In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, various types of political communities, from small city-states to vast empires, emerged and disappeared. The scholars who study the power structures of these communities tend to focus on the strategies of the rulers in a specific region or community. This edited volume takes a different approach to the archeological study of the political strategies in pre-Hispanic Mexico not only by examining complex relationship between rulers and commoners, but also by covering various places and cultural traditions over time, from the pre-Classic to post-Classic periods.
This book can be considered in three parts: an introductory chapter, seven chapters of analysis, and a concluding chapter. In Chapter 1, Sarah Kurnick provides a critical review of previous work on pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican political authority and presents the negotiation of ideological and economic contradictions between rulers and their followers as an alternative approach. According to Kurnick, this framework better explains how rulers maintained political authority—not only by distinguishing themselves from their followers, but also by promoting an identity shared with them. She suggests that the scholars who study political strategies in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica take into consideration multiple levels of negotiations and contentions among rulers and their followers.
One of the book's strengths is that authors of the subsequent chapters do not blindly apply the approach Kurnick proposes in the introduction; indeed, some challenge it. In Chapter 2, Takeshi Inomata argues that Kurnick's theoretical framework for studying political authority was developed in a modern European context and thus cannot be applied to Mesoamerica. Inomata proposes instead a shift of scholarly focus away from the political motivations of the rulers to their practice and performance, a shift he demonstrates in his analysis of a formal ceremonial complex dating from around 950 BCE at Ceibal, Guatemala. In Chapter 3, Arthur A. Joyce and his colleagues look into the reasons that the rulers of the lower Río Verde Valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca at the end of the Formative Period (150 BCE to 250 CE) were unable to build lasting polities. After examining excavated materials and archeological sites, the authors argue that the rulers of Río Viejo emerged as the leading class, but were not able to overcome the conflicts between themselves and local communities.
In Chapter 4, Christopher S. Beekman analyzes ethnographic data and archaeological evidence from the Late Formative to the Early Classic periods to shed light on the political strategies of lineage elders and community authorities in the Tequila valleys of central Jalisco, Mexico. He argues that both groups took advantage of material resources, ritual innovations, and public performance to engage their subjects. Joanne Baron in Chapter 5 focuses on the role that religion plays in legitimizing the authority of rulers. In doing so, she follows the prevalent view of Mayan rulership. At the same time, by applying Kurnick's framework, she demonstrates that the repeated addition of new patron deities and the construction of corresponding temples at La Corona in Guatemala constituted a political strategy by the rulers, one designed to distinguished themselves from the commoners and at the same time create a shared identity.
In Chapter 6, Tatsuya Murakami examines the political roles of bureaucrats at Teotihuacan in relation to urban constructions from ca. 150 to 650 CE. Using as evidence his examinations of archeological sites and excavated materials, Murakami suggests that scholars who study Teotihuacan politics should take into account complex interactions of multiple social groups, such as the ruling class and the bureaucrats. In Chapter 7, Bryce Davenport and Charles Golden study the relationship between landscape and rulership among the Mixteca and the Maya. What they found were not the contradictions in Mesoamerica political authority that Kurnick proposes in Chapter 1 but rather a consistency, as the rulers used their power and authority to demarcate spaces, landscapes, and political boundaries.
In Chapter 8, Helen Perlstein Pollard uses colonial chronicles and archaeological materials to examine the political strategies that the rulers of the Tarascan (or Purepecha) empire applied to maintain their authority. The Tarascan rulers promoted their Chichimec lineage to distinguish themselves from Purepecha commoners and local elites, and they promoted the veneration of Curicaueri, the main Purepecha god (created by a syncretic process of Chichimec and Purepecha religious traditions), to create a shared identity. In the conclusion (Chapter 9), Simon Martin reviews in detail the topics, theories, and practices of the previous chapters; he also contextualizes them in the past, present, and prospective trends in archeological research. Martin links each chapter to the historical evolution of Mesoamerican archeological studies, with hopes that it will contribute to the advancement and innovation of the field. For students and scholars of Mesoamerican archeology, this chapter is especially useful as it serves as a detailed theoretical review of the book from archeological perspectives.
This anthology provides a rich scholarly dialogue among Mesoamerican archeologists whose theoretical views are different or even contradictory. Frequent citations and constructive criticisms among the authors make the book more valuable. A chronological table of Mesoamerican archeology would help students and scholars of other disciplines better understand the book. Nonetheless, the articles collected here provide a rich source of information on pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican history and culture.
