The Zapotec Presence at Teotihuacan, Mexico: Political Ethnicity and Domestic Identity
Croissier, Michelle M.
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/85275
Description
Title
The Zapotec Presence at Teotihuacan, Mexico: Political Ethnicity and Domestic Identity
Author(s)
Croissier, Michelle M.
Issue Date
2007
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Grove, David C.
Department of Study
Anthropology
Discipline
Anthropology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Anthropology, Archaeology
Language
eng
Abstract
"This dissertation addresses questions about the Oaxaca Barrio at Teotihuacan, Mexico, emphasizing the social process of migration and the community's social organization. The 2003 excavation of Structure TL5, located on the western edge of the city, exposed the remains of a Zapotec-style temple, revealing at least two early Classic Period (ca. A.D. 150--350) construction episodes and a later Aztec occupation. These excavations were designed to complement Michael Spence's earlier studies of an adjacent apartment compound (Structure TL6), whose occupants shared Zapotec cultural affiliation. A small sample of Zapotec-style pottery from the TL5-2003 excavations was subject to an attribute study as well as petrographic and chemical analysis in order to devise an integrative method for understanding the production of Zapotec-style domestic pottery at Teotihuacan. The results of the TL5-2003 excavation and laboratory-based ceramic study demonstrate that: (1) the Zapotec migrants replicated the long-established temple-based institutions of their homeland as a means of organizing themselves politically at the community-level; (2) the initial migration to Teotihuacan's Oaxaca Barrio by Oaxaca Valley Zapotecs may have occurred earlier than the commonly accepted date of A.D. 200; and (3) technological variability can be used to examine household ceramic production as a chronological marker of domestic identity and interaction among the Oaxaca Barrio, other Zapotec enclaves, and the Oaxaca Valley. The fundamental premise guiding this research is that a ""bottom up"" perspective, which views the Zapotec migrants as decision-makers relative to the ""special-relationship"" between Teotihuacan and Monte Alban, is a necessary complement to the ""top-down"" perspective, which views the Oaxaca Barrio as a state-directed enterprise---for which there is little evidence. Teotihuacan's Oaxaca Barrio was one of several Zapotec enclaves in Classic Period Central Mexico. This makes chain migration (kin-structured and/or patron-client driven) a reasonable model for the presence of Zapotec communities outside the Oaxaca Valley. The use of multiple analytical methods, formal models, and reference to Old World ethnographic examples, suggest that Teotihuacan's Oaxaca Barrio is best understood as an ethnic sub-society that has analogues in both ancient and modern urban settings."
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