Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-vbsjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-01T02:17:18.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ten - The Emergence of Monte Albán

A Social Innovation That Lasted a Millennium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2021

By
Gary M. Feinman ,
Richard E. Blanton  and
Linda M. Nicholas
Edited by
T. L. Thurston  and
Manuel Fernández-Götz
T. L. Thurston
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Manuel Fernández-Götz
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Get access

Summary

Monte Albán, one of Mexico’s earliest cities, was founded in the Valley of Oaxaca around 500 bc as a central fulcrum in a dynamic episode of change that grounds subsequent regional history. Proposed explanations for the establishment of Monte Albán are numerous and diverse; yet, to date, they tend to emphasize only the agency of the elite. Here, we offer new theoretical perspectives on the dynamic processes associated with this multifaceted, transitional episode. Adopting a multiscalar approach, we view this transition as the outcome of innovative social negotiations that yielded new opportunities and social contracts that ultimately advantaged both certain powerful individuals as well as larger segments of the population. The collective mode of governance that was instituted (ca. 500 bc) at this early Mesoamerican city proved to be resilient, enduring for more than a millennium, despite challenges, adjustments, and changes over time.

Type
Chapter
Information
Power from Below in Premodern Societies
The Dynamics of Political Complexity in the Archaeological Record
 , pp. 220 - 246
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ahlquist, J. S. & Levi, M. (2011) Leadership: What it means, what it does, and what we want to know about it. Annual Review of Political Science 14, 1–24.Google Scholar
Birch, J. (2012) Coalescent communities: Settlement aggregation and social integration in Iroquoian Ontario. American Antiquity 77, 646–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birch, J. (2013) Between villages and cities: Settlement aggregation in cross-cultural perspective. In Birch, J. (ed.) From Prehistoric Villages to Cities: Settlement Aggregation and Community Transformation, 1–22. New York, Routledge.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E. (1976) The origins of Monte Albán. In Cleland, C. (ed.), Cultural Change and Continuity, 223–232. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E. (1978) Monte Albán: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotec Capital. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E. & Fargher, L. (2016) How Humans Cooperate: Confronting the Challenges of Collective Action. Boulder, University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Appel, J., Finsten, L., et al. (1979) Regional evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 6, 369–390.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. & Fargher, L. (2008) Collective Action in the Formation of Pre-Modern States. New York, Springer.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Feinman, G. M., Kowalewski, S. A. & Nicholas, L. M. (1999) Ancient Oaxaca. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Feinman, G. M., Kowalewski, S. A. & Peregrine, P. N. (1996) A dual-processual theory for the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization. Current Anthropology 37, 1–14.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M. & Appel, J. (1982) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part i: The Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Central and Southern Parts of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Ann Arbor, Memoirs 15, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Boserup, E. (1965) The Conditions of Agricultural Growth. Chicago, Aldine.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. L. (1970) A theory of the origin of the state. Science 169, 733–738.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. L. (1987) Cross-currents in the theory of state formation. American Ethnologist 14, 756–770.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. L. (2012) Answers to critiques. Social Evolution & History 11, 131–190.Google Scholar
Caso, A. (1969) El tesoro de Monte Albán. Memorias 3, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, A. & Bernal, I. (1952) Urnas de Oaxaca. Memorias 2, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, A., Bernal, I. & Acosta, J. R. (1967) La cerámica de Monte Albán. Memorias 13, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Cook, K. S., Hardin, R. & Levi, M. (2005) Cooperation without Trust? New York, Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Earle, T. K. (2011) Chiefs, chieftaincies, chiefdoms, and chiefly confederacies: Power in the evolution of political systems. Social Evolution & History 10, 27–54.Google Scholar
Fargher, L. F. (2016) Corporate power strategies, collective action, and control of principals: A cross-cultural perspective. In Fargher, L. F. & Heredia Espinoza, V. Y. (eds.) Alternative Pathways to Complexity, 309–326. Boulder, University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Fargher, L. F. & Blanton, R. E. (2007) Revenue, voice, and public goods in three pre-modern states. Comparative Studies in Society and History 49, 848–882.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. (1986) The emergence of specialized ceramic production in Formative Oaxaca. In Isaac, B. L. (ed.) Economic Aspects of Pre-Hispanic Highland Mexico, 347–373. Greenwich, JAI Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. (1991) Demography, surplus, and inequality: Early political formations in highland Mesoamerica. In Earle, T. K. (ed.) Chiefdoms and Their Evolutionary Significance, 229–262. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. (2006) The economic underpinnings of prehispanic Zapotec civilization: Small-scale production, economic interdependence, and market exchange. In Marcus, J. & Stanish, C. (eds.) Agricultural Strategies, 255–280. Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. (2017) Reframing ancient economies: New models, new questions. In Fernández-Götz, M. & Krausse, D. (eds.) Eurasia at the Dawn of History: Urbanization and Social Change, 139–149. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M., Banker, S., Cooper, R., Cook, G. & Nicholas, L. M. (1989) A technological perspective on changes in the ancient Oaxacan grayware ceramic tradition: Preliminary results. Journal of Field Archaeology 16, 331–344.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M., Blanton, R. E. & Kowalewski, S. A. (1984) Market system development in the pre-Hispanic Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. In Hirth, K. (ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 157–178.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Carballo, D. M. (2018) Collaborative and competitive strategies in the variability and resilience of large-scale societies in Mesoamerica. Economic Anthropology 5, 7–19.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M., Faulseit, R. K. & Nicholas, L. M. (2018) Assessing wealth inequality in the pre-Hispanic Valley of Oaxaca: Comparative implications. In Kohler, T. A. & Smith, M. E. (eds.) Ten Thousand Years of Inequality: The Archaeology of Wealth Differences, 262–288. Tucson, University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M., Kowalewski, S. A., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. & Nicholas, L. M. (1985) Long-term demographic change: A perspective from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 12, 333–362.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (1990) Settlement and land use in ancient Oaxaca. In Marcus, J. (ed.) Debating Oaxaca Archaeology, 71–113. Anthropological Papers 84, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (1992) Human-land relations from an archaeological perspective: The case of ancient Oaxaca. In Ortiz, S. & Lees, S. (eds.) Understanding Economic Process, 155–178. Lanham, University Press of America.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2007) Craft production in Classic period Oaxaca: Implications for Monte Albán’s political economy. In Shimada, I. (ed.) Craft Production in Complex Societies: Multicraft and Producer Perspectives, 97–119. Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2012) The late prehispanic economy of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: Weaving threads from data, theory, and subsequent history. Research in Economic Anthropology 32, 225–258.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2013) Settlement Patterns of the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Diachronic Macroscale Perspective. Fieldiana Anthropology 43, Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2016a) Framing the rise and variability of past complex societies. In Fargher, L. F. & Heredia Espinoza, V. Y. (eds.) Alternative Pathways to Complexity, 271–289. Boulder, University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2016b) After Monte Albán in the central valleys of Oaxaca: A reassessment. In Faulseit, R. K. (ed.) Archaeological Perspectives on Resilience, Revitalization, and Transformations in Complex Societies, 43–69. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2017a) Re-envisioning prehispanic Mesoamerican economies: Modes of production, fiscal foundations of collective action and conceptual legacies. In Rosenswig, R. M. & Cunningham, J. J. (eds.) Modes of Production and Archaeology, 253–281. Gainesville, University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. & Nicholas, L. M. (2017b) Settlement Patterns in the Albarradas Area of Highland Oaxaca, Mexico: Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interaction. Fieldiana Anthropology 46, Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (1990) Borrón y Cuenta Nueva: Setting Oaxaca’s archaeological record straight. In Marcus, J. (ed.) Debating Oaxaca Archaeology, 17–69. Anthropological Papers 84, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (1994) Early Formative Pottery of the Valley of Oaxaca. Memoirs 27, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (2000) Formative Mexican chiefdoms and the myth of the “Mother Culture.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 19, 1–37.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (2003) The origin of war: New 14 C dates from ancient Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 100, 11801–11805.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (2005) Excavations at San José Mogote 1: The Household Archaeology. Memoirs 40, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (2015) Excavations at San José Mogote 2: The Cognitive Archaeology. Memoirs 58, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Hargrave, T. J. & Van de Ven, A. H. (2006) A collective action model of institutional innovation. Academy of Management Review 31, 864–888.Google Scholar
Hedström, P. & Swedberg, R. (1996) Social mechanisms. Acta Sociologica 39, 281–308.Google Scholar
Holland-Lulewicz, J., Conger, M. A., Birch, J., Kowalewski, S. A. & Jones, T. W. (2020) An institutional approach for archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 58, 101–163.Google Scholar
Iannaccone, L. R., Haight, C. E. & Rubin, J. (2011) Lessons from Delphi: Religious markets and spiritual capitals. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 77, 326–338.Google Scholar
Janssen, M. A., Kohler, T. A. & Scheffer, M. (2003) Sunk-cost effects and vulnerability to collapse in ancient societies. Current Anthropology 44, 722–728.Google Scholar
Joffe, A. H. (1998) Disembedded capitals in western Asian perspective. Comparative Studies in Society and History 40, 549–580.Google Scholar
