Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:09:12.422Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Organization of Obsidian Exchange at Middle Postclassic Sauce and Its Hinterland in Veracruz, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2021

Alanna Ossa Open the ORCID record for Alanna Ossa [Opens in a new window]
Alanna Ossa*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Oswego, NY, USA
*
([email protected]; corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To describe the structure of production and the organization of exchange of obsidian chipped stone during the Middle Postclassic period (AD 1200–1350) in south-central Veracruz, Mexico, I analyzed 65 residential inventories from the center of Sauce and its hinterland. Previous research on obsidian production found a spatial association with Sauce, which could support the political administration of exchange, or alternatively, identify market exchange nearby. I argue that reliance on spatially based models alone for identifying exchange mechanisms is not advisable because of potential equifinality, in which different forms of exchange appear alike. Local obsidian artifacts have additional interpretive complications: they come from a single geological source, there was universal access to them, and they were employed in potentially specialized activities. I used the articulation of production combined with spatial distribution and residential contextual information to distinguish between redistribution and market exchange. Results indicate that market exchange is the main mechanism. The largest concentrations of primary production indicators and the highest quantities of blade segments were found near the Sauce center, which suggest that political elites at Sauce encouraged market exchange, although they did not direct it to the extent that they were controlling significant amounts of obsidian.

Este artículo examina los artefactos de obsidiana de 65 colecciones residenciales del centro de Sauce y su hinterland en combinación con patrones de asentamiento para describir la estructura de producción y la organización del intercambio de obsidiana durante el Posclásico Medio (1200-1350 dC) en el centro-sur de Veracruz, México. Investigaciones previas identificaron una asociación espacial entre Sauce y la producción de obsidiana que podría sugerir la administración política del intercambio o, alternativamente, identificar un mercado en el área cercana. Sostengo que no se puede solo usar modelos espaciales para identificar los mecanismos de intercambio por el problema de la equifinalidad. Otros factores como fuente geológica única, acceso universal, y posibles actividades especializadas pueden complicar las interpretaciones sobre los artefactos de obsidiana. Este estudio utiliza la articulación de la producción en combinación con su distribución espacial y la información contextual para distinguir entre la redistribución y el intercambio de mercado. Los resultados indican que el mercado es el mecanismo principal. Las mayores concentraciones de indicadores de producción primaria se encontraron cerca del centro de Sauce, junto con las mayores cantidades de navajas prismáticas. Lo anterior sugiere que las élites de Sauce fomentaron el intercambio mercantil, aunque no lo dirigieron.

Keywords

Postclassic MesoamericaVeracruzobsidiancraft productionexchange systemsPostclassic MesoamericaVeracruzobsidianproduccíonsistemas de intercambio
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 318 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of 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

