Chapter Five - World-System Decentralization

Summary

In the previous chapter, material evidence for the boundaries of four nested networks that extended into West Mexico during the Early Classic period was examined. The analysis underscored the relevant prestige-goods and information networks extending through the northern lake district of Michoacan across the central portion of West Mexico, which played a significant role in sociopolitical change at 350–450 CE. The changes brought on by these interaction networks at this time are best seen in central Jalisco, with the change in ceremonial architectural pattern from the circular patio complex of the Teuchitlan culture to the orthogonal closed patio-pyramid complex (Kelley 1971: 771–772; López Mestas 2011: 85–86). Likewise, this change has been posited as one of the most conspicuous characteristics of the Classic period cultural patterns observed in the northern frontier, in the form of the closed patio complex that characterizes the architecture of Alta Vista (Jimenez 1992; Kelley 1983b) and southern Zacatecas, as well as central and northern Jalisco (Jimenez and Darling 2000; Kelley 1971).