Late to Terminal Formative period political transformations and their household-level impact at Cerro Jazmín, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca

Verónica Pérez Rodríguez, University at Albany, State University of New York
Antonio Martínez Tuñón, University at Albany, State University of New York
Ricardo Higelín Ponce de León, Indiana University Bloomington

This is the Author’s Original Manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. The version of the record appears here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2018.01.002

Abstract

In the Formative period, Cerro Jazmín, a settlement in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, experimented with different sociopolitical strategies to first consolidate its position as a nascent urban center and later to convey its regional independence. In this article, we investigate whether the sociopolitical changes that took place from the Late Formative to the Terminal Formative period at this settlement are also evident at the household level. The article focuses on a household located on Terrace 131 where our excavations revealed a continuous residential occupation, fluctuating material wealth, and changes in household economic activity. The patterns identified and the timing of these shifts reflected broader socioeconomic changes that took place across the entire polity and region.