Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T02:27:04.412Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of the Marketing System in Aztec Society and Economy: Reply to Evans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael E. Smith
Michael E. Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The major disagreements between Evans and me stem from our very different characterizations of the nature of the Aztec socioeconomic system. Against her picture of a politically controlled, uncommercialized, and fragmented economy I argue for a complex, open, highly commercialized, and integrated economic system. Markets and marketplace trade played a larger role in this system than Evans would allow. From this perspective the central place analysis is elaborated and defended.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 1980 , pp. 876 - 883
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1980

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 Cited

Aguirre Beltran, Gonzalo 1953 Formas de gobierno indigena. Imprenta Universitaria, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1964 Northern Mesoamerica. In Prehistoric man in the New Worid, edited by Jennings, Jesse D. and Edward, Norbeck, pp. 291–330. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1971 Gardens on swamps. Science 174:653–661.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F. 1975 Trade, tribute and market in the Aztec empire. Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F. 1977 Distributive mechanisms in the Aztec economy. In Peasant livelihood: studies in economic anthropologyand cultural ecology, edited by Rhoda, Halperin and James, Dow, pp. 91–101. St. Martin's Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bray, Warwick 1972 The city state in central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. Journal of Latin American Studies 4:161–185.Google Scholar
Bromley, R. D. F., and Bromley, R. J. 1975 The debate on Sunday markets in nineteenth century Ecuador. Journal of Latin American Studies 7:85–108.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth 1976 Specialization and exchange at the late postclassic f Aztec J community of Huexotla, Mexico. Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Calnek, Edward E. 1972 Settlement pattern and chinampa agriculture at Tenochtitlan. American Antiquity 37:104–115.Google Scholar
Calnek, Edward E. 1978 El sistema de mercado de Tenochtitlan. In Economia politico e ideologia en el Mexico prehispdnico, edited by Pedro, Carrasco and Johanna, Broda, pp. 95–112. Editorial Nueva Imagen, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1978 La economia de Mexico prehispanico. In Economia politico e ideologia en el Mexico prehispdnico, edited by Pedro, Carrasco and Johanna, Broda, pp. 13–74. Editorial Nueva Imagen, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Pedro 1980 Markets and merchants in the Aztec economy. Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 11(2). In Press.Google Scholar
Cussell's Spanish Dictionary 1968 edited by Peers, E. A., Barragaa, J. V., Vinyals, Francisco A. and Mora, J. A.. Funk and Wagnall's, New York.Google Scholar
Chapman, Anne C. 1957 Port of trade enclaves in Aztec and Maya civilizations. In Trade and market in the early empires, edited by Karl, Polanyi, Arensberg, Conrad M., and Pearson, Harry W., pp. 114–153. Henry Regnery, Chicago.Google Scholar
Christaller, Walter 1966 Central places in southern Germany, translated by Baskin, C. W.. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs. First published in 1933.Google Scholar
Clavigero, Francisco Janier 1945 Historia antigua de Mexico (volume II). Editorial Porrua, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cortes, Hernan 1971 Letters from Mexico, translated and edited by Pagden, A. R.. Grossman, New York.Google Scholar
Crissman, Lawrence W. 1976 Specific central-place models for an evolving system of market towns on the Changhua plain, Taiwan. In Regional analysis, volume 1: economic systems, edited by Smith, Carol A., pp. 183–218. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Davies, Nigel 1973 The Aztecs: a history. Putnam, New York.Google Scholar
Diaz del Castillo, Bernal 1956 The discovery and conquest of Mexico, translated by Maudslay, Alfred P.. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York.Google Scholar
Duran, Fray Diego 1971 Book of the gods and rites and the ancient calendar, translated and edited by Fernando, Horcasitas and Doris, Heyden. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Durand-Forest, Jacquelin de 1971 Cambios economicos y moneda entre los Aztecas. Estudios de cultura Ndhuat I 9:105–124.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. 1969 The political systems of empires: the rise and fall of the historical bureaucratic societies. Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gibson, Charles 1964 The Aztecs under Spanish rule: A history of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519-1810. Stanford, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Katz, Friedrich 1966 Situacion social y economica de los Aztecas durante los siglos XV y XVI. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Litvak King, Jaime 1971 Cihuatldn y Tepecoacuilco: Provincias tributarios de Mexico en el siglo XVI. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Marshall, John U. 1969 The location of service towns: an approach to the analysis of central place systems. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Motolinia, Fray Toribio 1971 Memorios, o libro de las cosas de la Nueva Espafla y de los nafurales de ella, edited by Edmundo, O'Gorman. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Neale, Walter C. 1971 Monetization, commercialization, market orientation, and market dependence. In Studies in economicanthropology, edited by George, Dalton, pp. 25–29. American Anthropological Association, Anthropological Studies 7.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffrey R. 1976 The role of chinampa agriculture in the food supply of Aztec Tenochtitlan. In Cultural change andcontinuity: essays in honor of James Bennet Griffin, edited by Charles, Cleland, pp. 233–257. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sahagun, Fray Bernardino de 1950 -1969 Florentine Codex, general history of the things of New Spain, translated and edited by Anderson, Arthur J. O. and Dibble, Charles E.. School of American Research and the University of Utah, Santa Feand Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1971 Settlement patterns in central Mexico. In Archaeology of northern Mesoamerica, part 1, edited by Ekholm, Gordon F. and Ignacio, Bernal, pp. 3–44. Handbook of Middle American Indians, edited by Robert, Wauchope, volume 10. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey R., and Santley, Robert S. 1979 The basin of Mexico: ecological processes in the evolution of a civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schneider, Harold K. 1974 Economic man: the anthropology of economics. Free Press/Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Siverts, Henning 1969 Ethnic stability and boundary maintenance in southern Mexico. In Ethnic groups and boundaries, edited by Frederik, Barth, pp. 101–116. Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Skinner, G. William 1964 Marketing and social structure in rural China, part 1. Journal of Asian Studies 24:3–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, G. William 1977 Cities and the hierarchy of local systems. In The city in Late Imperial China, edited by Skinner, G. W., pp. 275–352. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Smith, Carol A. 1974 Economics of marketing systems: models from economic geography. Annual Review of Anthropology 3:167–201.Google Scholar
Smith, Carol A. 1976 Exchange systems and the spatial distribution of elites: the organization of stratification in agrariansocieties. In Regional analysis, volume 2: social systems, edited by Smith, Carol A., pp. 309–374. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Carol A. 1977 How marketing systems affect economic opportunity in agrarian societies. In Peasant livelihood:studies in economic anthropology and cultural ecology, edited by Rhoda, Halperin and James, Dow, pp. 117–146. St. Martin's Press, New York.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1978 The Aztec marketing system in the Valley of Mexico: a regional perspective. Unpublished M. A. paper, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1979a The Aztec marketing system and settlement pattern in the Valley of Mexico: a central place analysis. American Antiquity 44:110–125.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1979b Economic development and the expansion of the Aztec empire: a systems model. Paper presentedat the 78th annual meeting, American Anthropological Association, Cincinnati.Google Scholar
Torquemada, Fray Juan de 1969 Monarquia Indiana [volume II). Editorial Porrua, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969 Zinacantan: a Maya community in the highlands of Chiapas. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Zorita, Alonso de 1963 Life and labor in ancient Mexico [the brief and summary relation of the lords of New Spain), translated by Benjamin, Keen. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.Google Scholar