Mountains, Rain, and Techniques of Governance in Mesoamerica

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Mountains, Rain, and Techniques of Governance in Mesoamerica" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mountain shrine sites have a deep history in Mesoamerica going back to the Preclassic and likely earlier. Along with the widespread proliferation of intensive agriculture, mountain sites such as Chalcatzingo appear to be related to rain rituals, human sacrifice, and perhaps even the kinds of warfare that might produce sacrificial victims. These mountain sites often feature excellent vistas from which trade routes can be monitored visually, game-identified, and enemies checked. According to research over the last two decades, it is clear that Teotihuacan built up these sites as a technique of governance during its expansion into Oaxaca, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Yucatán Peninsula, and perhaps points west. The mountain or hill sites tend to relate to Tlaloc and rain rituals, warfare, obsidian, and prime lookouts, a trend also common for the Early Classic Maya. The Postclassic peoples of Central Mexico, such as the Aztecs, may have carried on these traditions. Our session explores the proposed patterns as culture-specific or pan-Mesoamerican in nature via comparisons of site and artifact data from throughout Mesoamerica but with a special focus on Teotihuacan Expansion during the Classic period.