A network theoretical analysis of the emergence of co-rulership in ancient Teotihuacan, Central Mexico

Summary

The political organization of Teotihuacan continues to be unknown. While some researchers see evidence for a powerful centralized hierarchy, others argue for a more collective form of government. We created an abstract computer model of hypothetical social relations among neighborhood-level representatives to show that such a distributed political network could in principle have been sufficient for globally optimal decision making, as long as there are community rituals and sections of the city are not too independent (Froese, Gershenson and Manzanilla 2014). These conditions were most likely satisfied during the early periods of the city. However, there is evidence that during the final stages some neighborhood centers become more isolated and independent, and the city as a whole became organized into four districts. Our model suggests that such social fractioning would have undermined a purely horizontally organized collective government. But Manzanilla has hypothesized that four co-rulers governed the city at the district level during this period. We therefore introduced this hierarchical level into our model to verify if such a mixed organization could have addressed some of the issues associated with a fractioning of the underlying social system. We discuss our modeling results in the context of archeological evidence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Rise and Decline of Teotihuacan: Urbanism, Daily Life, and Regional Relations through Time

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