Materialism, Mode of Production, and a Millennium of Change in Southern Mexico

In this paper, I ask why the insights of classical (i.e., materialist) Marxism are not more commonly used by archaeologists of recent academic generations. With evidence from the Soconusco region of Mexico, I explore the relationship between the economic base and political superstructure of the region’s inhabitants as well as evidence for the transformation from a kin-ordered to a tributary mode of production. Major esthetic and political transformations occurred across the region when naturalistic standards were replaced by abstract Olmec-style representation beginning approximately 1,400 cal. B.C. In contrast, macrobotanical, ground stone, and faunal patterns from the site of Cuauhtémoc (along with patterns from across the Soconusco) indicated that a major transformation of the economy occurred during the Conchas phase (1,000–850 cal. B.C.). Along with the marked intensification of subsistence production, the Conchas phase was also when the first system of conical mounds were built at the top three tiers of political centers in the Soconusco. I argue that the use of modes of production holds unrealized potential for a materialist interpretation of the past and that the development of a tributary mode of production helps explain the changes in the Soconusco after 1,000 cal. B.C.