Blanton, Richard E. 1996 The Basin of Mexico Market System and the Growth of Empire. In Aztec Imperial Strategies, edited by Berdan, Frances F., Blanton, Richard E., Boone, Elizabeth Hill, Hodge, Mary G., Smith, Michael E., and Umberger, Emily, pp. 47–83. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., and Fargher, Lane F. 2010 Evaluating Causal Factors in Market Development. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., pp. 207–226. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Brughmans, Tom, and Peeples, Matthew A. 2017 Trends in Archaeological Network Research: A Bibliometric Analysis. Journal of Historical Network Research 1:1–24.Google Scholar
Clark, John E., and Bryant, Douglas Donne 1997 A Technological Typology of Prismatic Blades and Debitage from Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:111–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowgill, George L. 1992 Social Differentiation at Teotihuacan. In Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, edited by Chase, Diane Z. and Chase, Arlen C., pp. 206–220. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Curet, L. Antonio, Stark, Barbara L., and Zarate, Sergio Vásquez 1994 Postclassic Changes in Veracruz, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:13–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daneels, Annick 1997 Settlement History in the Lower Cotaxtla Basin. In Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands, edited by Stark, Barbara L. and Arnold, Philip J. III, pp. 206–252. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Daneels, Annick, Pastrana, Alejandro, and Domínguez, Silvia 2018 Obsidian Processing and Distribution in Classic Period Lower Cotaxtla Basin, Veracruz, Mexico. Paper presented at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
De León, Jason P., Hirth, Kenneth G., and Carballo, David M. 2009 Exploring Formative Period Obsidian Blade Trade: Three Distributional Models. Ancient Mesoamerica 20:113–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eppich, Keith, and Freidel, David 2015 Markets and Marketing in the Classic Maya Lowlands: A Case Study from El Perú-Waka’. In The Ancient Maya Marketplace: The Archaeology of Transient Space, edited by King, Eleanor M., pp. 198–225. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Garraty, Christopher P. 2009 Evaluating the Distributional Approach to Inferring Marketplace Exchange: A Test Case from the Mexican Gulf Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 20:157–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garraty, Christopher P., and Stark, Barbara L. (editors) 2010 Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Golitko, Mark, and Feinman, Gary M. 2015 Procurement and Distribution of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Obsidian 900 BC–AD 1520: A Social Network Analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22:206–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Barbara A. 1994 Formation Processes of Large Earthen Residential Mounds in La Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 5:31–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healan, Dan 2009 Ground Platform Preparation and the “Banalization” of the Prismatic Blade in Western Mesoamerica. Ancient Mesoamerica 20:103–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, Lynette 2000 Postclassic Obsidian Workshop Debris from El Sauce, Veracruz, Mexico. Mexicon 22:139–146.Google Scholar
Heller, Lynette 2001 Sources, Technology, Production, Use, and Deposition of Knapped Obsidian. In Classic Period Mixtequilla: Diachronic Inferences from Residential Investigations, edited by Stark, Barbara L., pp. 159–170. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, University of Albany, New York.Google Scholar
Heller, Lynette, and Stark, Barbara 1998 Classic and Postclassic Obsidian Tool Production and Consumption: A Regional Perspective from the Mixtequilla Region, Veracruz. Mexicon 20:119–128.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth P. 1998 The Distributional Approach: A New Way to Identify Marketplace Exchange in the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology 39:451–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth P. 2008 The Economy of Supply: Modeling Obsidian Procurement and Craft Provisioning at a Central Mexican Urban Center. Latin American Antiquity 19:435–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Andrews, Bradford 2002 Pathways to Prismatic Blades: Sources of Variation in Mesoamerican Lithic Technology. In Pathways to Prismatic Blades: A Study in Mesoamerican Obsidian Core-Blade Technology, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G. and Andrews, Bradford, pp. 1–14. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., and Pillsbury, Joanne (editors) 2013 Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hodder, Ian, and Orton, Clive 1976 Spatial Analysis in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, London.Google Scholar
King, Eleanor M. (editor) 2015 The Ancient Maya Marketplace: The Archaeology of Transient Space. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Knight, Charles L. F. 2017 Extraction, Exchange, and Intra-Regional Interaction at the Zaragoza-Oyameles Obsidian Source, Puebla, Mexico. In Trading Spaces: The Archaeology of Interaction, Migration and Exchange, edited by Patton, Margaret M. and Manion, Jessica, pp. 152–166. Chacmool Archaeology Association, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, Stephen A., and Feinman, Gary M. 1992 “The Elite” and Assessment of Social Stratification in Mesoamerican Archaeology. In Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, edited by Chase, Diane Z. and Chase, Arlen F., pp. 259–277. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Marino, Marc D., Fargher, Lane F., Meissner, Nathan J., Johnson, Lucas R. Martindale, Blanton, Richard E., and Espinoza, Verenice Y. Heredia 2020 Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica: Comparing Open and Restricted Markets at Tlaxcallan, Mexico, and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize. Latin American Antiquity 31:780–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masson, Marilyn A., and Freidel, David A. 2012 An Argument for Classic Era Maya Market Exchange. