Origins of the Nuu

by Kowalewski, Stephen A.; Balkansky, Andrew K.; Walsh, Laura R. Stiver; Pluckhahn, Thomas J.

• ISBN13: 9781607321033
• ISBN10: 1607321033
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-11
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Colorado

Summary

Combining older findings with new data on 1,000 previously undescribed archaeological sites, Origins of the #xC3;#x18;uupresents the cultural evolution of the Mixteca Alta in an up-to-date chronological framework. The #xC3;#xB1;uu--the kingdoms of the famous Mixtec codices--are traced back through the Postclassic and Classic periods to their beginnings in the first states of the Terminal Formative, revealing their origin, evolution, and persistence through two cycles of growth and collapse. Challenging assumptions that the Mixtec were peripheral to better-known peoples such as the Aztecs and Maya, the book asserts that the #xC3;#xB1;uu were a major demographic and economic power in their own right. Older explanations of multiregional or macroregional systems often portrayed civilizations as rising in a cradle or hearth and spreading outward. New macroregional studies show that civilizations are products of more complex interactions among regions, in which peripheries are not simply shaped by cores but by their interactions with multiple societies at varying distances from major centers. Origins of the #xC3;#x18;uu is a significant contribution to this emerging area of archaeological research.

Author Biography

Stephen A. Kowalewski is a professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia and has done fieldwork in the Southwest, Georgia, and Mexico. Andrew k. Balkansky, an associate professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University, is currently excavating early village sites in the Mixteca Alta. Laura R. Stiver Walsh is carrying out excavations with the Proyecto Arqueolgico Yucundaa at the Pueblo Viejo of Teposcolula, Mixteca Alta. Thomas J. Pluckhahn, associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida, is investigating early village societies of the Gulf Coast of the Southeastern United States. John F. Chamblee, a postdoctoral research associate with the Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Project at the University of Georgia, is studying the historical ecology of land tenure in the southern Appalachian region. Vernica Prez Rodrguez, associate professor of anthropology at Northern Arizona University, is doing fieldwork on urbanism at Cerro Jazmn and its impact on the surrounding landscape. Verenice Y. Heredia espinoza assistant professor at the Colegio de Michoacn, is conducting a regional survey in the core zone of the Teuchitln tradition in Jalisco, Mexico. Charlotte A. Smith, principal archaeologist and owner of archaeofacts.com, is currently synthesizing Mesoamerican macroregional settlement pattern data.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. xi
List of Tables	p. xix
Preface	p. xxiii
Regional Study of Ancient Societies in the Mixteca Alta	p. 1
Plan of the Book	p. 3
Origins of Urbanism and the State	p. 4
The Central Mixteca Alta	p. 5
Survey	p. 15
The Western Nochixtlán Valley	p. 29
Jazmín	p. 30
Nejapilla	p. 43
Yodocono	p. 49
Tidaá	p. 58
Tilantongo	p. 63
Sierra de Nochixtlán	p. 76
Greater Teposcolula	p. 81
Teposcolula	p. 82
Nuñu	p. 96
Yodobada	p. 109
Yucunama	p. 117
Lagunas	p. 126
Yolomécatl	p. 137
Nduayaco	p. 146
Greater Huamelulpan	p. 157
Yucuxaco	p. 158
Huamelulpan	p. 165
Tayata	p. 174
The Inner Basin	p. 183
San Juan Achiutda	p. 184
Achiutda	p. 190
Yucuañe	p. 202
Tlacotepec	p. 210
Amoltepec	p. 223
Magdalena Peñasco	p. 230
Dzinicahua	p. 243
Greater Tlaxiaco	p. 255
Tlaxiaco Valley	p. 256
The Northeastern Periphery of Tlaxiaco	p. 267
The Southeastern Periphery of Tlaxiaco	p. 272
Nundichi/Ñumi	p. 279
The Polities of the Early and Middle Formative	p. 285
Aichaic	p. 285
Early/Middle Cruz	p. 287
Late Cruz	p. 290
The Emergence of Urbanism and the State	p. 297
Early Ramos	p. 297
Late Ramos	p. 303
The Classic Ñuu	p. 305
The Postclassic Ñuu	p. 315
The Ñuu in Anthropological Perspective	p. 331
Survey	p. 331
Formative Societies	p. 334
The Ñuu and the State	p. 337
Regional Abandonments	p. 345
Agrarian Urbanism	p. 346
Resumen en Español	p. 351
Ceramic Chronology	p. 359
Early/Middle Cruz	p. 360
Late Cruz	p. 362
Early Ramos	p. 368
Late Ramos	p. 372
Transición Las Flores	p. 372
Early Las Flores	p. 376
Late Las Flores	p. 379
Natividad	p. 379
Appendix 2: Flaked and Ground Stone	p. 387
References Cited	p. 395
Tables	p. 407
Index	p. 501
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