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HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC SPECIALIZATION AND SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION: The stone-tool assemblage at El Palmillo, Oaxaca

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2004

Helen R. Haines ,
Gary M. Feinman  and
Linda M. Nicholas
Helen R. Haines
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA
Gary M. Feinman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA
Linda M. Nicholas
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA
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Abstract

This paper examines the stone-tool assemblage recovered from excavations of six Classic-period residential terraces at El Palmillo, a terraced hilltop community in the eastern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca. Based on this analysis, stone-tool production and the processing of xerophytic plants—most important, maguey—were found to be important household craft industries at the site. Yet certain craft activities were practiced in only a few households, while others were enacted more widely but in varying intensities or degrees. This house-to-house variability in production implies a reliance on a system of economic integration in which domestic units at El Palmillo exchanged specific goods with other households at the site as well as more broadly. Through comparison of domestic units, we also found that exotic obsidian and semiprecious stone artifacts were distributed differentially between households, although the extent of the differentiation was less marked than might have been expected at one of the largest Classic-period settlements in the Valley of Oaxaca. Together, these findings point toward a high degree of horizontal, socioeconomic interconnection and integration among household units at El Palmillo.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , July 2004 , pp. 251 - 266
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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