Cuisine Choices in Mundane and Ceremonial Contexts at a Late Classic Palace Compound in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the Late Classic (CE 500 – 900), elite families in the Oaxaca Valley maintained and reinforced their elevated status through calendrical rites, where they acted as intermediaries between the community and supernatural entities associated with the agricultural cycle. These rituals served as the key components of broader festivals that likely involved well orchestrated feasts, including special meals served to important participants. In our recent excavations of a palace and adjacent ceremonial complex, we have identified differential patterns of consumption between the residential-private space and ceremonial-public space within the compound. In this paper, we employ spatial analysis of faunal remains and other markers to examine social and political implications behind the cuisine choices made within the household.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22886