Title

Defining Community And Status At Outlying Sites During The Terminal Formative Period

Abstract

The development of a regional polity in the Terminal Formative period (150 BC-AD 250) was inevitably a process that involved people throughout the lower Río Verde Valley (Figure 1.2). For those living in the many midsize and small sites that dotted the valley, the development and maintenance of regional political structures would have created new opportunities and challenges. The expansion of Río Viejo as a political center resulted in regional population movements (Joyce 2005, 2008; Joyce et al., Chapter 5); new economic demands were placed on populations valley-wide (Joyce 2010, 191; Levine, Chapter 8); social and political hierarchies changed as the political authority of Río Viejo's elites expanded (Joyce 2005, 2008, 2010); and ceremonial activities and responsibilities would have shifted with the construction and use of monumental ritual spaces at Río Viejo (Barber and Joyce 2007; Joyce 2005, 2008; 2010, 186-195; Joyce and Barber 2011; Joyce et al., Chapter 5). The manner in which such social changes played out, however, was a result not simply of dictates emanating from Río Viejo, but rather emerged from negotiations between regional political authorities and local populations (Barber 2005; Barber and Joyce 2007; Joyce 2008, 2010). In this chapter I consider the local side of those negotiations by reporting the results of excavation in Terminal Formative contexts at two outlying sites: Yugüe and Cerro de la Virgen. In particular, I consider how local community and status identities were constituted through domestic and public ceremonial action. Evidence from both sites indicates that local community affiliation was extensively and publicly reiterated by people of all social positions. Acts defining high status, on the other hand, were conducted primarily in restricted locations like residences and exclusive public spaces. While exclusivity is to be expected in some elite practices, the evidence suggests that public expressions of status inequality were muted. Instead, both elites and commoners at sites outside of Río Viejo prioritized parochial affiliations in public actions.

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Publication Title

Polity and Ecology in Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca

Volume

9781607322122

Number of Pages

165-192

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607322023.c06

Socpus ID

84899655977 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84899655977

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