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

Conclusion

The integration of all the research questions and data presented so far allows us to answer a more central question: How did the independent commoner household and its labor fit in Mixtec society and its system of agricultural intensification?

To answer this I will determine the degree to which Netting’s (1993) agrarian smallholder pattern can be used to characterize the socio-economic organization of Postclassic Mixtec agricultural intensification. Netting (1993) argues that dense populations practicing intensive agriculture produce, organize and consume in household groups. In such populations access to productive resources is somewhat unequal at any one time, but over the long term the peasantry as a whole remains class undifferentiated. Ownership or other well-defined tenure rights in land exist, and these are long-term or heritable. This agrarian smallholder pattern may be found in societies of various degrees of political centralization. Netting (1993) contends that this pattern is sustainable and economically very effective.

In the Mixtec Alta, support for the smallholder pattern comes from a continuous commoner occupation at the excavated houses, and lama-bordo construction consistent with gradual accretion of household labor, whereby individual households secured their tenure rights through the acts of occupation, use, and maintenance of lama-bordos and associated residential areas. The preliminary findings of this study support the thesis that Netting’s (1993) agrarian smallholder pattern characterizes the socio-economic organization of Mixtec agricultural intensification and the commoner household’s role in society.

Finally, the focus of this study on food-producers and their role in intensive agricultural production provides a more balanced view of Postclassic Mixtec society beyond the elite bias in historical documentation. This study is the first systematic excavation of a lama-bordo terrace and an associated non-elite residential area in Oaxaca. This study has generated important and until recently unavailable data on lama-bordo construction and on the lifeways of Postclassic Mixtec terrace farmers. The results of this study will advance our understanding of the social organization of intensive agricultural production in Ancient Mesoamerica.

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