In this work, the authors interpret archaeological data on roughly 3000 years of human history in the Valley of Oaxaca, from roughly 1500 BC to AD 1500. They integrate information on settlement patterns, political and social organization, artifact distribution, and more.

Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica presents different analytical approaches for interpreting household composition and cultural site formation processes in prehispanic western Mesoamerica. Archaelogical data collected using both stratigraphic and reconnaisance methods are combined with and interpreted using a combination of ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and ethnoarchaeological information. The result is a richer and more complete picture of prehispanic household structure than any single analytic approach could produce on its own. The book is organized into several sections based on common theme and geographic area. The first three chapters provide a broad discussion of conceptual and methodological difficulties that archaeologists must resolve in the study of prehispanic households. Subsequent chapters present case studies which examine households from two areas of western Mesoamerica: the Central Mexican highlands and the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Eight case studies from the Central Mexican highlands provide a longitudinal perspective on changing household composition. Four of these examine households during the late Formative, Classic, Epiclassic, and Early Postclassic periods (650 B.C.-A.D. 1200), while four others focus specifically on household structure during the century immediately preceding the Spanish Conquest. Two additional case studies provide comparative information on household organization in the South Gulf Coast region during the Classic period. Prehispanic Domestic Units in Western Mesoamerica: Studies of the Household, Compound, and Residence will be an excellent reference for all anthropologists and archaeologists interested in prehispanic western Mesoamerica.

The essays in this collection examine a variety of topics within Oaxacan archaeology, from settlement and land use to scale and complexity. They are based on papers presented at the 1987 meeting of the Northeast Mesoamericanists Society, held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.

This two-volume monograph is the final report and synthesis of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project’s full-coverage surface survey and makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the investigation of social evolution, cultural ecology, and regional analysis.

The sixteen-volume Handbook of Middle American Indians, completed in 1976, has been acclaimed the world over as the most valuable resource ever produced for those involved in the study of Mesoamerica. When it was determined in 1978 that the Handbook should be updated periodically, Victoria Reifler Bricker, well-known cultural anthropologist, was selected to be series editor. This first volume of the Supplement is devoted to the dramatic changes that have taken place in the field of archaeology. The volume editor, Jeremy A. Sabloff, has gathered together detailed reports from the directors of many of the most significant archaeological projects of the mid-twentieth century in Mesoamerica, along with discussions of three topics of general interest (the rise of sedentary life, the evolution of complex culture, and the rise of cities).

In the quarter century since Wallerstein first developed world systems theory (WST), scholars in a variety of disciplines have adopted the approach to explain intersocietal interaction on a grand scale. These essays bring to light archaeological data and analysis to show that many historic and prehistoric states lacked the mechanisms to dominate the distant (and in some cases, nearby) societies with which they interacted. Core/periphery exploitation needs to be demonstrated, not simply assumed, as the interdisciplinary dialogue which occurs in this volume demonstrates. World-Systems Theory in Practice will appeal to individuals with an interest in the application of WST in both the Old World and the New World. The papers in this volume reflect the vitality of the debate concerning the use of such generalizing theories and will be of interest to archeologists, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and those involved in the study of civilizations.

This volume presents Santley's final synthesis of the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization in the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico.