Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:35:52.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Looming Deficits: Textile Production Specialization in Postclassic Mesoamerica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2019

Angela C. Huster Open the ORCID record for Angela C. Huster [Opens in a new window]
Angela C. Huster*
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872402, Tempe, AZ85287-2402, USA ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using textile production in Postclassic Western Mesoamerica as a case study, this article explores how to differentiate low levels of craft production caused by household provisioning from low levels of craft production due to market reliance and regional specialization. I use a sample of 52 excavated site/phase components to establish baselines for the intensity of production and to evaluate whether participation in the market allowed craftspeople in some regions to underproduce textiles relative to local needs. Highland and lowland sites have comparable low frequencies of spindle whorls during the Early Postclassic, which I interpret as characteristic of household self-sufficiency. Whorl frequencies increase above this baseline earlier and to a higher degree in lowland sites than in highland sites. During the Late Postclassic, some regions may have formed pairs of over- and underproduction zones linked by the market. Because of changes in spinning technology, it is not possible to extrapolate the results of this study to earlier time periods. I then present data from Calixtlahuaca as an example of how macroregional data can be used to interpret craft production at a particular site. Textile production at Calixtlahuaca was generally low, but this was more likely a function of a strong dependence on maguey fiber, rather than underproduction caused by a reliance on the market.

En este trabajo, a través del análisis de la producción textil en el oeste de Mesoamérica durante el Posclásico, se busca diferenciar los bajos niveles de producción artesanal como resultado del autoabastecimiento doméstico por la dependencia del mercado y la especialización regional. Se emplea una muestra de 52 contextos excavados (de una fase en un sitio) para establecer líneas de base para la intensidad de la producción textil y para evaluar si el desarrollo del sistema de mercado permitió que la gente de ciertas regiones subprodujera textiles en relación con las necesidades locales. Los sitios de las tierras altas y bajas presentan bajas frecuencias de malacates durante el Posclásico temprano, lo que se interpreta como una característica del autoabastecimiento doméstico. Los sitios de las tierras bajas muestran una intensificación de la producción textil con anterioridad, y a un nivel más amplio, que los sitios de las tierras altas. Durante el Postclásico tardío, algunas regiones pudieron haber formado pares de zonas de sobre y subproducción de textiles, vinculadas por el mercado. Debido a los cambios tecnológicos en las herramientas de hilado, los métodos presentados aquí no se pueden aplicar para los periodos anteriores al Posclásico. Se presentan los datos del sitio de Calixtlahuaca a modo de ejemplo de cómo los datos macrorregionales se pueden utilizar para interpretar la producción artesanal en sitios individuales. La producción textil en Calixtlahuaca fue baja, en general, pero probablemente esto responde a una fuerte dependencia de la fibra de maguey, más que a la subproducción debido a la dependencia del mercado.

