Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T19:50:16.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Circular Architecture and Symbolic Boundaries in the Mixtec Sierra, Oaxaca

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Laura Finsten ,
Stephen A. Kowalewski ,
Charlotte A. Smith ,
Mark D. Borland  and
Richard D. Garvin
Laura Finsten
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L9, Canada
Stephen A. Kowalewski
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Charlotte A. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Mark D. Borland
Affiliation:
D.R. Poulton & Associates, 429 Wharnecliffe Road S., London, Ontario N6J 2M6, Canada
Richard D. Garvin
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Environmental Studies, University College of the Cariboo, Kamloops, British Columbia V2C 5N3, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Systematic survey of 1,000 km2 in a mountainous zone of the Mixteca Alta in Oaxaca, Mexico, has produced detailed architectural data at a large number of pre-Hispanic settlements. One unusual architectural form, circular stone foundations, apparently dates to the Late Postclassic period. Comparisons to similar architectural forms described in the archaeological and ethnographic literature of Mesoamerica and in the Mixtec codices suggest that they may have been sweatbaths. Analysis of their regional distribution and site contexts leads to interesting conclusions about additional contexts for sweatbath ritual. The symbolic link between royal birth, marriage, and sweatbath ritual is clear in the Mixtec codices. An additional use may have been in rituals affirming community identity and marking community boundaries. We suggest a further connection to the use of sweatbaths in Mixtec toponyms and their association with sacred places on the Mixtec landscape, both of which reflected the importance of marriage alliance and female royal inheritance in the territorial strategies of Postclassic Mixtec kingdoms.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 1996 , pp. 19 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alcina Franch, José, Ruiz, Andrés Ciudad, and de León, Josefa Iglesias Ponce 1980 El “temazcal” en Mesoamérica: Evolución, forma y función. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 10:93–132.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary, and Appel, Jill 1982 Monte Albán's Hinterland, Part I: The Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Central and Southern Parts of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs No. 15. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byland, Bruce E. 1980 Political and Economic Evolution in the Tamazulapan Valley, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Regional Approach. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University. University Microfilms International. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Byland, Bruce E., and Pohl, John M.D. 1987 The Marriage of Twelve-Wind and Three-Flint at White Hill: Pictures, Ruins, and Folklore Reveal a Tenth-Century Mexican Alliance. Thesis: The Magazine of the Graduate School and University Center, CUNY 2(1):10–17.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1946 El temazcal. In México prehispá;nico, pp. 737–741. Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1977 Reyes y reinos de la mixteca, tomos I y II. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico.Google Scholar
Craine, Eugene R., and Reindrop, Reginald C. (editors, and translators) 1970 The Chronicles of Michoacán. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Cresson, Jr., Frank, M. 1938 Maya and Mexican Sweat Houses. American Anthropologist 40:88–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahlgren de Jordan, Barbro 1954 La mixteca: Su cultura e historia prehispánicas. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.Google Scholar
de Montmollin, Olivier 1985 Settlement Pattern Survey in the Rosario Valley, Chiapas, Mexico. Working Papers No. 41. Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge.Google Scholar
de Montmollin, Olivier 1989 Settlement Survey in the Rosario Valley, Chiapas, Mexico. Papers No. 57. New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.Google Scholar
Drennan, Robert D. 1989 The Mountains North of the Valley. In Monte Albán's Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, by Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., Finsten, Laura, Blanton, Richard E., and Nicholas, Linda M., pp. 367–384. Memoirs No. 23. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.Google Scholar
Driver, Harold E. 1969 Indians of North America. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Susan T. 1988 Cihuatecpan: The Village in Its Ecological and Historical Context. In Excavations at Cihuatecpan: An Aztec Village in the Teotihuacán Valley, edited by Evans, Susan T., pp. 1–49. Publications in Anthropology No. 36. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1990 At the Margins of the Monte Albán State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 1:216–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finsten, Laura 1996 Frontier and Periphery in Southern Mexico: The Mixtec Sierra in Highland Oaxaca. In Prehistoric World Systems in the Americas, edited by Peregrine, P.N. and Feinman, G.M.. Prehistory Press, Madison, in press.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1976 Empirical Determinants of Site Catchments in Oaxaca and Tehuacán. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by Flannery, Kent V., pp. 103–117. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fox, John G. 1992 Testing the Boundaries: Ballcourts and Community Interaction in and Beyond Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the 25th Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