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31:455–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millhauser, John K. 2005 Classic and Postclassic Chipped Stone at Xaltocan. In Production and Power at Postclassic Xaltocan, edited by Brumfiel, Elizabeth M., pp. 267–318. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Ossa, Alanna 2011 Given, Borrowed, Bought, Stolen: Exchange and Economic Organization in Postclassic Sauce and Its Hinterland in Veracruz, Mexico. PhD dissertation, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Ossa, Alanna 2013 Using Network Expectations to Identify Multiple Exchange Systems: A Case Study from Postclassic Sauce and Its Hinterland in Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32:415–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pastrana, Alejandro 1986 El proceso de trabajo de la obsidiana de las minas de Pico de Orizaba. Boletín de Antropología Americana 13:133–145.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher A. 2006 Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research 14:189–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, Colin 1977 Alternative Models for Exchange and Spatial Distribution, In Exchange Systems in Prehistory, edited by Earle, Timothy K. and Ericson, John E., pp. 71–90. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santley, Robert S., and Barrett, Thomas P. 2002 Lithic Technology, Assemblage Variation, and the Organization of Production and Use of Obsidian on the South Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico. In Pathways to Prismatic Blades: A Study in Mesoamerican Obsidian Core-Blade Technology, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G. and Andrews, Bradford, pp. 91–104. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Carol A. 1976 Regional Economic Systems: Linking Geographical Models and Socioeconomic Problems. In Regional Analysis, edited by Smith, Carol A., pp. 3–63. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1987 Household Possessions and Wealth in Agrarian States: Implications for Archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 6:297–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 2001 Classic Period Mixtequilla, Veracruz, Mexico: Diachronic Inferences from Residential Investigations. Monograph 12. University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 2008a Polity and Economy in the Western Lower Papaloapan Basin. In Classic Period Cultural Currents in Southern and Central Veracruz, edited by Arnold, Phillip J. III and Pool, Christopher A., pp. 85–120. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 2008b Archaeology and Ethnicity in Postclassic Mesoamerica. In Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: The View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography, edited by Berdan, Frances F., Chance, John K., Sandstrom, Alan R., Stark, Barbara L., Taggart, James M., and Umberger, Emily, pp. 38–63. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., and Arnold, Philip J. III 1997 Introduction to the Archaeology of the Gulf Lowlands. In Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Pattern Research in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands, edited by Stark, Barbara L. and Arnold, Philip J. III, pp. 3–32. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Boxt, Matthew A., Gasco, Janine, Lauck, Rebecca B. González, Balkin, Jessica D. Hedgepeth, Joyce, Arthur A., King, Stacie M., et al. 2016 Economic Growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian Consumption in the Coastal Lowlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 41:263–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., and Garraty, Christopher P. 2010 Detecting Marketplace Exchange in Archaeology: A Methodological Review. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., pp. 33–60. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Heller, Lynette, Glascock, Michael D., Elam, J. M., and Neff, Hector 1992 Obsidian Artifact Source Analysis for the Mixtequilla Region, South-Central Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 3:221–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., Heller, Lynette, and Ohnersorgen, Michael P. 1997 People with Cloth: Mesoamerican Economic Exchange from the Perspective of Cotton in South-Central Veracruz. Latin American Antiquity 9:1–30.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L., and Ossa, Alanna 2010 Origins and Development of Mesoamerican Marketplaces: Evidence from South-Central Veracruz. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, edited by Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., pp. 99–126. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Stoner, Wesley D., and Pool, Christopher A. 2015 The Archaeology of Disjuncture Classic Period Disruption and Cultural Divergence in the Tuxtla Mountains of Mexico. Current Anthropology 56:385–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venter, Marcie, Carr, Sean, and Linquist, Shayna 2018 A Comparison of XRF and Visual Sourcing Methods in the Identification of Guadalupe Victoria Obsidian at Matacanela, Sierra de los Tuxtlas. Paper presented at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Watts, Joshua, and Ossa, Alanna 2016 Exchange Network Topologies and Agent-Based Modeling: Economies of the Sedentary Period Hohokam. American Antiquity 81:623–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Nathan D. 2016 Regional Interaction and World-System Incorporation during the Classic Period in the Western Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. PhD dissertation, School of Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Wilson, Nathan D., and Arnold, Philip J. III 2017 La producción y obtención de lítica en Teotepec. In Arqueología de la Costa del Golfo: Dinámicas de la interacción política, económica e ideológica, edited by Budar, Lourdes, Venter, Marcie L., and de Guevara, Sara Ladrón, pp. 85–102. University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Mexico.Google Scholar