Production, Consumption, and Multicrafting in the Formative Mixteca Alta, Mexico

Summary

The importance of the household in domestic production and consumption has been demonstrated throughout Formative Mesoamerica. It is the success of the household’s domestic economy that determines its survival. Focusing primarily on lithic artifacts, we explore locations in Formative Etlatongo, in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, that represent production and consumption of lithic tools and objects. Using ratios that compare lithic frequencies with ceramic frequencies from the same contexts, we examine several sites with especially high lithic frequencies, and consider the possibilities that these loci may represent specialized craft production in the sense that craft goods were produced for exchange and consumption outside of the producing household. Using a more fine-tuned analysis, we consider the kinds of raw materials and nature of lithic artifacts (type of debitage versus type of tool) to interpret possible production loci at Etlatongo, exploring diachronic change from the Early Formative (Cruz B phase) to the end of the Middle Formative (the Yucuita phase). To better understand the domestic economies of these dynamic social units, these loci are placed in larger crafting contexts, looking for evidence of other types of household production activities, reflective of multicrafting and larger subsistence activities and household interdependence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

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