Kirkby, A. V. T. (1973) The Use of Land and Water Resources in the Past and Present Valley of Oaxaca. Memoirs 5, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiser, E. & Barzel, Y. (1991) The origins of democracy in England. Rationality and Society 3, 396–422.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, S. A. (1980) Population-resource imbalance in period I of Oaxaca, Mexico. American Antiquity 45, 151–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kowalewski, S. A. (2006) Coalescent societies. In Pluckhahn, T. J. & Ethridge, R. (eds.) Light on the Path: The Anthropology and History of the Southeastern Indians, 94–122. Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, S. A. (2013) The work of making community. In Birch, J. (ed.) From Prehistoric Villages to Cities: Settlement Aggregation and Community Transformation, 201–218. New York, Routledge.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. & Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part ii: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlán, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs 23, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Nicholas, L. M. & Heredia, V. Y. (2006) Hilltowns and valley fields: Great transformations, labor, and long-term history in ancient Oaxaca. In Durrenberger, E. P. & Martí, J. E. (eds.) Labor in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 197–216. Lanham, AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Levi, M. (1988) Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley, University of California Press.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. (1989) Zapotec chiefdoms and the nature of formative religions. In Sharer, R. J. & Grove, D. C. (eds.) Regional Perspectives on the Olmec, 148–197. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. & Flannery, K. V. (1996) Zapotec Civilization. London, Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Minc, L. D., Sherman, R. J., Elson, C., et al. (2016) Ceramic provenance and the regional organization of pottery production during the later Formative periods in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: Results of trace-element and mineralogical analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports 8, 28–46.Google Scholar
Mulgan, G. (2006) The process of social innovation. Innovations 1, 145–162.Google Scholar
Nicholas, L. M. (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. & Nicholas, L. M., Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part ii: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlán, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, 449–505. Memoirs 23, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
O’Brien, M. J., Mason, R., Lewarch, D. & Neely, J. (1982) A Late Formative Irrigation Settlement below Monte Albán: Survey and Excavation on the Xoxcatlán Piedmont, Oaxaca, Mexico. Austin, University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Palerm, A. & Wolf, E. R. (1957) Ecological potential and cultural development in Mesoamerica. Pan American Union Social Science Monograph 3, 1–37.Google Scholar
Plog, S. (1976) Measurement of prehistoric interaction between communities. In Flannery, K. V. (ed.) The Early Mesoamerican Village, 255–272. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pyne, N. M. (1976) The fire-serpent and were-jaguar in Formative Oaxaca: A contingency table analysis. In Flannery, K. V. (ed.) The Early Mesoamerican Village, 272–280. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Redmond, E. M. & Spencer, C. S. (2012) Chiefdoms at the threshold: The competitive origins of the primary state. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31, 22–37.Google Scholar
Redmond, E. M. & Spencer, C. S. (2017) Ancient palace complex (300–100 bc) discovered in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA 114, 3805–3814.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R. G. (2005) A multidimensional scaling of San José phase houses and their contents. In Flannery, K. V. & Marcus, J. (eds.) Excavations at San José Mogote 1: The Household Archaeology, 446–455. Memoirs 40, Ann Arbor, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T. & Nichols, D. L. (1988) Ecological theory and cultural evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca. Current Anthropology 29, 33–80.Google Scholar
Santley, R. S. (1980) Disembedded capitals reconsidered. American Antiquity 45, 132–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sewell, W. H. Jr. (1992) A theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformation. American Journal of Sociology 98, 1–29.Google Scholar
Sewell, W. H. Jr. (2005) Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shenk, M. K., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Beise, J., et al. (2010) Intergenerational wealth transmission among agriculturists: Foundations of agrarian inequality. Current Anthropology 51, 65–83.Google Scholar
Simpson, B. & Willer, R. (2015) Beyond altruism: Foundations of cooperation and prosocial behavior. Annual Review of Sociology 41, 43–63.Google Scholar
Smith, C. A. (2002) Concordant Change and Core-Periphery Dynamics: A Synthesis of Highland Mesoamerican Archaeological Survey Data. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Athens, University of Georgia.Google Scholar
Smith, M. E. (2004) The archaeology of ancient state economies. Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 73–102.Google Scholar
Smith, M. E. (2011) Empirical urban theory for archaeologists. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 18, 167–192.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, A. (1980) Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment. Berkeley, University of California Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. (2010) Territorial expansion and primary state formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107, 7119–7126.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. & Redmond, E. M. (2003) Militarism, resistance, and early state development in Oaxaca. Social Evolution & History 2, 25–70.Google Scholar
Stone, G. D. (2001) Theory of the square chicken: Advances in agricultural intensification theory. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 42, 163–180.Google Scholar
Storper, M. (1996) Innovation as collective action: Conventions, products, and technologies. Industrial and Corporate Change 5, 761–790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willey, G. R. (1979) The concept of the “disembedded capital” in comparative perspective. Journal of Anthropological Research 35, 123–137.Google Scholar
Winter, M. (1976) The archaeological household cluster in the Valley of Oaxaca. In Flannery, K. V. (ed.) The Early Mesoamerican Village, 25–34. New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Winter, M. (1984) Exchange in Formative Oaxaca. In Hirth, K. (ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica, 179–214. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Winter, M. (2011) Social memory and the origins of Monte Albán. Ancient Mesoamerica 22, 393–409.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×