Quotidian and Ritual Use of Maize at Early Formative Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent research on subsistence systems in Early Formative (1600–900 BCE) Mesoamerican communities contest longstanding concepts linking the growth of early sociopolitical complexity with full-time agriculture. Lowland-focused studies have introduced mixed nonagricultural models in coastal regions that were able to support both sedentary groups and much larger complex societies. While these studies bring important challenges to long-held models of the primacy of full-time agriculturalists in early sociopolitical complex societies, their applicability beyond the lowlands to contemporaneous societies lying in different environmental settings remains understudied. In this paper, we present the case study of the Early Horizon (1400–1000 BCE) highland community of Etlatongo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca. Analysis of a large and well-preserved charred macrobotanical collection sheds light on maize-based diets and the role of this important crop in both subsistence and early public rituals. Compared to contemporaneous lowland societies, maize constituted a major part in the diet of ancient villagers at Etlatongo, as well as an inherent component in communal ceremonies, setting the grounds for the latter maize iconography so commonly associated with the political economy of Mesoamerica.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33323