Household Intensification in the Mixtec Cacicazgo: Excavation of a House and Terraced Fields

Project Goals

This study focuses on terrace farmers in the Mixteca Alta (Spores 1969:fig. 4). In the Mesoamerican highlands, terraced fields were key economic resources; having access to them engendered social power. According to ethnohistorical accounts of Mixtec society, apart from the cacique (yya canu, the land-owning ruler), the remaining population was either tay toyo (nobles) or commoners. The commoner class was divided into nanday tay ñuu (c.f. macehual), land owning farmers, and tay situndayu (c.f. terrazguero), land-less farmers, servants and slaves (Alvarado 1962; Spores 1967:9, 117, 175, 1983; Pastor 1987; Sepúlveda y Herrera 1999). Ethnohistorical models suggest that the commoners were responsible for most agricultural production—but this sector of society and its relationship to land and agricultural production had not been studied archaeologically until now.

The first aim of this study was to determine the social status of those who lived next to lama-bordo terraces, assuming that terrace farmers inhabited residential areas near their fields (Drennan 1988; e.g. Beach and Dunning 1997). The second aim was to obtain information on how lama-bordos were constructed, and whether household labor was sufficient to build and maintain them. My map of the site, intensive surface collections, and excavation of a lama-bordo terrace and nearby residential areas provide the information needed to meet the study’s primary goals. At this writing, I have finished all fieldwork and begun preliminary analysis of artifact collections and contextual data. The results will complement the available archaeological and ethnohistorical record from the Mixteca Alta, making ancient Mixtec households and the cacicazgo a significant case study in cross-cultural studies of intensification. What were the causes of intensification in the Mixteca Alta? How did the Mixtec food-producing peasant household operate systems of intensive agricultural production and what was its role in ancient Mixtec society?

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page