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Neighborhoods on Cerro Amole, Oaxaca: Models for a Mixtec Cabecera
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2025
Abstract
Intermediate levels of social organization—above the household but below the entire settlement, city, or polity—are notoriously difficult to pinpoint in archaeological contexts, but they nevertheless represent a crucial frontier for building new archaeological theory to understand daily social life in the past. Ethnographic research demonstrates that informants recognize units such as the “neighborhood” and consider them important. In Mesoamerica, organizational units such as the Mixtec siqui, Aztec calpulli, and Maya cuchcabal were often formally recognized in social, military, and economic systems. Here, a neighborhood case study is presented from San Pedro Teozacoalco in Oaxaca, Mexico. The site known as Iglesia Gentil, which is located atop a mountain today called Cerro Amole, was the cabecera, or administrative center, of Chiyo Cahnu, an important Postclassic Mixtec polity. Using distributions of architecture and artifacts across the site based on data collected with GPS units from 2013 to 2017, three complementary GIS-based models are evaluated for their ability to define neighborhoods at Iglesia Gentil. The best is based on least cost paths modified by Tobler's hiking function.
Resumen
Los niveles intermedios de organización social (componentes más grandes que la unidad doméstica pero más pequeño que todo el asentamiento o urbe) son difíciles de identificar en contextos arqueológicos. Sin embargo, representan una línea de investigación crucial dentro de la teoría arqueológica para comprender la vida cotidiana en el pasado. Con base en estudios etnográficos se ha demostrado que los pobladores reconocen al “barrio” como una unidad importante dentro de su comunidad. En Mesoamérica, unidades organizativas como el siqui mixteco, el calpulli mexica y el cuchcabal maya fueron reconocidas formalmente en los sistemas sociales, militares y económicos. El sitio conocido como Iglesia Gentil, que está ubicado en la cima de una montaña hoy llamada Cerro Amole cerca del pueblo de San Pedro Teozacoalco, era la cabecera o centro administrativo de Chiyo Cahnu, una importante entidad política mixteca del Posclásico. Utilizando distribuciones de arquitectura y artefactos en todo el sitio basadas en datos recopilados con unidades de Sistema de Posición Global (SPG) de 2013 a 2017, se evalúan tres modelos complementarios basados en Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) por su capacidad para definir barrios en Iglesia Gentil. El mejor es basado en least cost paths modificado por Tobler's hiking function.
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