclassic political relations were a product of negotiations among elites and commoners that in part reflect the greater economic autonomy and political power that Early Postclassic people had acquired.
Donut stones are a relatively common class of ground stone artifact found at archaeological sites throughout Mesoamerica and Andean South America, and a variety of functional interpretations have been proposed for these artifacts. In this article, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological
data are presented along with the results of replicative experiments in support of an argument that some donut stones from the Maya Highlands and Southern Lowlands may have functioned as whorls for a previously unrecognized type of thigh-supported spindle. Based on a functional interpretation
of donut stones as thigh-supported spindle whorls, these artifacts can potentially be used to provide insight into the nature of ancient Maya household yarn and cordage production.
George Brainerd directed excavations at Cerro Portezuelo in the mid-1950s to understand the Classic to Postclassic transition and the questions he asked are still salient. We have undertaken a reanalysis of the artifacts, survey, and excavation data from Brainerd's project to better understand the nature of relations between the Early Classic period city of Teotihuacan, its immediate hinterlands, and the change from the Teotihuacan state system to Postclassic period city-state organization. Because of Cerro Portezuelo's long occupation that began in the Late/Terminal Formative period and continued beyond the Spanish Conquest, it is a strategic site to investigate the dynamics of state formation and episodes of centralization and fragmentation over this long span. Here we review the history of research concerning Cerro Portezuelo, discuss the current research project reported in the articles that comprise this Special Section, and highlight some of the major findings.
We analyze household inventories from eight excavated residences at El Palmillo (Oaxaca, Mexico) with a focus on a large sample of spindle whorls. Measurement of the whorls provides a basis to suggest that a variety of fibers were spun in these Classic period households; however, the
particular mix of fibers varied in each residence. The distribution of whorls by size and production technique was compared with the spatial patterning of other tool classes related to cloth production to illustrate that each household participated with differing intensity in the various steps
of the cloth-making process while also being involved in other economic pursuits. The domestic multicrafting, along with the clear procurement of domestic goods through intra- and extracommunity transfers, is indicative of economic practices that incorporate both interdependence and flexibility
to operate in a socioeconomic setting prone to fluctuations in both demand and climatic conditions such as those found in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. The model generated from this bottom-up analysis illustrates the limitation of the command-oriented models of the prehispanic Mesoamerican
economy and sheds new light on craft specialization and economic strategies that vary not only between elite and nonelite families but among commoner households as well.
Costume is one of the most significant forms of material culture in ethnographic contexts, yet remains of cloth are extremely rare at most archaeological sites. Artifacts that typically relate to textile production include spindle whorls and bone tools. This paper summarizes results of analyses of a large corpus of whorls and a remarkably extensive assemblage of bone tools from the Early Postclassic site of Santa Isabel in Pacific Nicaragua. Ethnohistoric sources identify several Mesoamerican groups as living in the region during the Postclassic period, with the Oto-Manguean-speaking Chorotega likely candidates for the cultural group at Santa Isabel. Textiles were probably made from cotton, among other plant fibers. In addition to cloth production, we consider the importance of spinning thread for fishnets and hammocks.
Esta es una síntesis de las principales características organizativas de la secuencia de explotación de la obsidiana verde del yacimiento de La Sierra de Las Navajas (Pachuca), de las culturas teotihuacana, tolteca y azteca. El uso de este vidrio volcánico se relaciona directamente con el desarrollo económico, militar, religioso y comercial de las organizaciones estatales del centro de Mesoamérica. En cada etapa cultural, identificamos los principales procesos de manufactura de instrumentos, armas y objetos religiosos en los talleres del yacimiento, así como la permanencia de los mineros, talladores y cargadores. El análisis diacrónico de la organización de la explotación y la distribución de la obsidiana verde con el desarrollo de la sociedad, nos permite detectar los cambios substanciales en la estrategía de obtención de esta importante materia prima.
Textiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for the production and distribution of cloth that is found in the pre-Columbian Maya area and then focuses on archaeological data relative to textiles from the ancient Maya city of Caracol, Belize. Archaeology at Caracol has been carried out annually from 1985 to the present and has resulted in the collection of data that permits insight into the economic production and social distribution of cloth at the site. This is accomplished through examining the contexts and distributions of spindle whorls, bone needles, bone pins and hairpins, bone awls, and limestone bars. All of these artifacts can be related to weaving, netting, or cloth in some way. Importantly, perforated ceramic disks are not included in this grouping because of contextual information from the archaeological record that these artifacts likely functioned as backings for ear assemblages. Spindle whorls are the artifacts most clearly associated with textile production and 57 of these have been recovered at Caracol, 38 of them in 20 different burials. Several of these interments are of high-status women placed in the most important architectural constructions at the site. The contextual placement of these burials stresses not only the link between women and weaving, but also the high status associated with such an activity, thus signaling the importance of cloth and spinning in ancient Maya society. The prevalence of female interments in the major ritual buildings at Caracol also reflects the importance of women to Maya social structure during the Classic period (a.d. 250–900), pointing to difficulties in hieroglyphically based interpretations of ancient Maya social organization and suggesting that the traditional focus on males in the sociopolitical organization of the Classic Maya is incorrect.