Fox, John W. 1981 The Late Postclassic Eastern Frontier of Mesoamerica: Cultural Innovation Along the Periphery. Current Anthropology 22:321–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, John W. 1991 The Lords of Light Versus the Lords of Dark: The Postclassic Highland Maya Ballgame. In The Mesoamerican Ballgame, edited by Scarborough, Vernon L. and Wilcox, David R., pp. 213–238. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Garvin, Richard D. 1994 Modern and Prehistoric Agriculture in the Mixtec Sierra, Oaxaca, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Garza de González, Silvia 1982 La arquitectura en los códices genealógicos. In Las representaciones de arquitectura en la arequeología de América, edited by Schávelzon, Daniel, pp. 241–258. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.Google Scholar
Gillespie, Susan D. 1991 Ballgames and Boundaries. In The Mesoamerican Ballgame, edited by Scarborough, Vernon L. and Wilcox, David R., pp. 317–345. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian, and Cannon, Aubrey 1983 Where the Garbage Goes: Refuse Disposal in the Maya Highlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2:117–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio de 1947 Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del mar oceano. 15 vols. Academia de la Historia, Madrid. Originally published 1601–1615.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., Finsten, Laura, and Blanton, Richard E. 1991 Pre-Hispanic Ballcourts from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. In The Mesoamerican Ballgame, edited by Scarborough, Vernon L. and Wilcox, David R., pp. 25–44. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., Finsten, Laura, Blanton, Richard E., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1989 Monte Albán's Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs No 23. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1928 Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. Indian Notes No. 5. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.Google Scholar
McCafferty, Geoffrey Gene 1992 The Material Culture of Postclassic Cholula, Puebla: Contextual Interpretations of the U A-1 Domestic Compounds. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York, Binghamton. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Nuttall, Zelia 1903 The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans, pt 1. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Nuttall, Zelia 1930 The Round Temples of Mexico and Yucatan. Art and Archaeology XXX(6):229–233.Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie Clews 1936 Mitla, Town of Souls. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Paso y Troncoso, Francisco del 1905–1908 Papeles de Nueva España, segunda série, vols. I and IV. Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, Madrid.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M.D., and Byland, Bruce E. 1994 In the Realm of 8 Deer. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Pollock, H.E.D 1936 Round Structures of Middle America. Publication No. 471. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Rattray, Evelyn C. 1989 El barrio de los comerciantes y el conjunto tlamimilolpa: Un estudio comparativo. Arqueologia 5:105–129.Google Scholar
Ravicz, Robert S. 1965 Organización social de los mixtecos. Instituto Nacional Indigénista. Mexico, DF.Google Scholar
Redmond, Elsa M. 1981 A Fuego y Sangre: Early Zapotec Imperialism in the Cuicatlan Cañada, Oaxaca. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Bernardino de 1975 Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España. 3rd ed. Edited by Garibay K., Angel MariaEditorial Porrúa, Mexico.Google Scholar
SatterthwaiteJr., Linton Jr., Linton 1952 Sweathouses. In Piedras Negras Archaeology: Architecture, pt. V. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Seler, E. 1902–1923 Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur amerikanischen Sprach- und Alterthumskunde. 5 vols. Berlin.Google Scholar
Smith, Charlotte A. 1993 Prehispanic Mixtec Social Organization: The Architectural Evidence. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elizabeth 1973 Picture Writing from Ancient Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1992 Archaeological Research at Aztec-Period Rural Sites in Morelos, Mexico, vol. 1. Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No. 4. Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E., Aguirre, Patricia, Heath-Smith, Cynthia, Hirst, Kathryn, O'Mack, Scott, and Price, Jeffrey 1989 Architectural Patterns at Three Aztec-Period Sites in Morelos, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:185–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1967 The Mixtec Kings and Their People. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1972 An Archaeological Settlement Survey of the Nochixtlán Valley, Oaxaca. Publications in Anthropology No. 1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1974 Marital Alliances in the Political Integration of Mixtec Kingdoms. American Anthropologist 76:297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starr, Frederick 1900 Notes upon the Ethnography of Southern Mexico. Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences VIII. Reprinted by the Putnam Memorial Publication Fund.Google Scholar
Stoll, O. 1886 Guatemala. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Virkki, Niilo 1962 Comentarios sobre el baño de vapor entre los indígenas de Guatemala. Guatemala Indígena 2(2):71–85.Google Scholar
Weigand, Phil C. 1993 Evolución de una civilización prehispánica: Arqueología de Jalisco, Nayarit, y Zacatecas. El Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, Mexico.Google Scholar