Alternative pathways to power in late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica |
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| Authors: | Lane F. Fargher Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza Richard E. Blanton |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Ecología Humana, Centro de Investigaciones y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN – Unidad Mérida, Km 6 Antigua Carretera a Progreso, Cordemex, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico;2. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos, El Colegio de Michoacán, A.C., Cerro de Nahuatzen 85, Fracc. Jardines del Cerro Grande, 59379, La Piedad, Michoacán, Mexico;3. Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, Stone Hall, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States;1. Sts’ailes, 4690 Salish Way, Agassiz, BC V0M 1A1, Canada;2. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada;3. Views, 9318 205 Street, Langley, BC V1M 1B8, Canada;4. Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia;5. Institute of Archaeology, University College of London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY, UK;6. Hakai Institute, PO Box 25039 Tyee, Campbell River, BC V9W OB7, Canada;1. Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 3302 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA;2. Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 E. McConnell Dr., Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA;3. Department of Anthropology & Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University, One Bear Place No. 97173, Waco, TX 76798, USA;4. Cornerstone Environmental Consulting, 320 N. Leroux St., Suite A, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA;1. James Madison University, 71 Alumnae Dr, Harrisonburg, VA 22801, United States;2. The George Washington University, 2100 Foxhall Rd NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States;1. “Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherer Societies” Research Group, Universidad de La Laguna, Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Campus de Guajara, La Laguna, 38071 Tenerife, Spain;2. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/Marcel-lí Domingo s/n, Campus Secelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain;3. Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya, 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, United States;2. Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, United States;3. Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, United States;4. Museo Miraflores, Guatemala City, Guatemala |
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| Abstract: | In recent years, scholars have become dissatisfied with neoevolutionists’ view of social evolution as a series of step-like transformations leading to political centralization and have refocused attention away from traditional theory and toward issues of agency, power sharing, and alternative pathways to complexity. To build on this emerging theoretical orientation, we propose that collective action theory provides a useful path to explaining social change. To evaluate this idea, we make use of ethnohistoric and archaeological sources on the Postclassic (AD 1250–1521) of Highland Mesoamerica (Central Highlands of Mexico and the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca), to investigate the causes and consequences of key aspects of sociopolitical change. Of the study states, Tlaxcallan, Cholula, Texcoco, and other central Highlands polities relied extensively on internal revenues and, accordingly, implemented power sharing, control of political officials, and infrastructural power. Conversely, states in eastern Puebla and the Mixteca Alta focused on external revenues and, thus, exhibited greater degrees of despotic governance. These results suggest that collective action provides a useful starting point for understanding state-building in Highland Mesoamerica and merits further testing with other Mesoamerican cases as well as societies in other world areas. |
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