Building Social Complexity: Differences in Bedrock Use at Early Formative Etlatongo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Construction materials such as earthen fills have frequently been an afterthought for many archaeologists interested in understanding past social relations in Mesoamerica. In this paper we reconcile this situation by assessing how the relationship between humans and materials, in regard to the use of construction fills, may have played out a significant role during the creation of novel social interactions that on the one hand fostered a sense of communitas, while on the other created venues in which social differences were expressed. We examine the differential use of elaborate construction fills made out of the natural beds in the region in domestic and public architecture at the late Early Formative site of Etlatongo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca. We interpret these differences through the lens of indigenous ontologies to argue that relationships between humans and other-than-human things were an essential component of the multilayered techniques of power that were at play during early stages of political complexity. We compare Etlatongo with other contemporary sites in Oaxaca in order to underline the particularities of the way social relations were linked to construction materials at the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24802