Ancient Oaxaca beyond Zapotecs and Mixtecs

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

I contend that the major gulf in Oaxaca archaeology is between Zapotec and Mixtec archaeology on the one hand and the archaeology of other regions and other language speakers on the other. The early focus on Zapotec and Mixtec archaeology stems from having codices written in these languages and early archaeologists’ goals of connecting the epic accounts to specific places and traditions. Tracing Mixtec and Zapotec forebears became the basis on which most early twentieth-century Oaxaca archaeology was justified. This focus was further entrenched following Flannery’s large Valley of Oaxaca Ecology project when the rise of the Zapotec state entered into the “introduction to archaeology” canon. Since then, however, Oaxaca archaeological research has expanded across the state to adjacent and far-away regions, practitioners have become more diverse, and theoretical perspectives have changed to accommodate more fluid, constructivist approaches. My own research in the Sierra Sur of Nejapa and Tavela attempts to bridge these two Oaxacas, making the case that we need to look beyond highland Zapotec and Mixtec–focused research and must eliminate borders in practice, method, and theory in order to create a better, more inclusive history of Oaxaca that speaks to Oaxaca’s present-day diversity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32666