Creating the Pax Tolteca: Diversity, Autonomy, and Centralization from the Epiclassic to the Early Postclassic Periods in the Northern Basin of Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper studies the role that economic and ecological diversity plays in the establishment of communities, the maintenance of sociopolitical autonomy, and the centralization of regional state power. We focus on the transition from the Epiclassic period in the northern Basin of Mexico, a time marked by a decentralized constellation of relatively autonomous political centers and communities, to the Early Postclassic period, a time that witnessed the hierarchical centralization of a regional state system centered at Tula. We assess the role that ecological and economic diversity played at local and regional levels during this period of political transformation. Specifically, we address (1) if diversity in local economic and ecological relationships was essential to community stability and political autonomy during the Epiclassic period, and (2) if transforming such diversity in content, scale, and form was an essential component to the establishment of a regionally integrated political economy during the Early Postclassic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33017