Beyond identifying elites: Feasting as a means to understand early Middle Formative society on the Pacific Coast of Mexico

Robert M. Rosenswig

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2006.02.002

Beyond identifying elites: Feasting as a means to understand early Middle Formative society on the Pacific Coast of Mexico

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology ◽

10.1016/j.jaa.2006.02.002 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 1-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Robert M. Rosenswig

Keyword(s):

Pacific Coast ◽

The Pacific ◽

Middle Formative

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Radiocarbon Chronology for the Late Archaic and Formative Periods on the Pacific Coast of Southeastern Mesoamerica

Ancient Mesoamerica ◽

10.1017/s0956536100002169 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. 161-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Michael Blake ◽

John E. Clark ◽

Barbara Voorhies ◽

George Michaels ◽

Michael W. Love ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Gulf Coast ◽

Formative Period ◽

Cultivated Plants ◽

Late Archaic ◽

Long Distance ◽

The Pacific ◽

Radiocarbon Chronology ◽

Middle Formative

AbstractArchaeological excavations carried out during the past five years along the Pacific coast of Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador have recovered 79 new 14C dates for the Late Archaic and Early to Middle Formative periods. We analyze these new dates along with 25 previously published dates to refine a sequence of 10 archaeological phases spanning almost three and a half millennia, from ca. 4000 to 650 B.C. The phases are summarized with a brief description of their most salient characteristics. We include illustrations of the Early Formative period ceramics and figurines from the Mazatan region. The sequence of phases reveals a trajectory of cultural evolution beginning in the Archaic period with the mobile hunting, fishing, and gathering Chantuto people. By 1550 B.C., the first ceramic-using sedentary communities appeared on the coast of Chiapas. They were hunter-fisher-gatherers who supplemented their food supply with cultivated plants, including maize and beans. We suggest that by the Locona phase (1400–1250 B.C.) in Chiapas, they began the transition from egalitarian sociopolitical organization to simple chiefdoms, leaving behind evidence of large-scale architectural constructions, long-distance imports such as obsidian and jade, and elaborately crafted prestige goods. Also in Chiapas, during the Cherla phase (1100–1000 B.C.), ceramic and figurine styles, nearly identical to those found at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan on the Gulf Coast, made their first appearance. Many of the local artifact styles were gradually replaced by styles that became increasingly widespread in Mesoamerica. The chronology presented here shows that these changes were roughly contemporaneous with similar ones in neighboring regions of Mesoamerica.

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Exchange Implications of Obsidian Source Analysis from the Lower Rio Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/971597 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 3-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Arthur A. Joyce ◽

J. Michael Elam ◽

Michael D. Glascock ◽

Hector Neff ◽

Marcus Winter

Keyword(s):

Pacific Coast ◽

Classic Period ◽

Source Analysis ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Basin Of Mexico ◽

The Pacific ◽

Monte Alban ◽

Middle Formative ◽

Exchange Patterns ◽

Obsidian Source

This article considers the results of instrumental neutron-activation analyses of 61 obsidian artifacts recovered from excavations at four archaeological sites in the lower Río Verde valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Determinations of source locations of these artifacts permit the examination of changes in obsidian exchange patterns spanning the late Middle Formative to the Classic period. The results show that through most of this period the importation of obsidian into the lower Verde region was dominated by sources in the Basin of Mexico and Michoacan. The data allow us to evaluate previous models of interregional relations during the Formative and Classic periods, including interaction with the highland centers of Monte Albán and Teotihuacán.

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The Philological Association of The Pacific Coast

PMLA ◽

10.1017/s0030812900130597 ◽

1935 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 1373-1374

Keyword(s):

Annual Meeting ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Stanford University ◽

The Pacific

The thirty-seventh annual meeting of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast was held at Stanford University, California, on November 29 and 30, 1935.

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