Keywords

PostclassicWestern Mesoamericatextilescraft productionintensificationPosclásicoMesoamérica Occidentaltextilesproducción artesanalintensificación
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 780 - 797
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ardren, Traci, Kam Manahan, T., Wesp, Julie Kay, and Alonso, Alejandra 2010 Cloth Production and Economic Intensification in the Area surrounding Chichén Itzá. Latin American Antiquity 21:274–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, Joanne P. 2018 Ancient Monetization: The Case of Classic Maya Textiles. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 49:100–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaudry-Corbett, Marilyn, and McCafferty, Sharisse D. 2002 Spindle Whorls: Household Specialization at Ceren. In Ancient Maya Women, edited by Ardren, Traci, pp. 52–67. Gender and Archaeology. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F. 1987 Cotton in Aztec Mexico: Production, Distribution and Uses. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 3:235–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berdan, Frances F. 2003 The Economy of Postclassic Mesoamerica. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 93–95. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F., and Anawalt, Patricia Rieff (editors) 1992 [1541] The Codex Mendoza. 4 vols. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., and Fargher, Lane F. 2012 Market Cooperation and the Development of the Prehispanic Mesoamerican World-System. In Routledge Handbook of World-Systems Analysis, edited by Babones, Salvatore J. and Chase-Dunn, Christopher, pp. 11–20. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Blomster, Jeffrey P. 2008 Changing Cloud Formations: The Sociopolitics of Oaxaca in Late Classic/Postclassic Mesoamerica. In After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico, edited by Blomster, Jeffrey P., pp. 3–46. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1980 Specialization, Market Exchange, and the Aztec State: The View from Huexotla. Current Anthropology 21:459–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1991 Weaving and Cooking: Women's Production in Aztec Mexico. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Gero, Joan M. and Conkey, Margaret W., pp. 224–251. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1997 Tribute Cloth Production and Compliance in Aztec and Colonial Mexico. Museum Anthropology 21:55–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camposeco M., Jose Balvino 1994 An Ch'ech, Sajchi' o Ki: El Maguey y Sus Usos en Guatemala. Yax Te' Press, Rancho Palos Verdes, California.Google Scholar
Costin, Cathy 1991 Craft Specialization: Issues in Defining, Documenting, and Explaining the Organization of Production. In Archaeology Method and Theory, edited by Schiffer, Michael B., pp. 1–56. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Demps, Kathryn and Winterhalder, Bruce 2019 “Every Tradesman Must Also Be a Merchant”: Behavioral Ecology and Household-Level Production for Barter and Trade in Premodern Economies. Journal of Archaeological Research 27:49–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Susan Toby 1988 Excavations at Cihuatecpan: An Aztec Village in the Teotihuacan Valley. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, Tennessee.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan Toby 2005 Men, Women and Maguey: The Houshold Division of Labor among Aztec Farmers. In Settlement, Subsistence, and Social Complexity: Essays Honoring the Legacy of Jeffrey R. Parsons, edited by Blanton, Richard E., pp. 198–228. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Fauman-Fichman, Ruth 1999 Postclassic Craft Prodution in Morelos, Mexico: The Cotton Thread Industry in the Provinces. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. Proquest (ATT 9957732).Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M. 1999 Rethinking Our Assumptions: Economic Specialization at the Household Scale in Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico. In Pottery and People: A Dynamic Interaction, edited by Skibo, James M. and Feinman, Gary M., pp. 81–98. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 2010 A Multiscalar Perspective on Market Exchange in the Classic Period Valley of Oaxaca. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara J., pp. 85–98. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Follensbee, Billie J. A. 2008 Fiber Technology and Weaving in Gulf Coast Cultures. Ancient Mesoamerica 19:87–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García Payón, José, de Magrelli, Wanda Tommasi, and Castañeda, Leonardo Manrique 1979 La zona arqueológica de Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca y los matlatzincas: Etnología y arqueología (textos de la segunda parte). Edited by Wanda Tommasi de Magrelli and Leonardo Manrique Castañeda. Biblioteca Enciclopédica del Estado de México Vol. 30. Estado de México, Toluca.Google Scholar
Gentry, Howard Scott 1982 Agaves of Continental North America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, Shirley 1973 Tepexi el Viejo: A Postclassic Fortified Site in the Mixteca-Puebla Region of Mexico. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 63(1):1–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, Gerardo 2013 Negotiating Aztec Tributary Demands in the Tribute Record of Tlapa. In Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G. and Pillsbury, Joanne, pp. 141–168. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hernández Álvarez, Héctor, and May, Nancy Peniche 2012 Los Malacates Arqueológicos de la Península de Yucatan. Ancient Mesoamerica 23:441–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, Frederic 1994 Cloth in the Political Economy of the Aztec State. In Economies and Polities in the Aztec Realm, edited by Hodge, Mary G. and Smith, Michael E., pp. 89–111. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York Press, Albany.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1998 The Distributional Approach: A New Way to Identify Marketplace Exchange in the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology 39:451–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2006 Modeling Domestic Craft Production at Xochicalco. In Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 275–286. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2009 Craft Production, Household Diversification, and Domestic Economy in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. In Housework: Craft Production and Domestic Economy in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 13–32. Archaeological Papers No. 19. American Anthropological Association, Arlington, Virginia.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2013 The Merchant's World: Commerical Diversity and the Economics of Interregional Exchange in Highland Mesoamerica. In Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G. and Pillsbury, Joanne, pp. 85–112. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Huster, Angela C. 2013 Assessing Systematic Bias in Museum Collections: A Case Study of Spindle Whorls. Advances in Archaeological Practice 1:77–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huster, Angela C. 2016 The Effects of Aztec Conquest on Provincial Commoner Households at Calixtlahuaca, Mexico. PhD dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe. Proquest (ATT 10108079).Google Scholar
Huster, Angela C. 2019 Maguey Use at Postclassic Calixtlahuaca. Mexicon 417:20–27.Google Scholar
Huster, Angela C., and Smith, Michael E. 2015 A New Archaeological Chronology for Aztec-Period Calixtlahuaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 26:3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibarra, Thania E., Corral, Aurelio López, and Cano, Ramon Santacruz 2018 The Artisan and the Tool: A Technological–Functional Analysis of Tlaxcallan Spindle Whorls. Archaeometry 60:1221–1236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2001 The Power and Ideology of Artistic Creation: Elite Craft Specialists in Classic Maya Society. Current Anthropology 42:321–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jimenez Betts, Peter F. 2018 Orienting West Mexico: The Mesoamerican World System 200–1200 CE. PhD dissertation, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.Google Scholar
Karabowicz, Amy 2009 Wattle and Daub Architecture at Calixtlahuaca, Mexico: Experimental Analyses and a Comparative Study with Europe. Senior Honors Thesis, Barrett Honor's College, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
King, Stacie M. 2011 Thread Production in Early Postclassic Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico: Technology, Intensity, and Gender. Ancient Mesoamerica 22:323–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwoka, Joshua J. 2016 Aztec Commoner Access to Foreign Trade Goods: A West Mexican Bronze Needle from the Teotihuacan Valley. Mexicon 38:65–69.Google Scholar
Lind, Michael 1987 The Sociocultural Dimensions of Mixtec Ceramics. Vanderbilt University Publications in Archaeology Vol. 33. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.Google Scholar
McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 1992 The Material Culture of Postclassic Cholula, Puebla: Contextual Interpretations of the UA-1 Domestic Compounds. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New York, Binghamton. Proquest (ATT 9309106).Google Scholar
McCafferty, Sharisse D., and McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 1994 Engendering Tomb 7 at Monte Alban: Respinning an Old Yarn. Current Anthropology 35:143–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCafferty, Sharisse D., and McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 2000 Textile Production in Postclassic Cholula, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 11:39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendoza Cerón, Isaías, and Canger, Una 1993 In Tequil de Morrales: Working with Maguey. Bianco Luno, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Morehart, Christopher 2014 The Potentiality and the Consequences of Surplus: Agricultural Production and Institutional Transformation in the Northern Basin of Mexico. Economic Anthropology 1:154–166.Google Scholar
Morris, Ian 2004 Economic Growth in Ancient Greece. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 160:709–742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noguez, Xavier 2005 A New Techialoyan Codex from San Pedro Tototepec (Toluca, State of Mexico). In Painted Books and Indigenous Knowledge: Manuscript Studies in Honor of Mary Elizabeth Smith, edited by Boone, Elizabeth H., pp. 427–435. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Novic, Juliana 2015 Neighborhood Dynamics at Calixtlahuaca, Mexico. PhD dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe. Proquest (ATT 3739726).Google Scholar
Parsons, Mary Hrones 1972 Spindle Whorls from the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico. In Miscellaneous Studies in Mexican Prehistory, edited by Spence, Michael W., Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Parsons, Mary H., pp. 45–80. Anthropological Papers Vol. 45. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Darling, Andrew J. 2000 The Role of Maguey in the Mesoamerican Tierra Fría: Ethnographic, Historic and Archaeological Perspectives. In The Archaeology of Drylands: Living at the Margin, edited by Barker, Grame and Gilbertson, David, pp. 288–312. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Parsons, Mary Hrones 1990 Maguey Utilization in Highland Central Mexico: An Archaeological Ethnography. Anthropological Papers 82. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Peacock, D. P. S. 1982 Pottery in the Roman World: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. Longman, New York.Google Scholar
Pizzigoni, Caterina 2007 Testaments of Toluca. UCLA Latin American Studies Vol. 90. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Purseglove, John William 1968 Tropical Crops: Dicotyledons. 2 vols. Longmans Green, London.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1956 The Central Mexican Symbiotic Region: A Study in Prehistoric Settlement Patterns. In Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the New World, edited by Willey, Gordon R., pp. 115–127. Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York.Google Scholar
Shimada, Izumi 2007 Craft Production in Complex Societies: Multicraft and Producer Perspectives. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 2003 Key Commodities. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 117–125. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 2010 Regional and Local Market Systems in Aztec-Period Morelos. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., pp. 161–183. Boulder, University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 2015 The Aztec Empire. In Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, edited by Monson, Andrew and Scheidel, Walter, pp. 71–114. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E., and Heath-Smith, Cynthia 1993 Rural Economy in Late Postclassic Morelos: An Archaeological Study. In Economies and Polities in the Aztec Realm, edited by Hodge, Mary G. and Smith, Michael E., pp. 349–376. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, Albany, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., and Hirth, Kenneth G. 1988 The Development of Prehispanic Cotton-Spinning Technology in Western Morelos, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:249–358.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., and Montiel, Lisa 2000 The Archaeological Study of Empires and Imperialism in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20:254–284.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Boxt, Matthew A., Gasco, Janine, González Lauck, Rebecca B., Hedgepeth Balkin, Jessica D., Joyce, Arthur A., King, Stacie M., Knight, Charles L. F., Kruger, Robert, Levine, Marc N., Lesure, Richard G., Mendelsohn, Rebecca, Navarro-Castillo, Marx, Neff, Hector, Ohnersorgen, Michael, Pool, Christopher A., Mark Raab, L., Rosenswig, Robert M., Venter, Marcie, Voorhies, Barbara, Williams, David T., and Workinger, Andrew 2016 Economic Growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian Consumption in the Coastal Lowlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 41:263–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., and Eschbach, Krista L. 2018 Collapse and Diverse Responses in the Gulf Lowlands, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 50:98–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., and Garraty, Christopher P. 2010 Detecting Marketplace Exchange in Archaeology. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., pp. 33–58. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Heller, Lynette, and Ohnersorgen, Michael A. 1998 People with Cloth: Mesoamerican Economic Change from the Perspective of Cotton in South-Central Veracruz. Latin American Antiquity 9:7–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., and Ossa, Alanna 2010 Origins and Development of Mesoamerican Marketplaces: Evidence from South-Central Veracruz, Mexico. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., pp. 99–126. Boulder, University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Huster supplementary material

Table S1

Download Huster supplementary material(File)
File 62.2 KB