Differential Access and Socioeconomic Inequality at Teotihuacan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

I investigate patterns of social and spatial inequality at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Differential access to civic resources is a well-documented mechanism of socioeconomic differentiation in historic cities and can be measured by analyzing movement within the built environment. I measure differential access at Teotihuacan by simulating movement pathways from residential structures to public facilities within the city. The locational data for this study was gathered from publications of excavated structures and the Teotihuacan Mapping Project’s architectural survey. A hypothetical street network for the city of Teotihuacan is simulated from an axial map of the city. GIS-based spatial network analysis provides insight into pedestrian movement patterns within the city. Network distances between public facilities and residential structures are used to evaluate patterns of access within the city. This project shows the constraints that the urban environment had on the movements of individuals within Teotihuacan and whether differential access to public spaces may have contributed to creating and maintaining social inequality at Teotihuacan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32222