This paper examines the stone-tool assemblage recovered from
excavations of six Classic-period residential terraces at El Palmillo,
a terraced hilltop community in the eastern arm of the Valley of
Oaxaca. Based on this analysis, stone-tool production and the
processing of xerophytic plants—most important, maguey—were
found to be important household craft industries at the site. Yet
certain craft activities were practiced in only a few households, while
others were enacted more widely but in varying intensities or degrees.
This house-to-house variability in production implies a reliance on a
system of economic integration in which domestic units at El Palmillo
exchanged specific goods with other households at the site as well as
more broadly. Through comparison of domestic units, we also found that
exotic obsidian and semiprecious stone artifacts were distributed
differentially between households, although the extent of the
differentiation was less marked than might have been expected at one of
the largest Classic-period settlements in the Valley of Oaxaca.
Together, these findings point toward a high degree of horizontal,
socioeconomic interconnection and integration among household units at
El Palmillo.
Textiles in ancient Mesoamerica served as a critical economic resource and symbolic display of status, wealth, and social affiliation. The economic significance of textiles can be explored, in part, by the archaeological identification and distribution of production tools: spinning and weaving implements. In the Maya area, however, few studies have examined the organization of textile production, and systematic documentation of tool distributions is lacking. This paper reviews previous archaeological research on Maya textile production and introduces new data from the Classic-period site of Motul de San José, Guatemala. These data complement current understandings of Classic Maya household economies by stressing the relative economic autonomy of households from the state in textile production and the heterogeneity of productive strategies within and between different households. Such heterogeneity is expressed, at least in the case of Motul de San José, by more intensive or larger-scale production conducted by large, elite households than by small, commoner households. This finding implies that textile production for tribute was not a central concern among lower-status groups in this area as it was among many Postclassic- and Contact-period commoners in Mesoamerica. Rather, Classic-period Maya royal and elite individuals were able to bolster further their economic and social standings through textile production because they had easier access to resources or surplus labor found in or associated with their own households.
The increasing attention devoted to the investigation of prehispanic houses in Mesoamerica owes much theoretically and methodologically to the early household archaeology undertaken decades ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. Yet despite the large sample of Formative period houses excavated in this region, little is known about domestic life during the later Classic and Postclassic periods. In this paper we broaden the database of Classic period houses by reporting on excavations on five residential terraces at El Palmillo, one of many large hilltop terraced sites in the valley that collectively housed as much as two-thirds of the region's Classic period population. Occupied for centuries, the terraces and their associated domestic compounds at El Palmillo underwent a series of coordinated episodes of wall construction, repair, and spatial modification. Craft activities-especially the production of chipped stone tools and maguey fiber for cordage and cloth - were an important part of domestic life. The relative importance of these different household economic activities varied from terrace to terrace, indicating that domestic production was specialized and operated at the household level. Maguey and other xerophytic plants also provided important subsistence resources. Differences in access to nonlocal goods have been documented between terraces, although the extent of such variation is not marked in the present sample. Although preliminary, the El Palmillo findings provide a new empirical basis from which to examine domestic life and the economic and organizational foundations of Classic period hill-top terraced settlements in Oaxaca. These findings reflect on larger issues about the basic economy of later prehispanic Mesoamerica and the articulation of domestic units and household production into larger socioeconomic networks that theoretically extended well beyond ancient Oaxaca.
Theoretical frames for modeling prehispanic Mesoamerican economies have been informed mostly by political economy or agency approaches. Political economy models examine the ways in which power is constructed and exercised through the manipulation of material transfers, mainly production and distribution. Research along these lines emphasizes regional redistribution, wealth and staple finance, debt and reciprocity, and regional integration through core/periphery relations. Agency models, on the other hand, explore the social aspects of manufacture, circulation, and consumption to infer the processes by which power is negotiated and contested. Work using this framework focuses on the manner by which meaning and value are assigned to, and become fixed in, social valuables, as well as the moral and emotional dimensions of allocation and consumption. Political economy and agency approaches are converging in Mesoamerican research to forge a new, hybrid theoretical construct, “ritual economy,” which strikes a balance between formalist and substantivist views by considering the ways that belief systems articulate with economic systems in the management of meanings and the shaping of interpretations.
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