Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qlrfm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T23:19:01.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Mixtec Landscape Perception and Archaeological Settlement Patterns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

John M.D. Pohl
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Bruce E. Byland
Affiliation:
Lehman College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Abstract

We argue that a regional analysis which combines ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological Information can both discover and employ indigenous cultural ideals in a study of changing settlement Systems. Use of archaeological survey of the valleys of Tilantongo and Jaltepec in conjunction with the historical documentation in the Mixtec codices has allowed us to identify several ways in which ideals of landscape perception were encoded in the codices. This, in turn, allows an enhanced political and social discussion of both the changing patterns of settlement observed archaeologically and the purpose and meaning of the codices. We suggest that the codices, as a form of historical mapping, were produced to recount the common history of several closely interacting elite domains, the Postclassic Mixtec kingdoms of the southern Nochixtlan Valley and their neighbors.

Type
Special Section: Rethinking Mixtec Codices
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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

Acuña, René 1984 Relaciones Geográficas del Siglo XVI: Antequera, tomo segundo. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.Google Scholar
Alvarado, Fray Francisco de 1962/1593 Vocabulario en Lengua Mixteca. Facsimile edition with a study by Wigberto Jiménez Moreno, Institute Nacional In-digenista and Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Arana, Evangelina and Swadesh, Mauricio 1965 Los Elementes del Mixteco Antigua. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Barlow, Robert 1949 The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexico. Ibero-Americana, no. 28. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard 1978 Monte Albán: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotec Capital. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bohannan, Paul 1954 The Migration and Expansion of the Tiv. Africa 24:216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgoa, Francisco de 1934 Geográfia Descripción, vols. 1 and 2. Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación, vols. XXV–XXVI, Mexico.Google Scholar
Byland, Bruce 1980 Political and Economic Evolution in the Tamazulapan Valley, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Regional Approach. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, University Microfilms 8107545.Google Scholar
Byland, Bruce, and Pohl, John 1986 Preliminary Report on Tilantongo. Report to Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Byland, Bruce, and Pohl, John 1990a In the Realm of Eight Deer: The Archaeology ofthe Mixtec Codices. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, in press.Google Scholar
Byland, Bruce, and Pohl, John 1990b Preliminary report on Jaltepec. Report to Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico, in preparation.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1938 Exploraciones en Oaxaca: Quinta y Sexta Temporadas 1936–1937. Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, Tacubaya, Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1949 El mapa de Teozacoalco. Cuadernos Americanos 8(5):145181.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1960 Interpretation of the Codex Bodley. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1962 Vocabularío sacado del “Arte en Lengua Mixteca” de Fr. Antonio de los Reyes. Included with Vocabulario en Lengua Mixteca. Facsimile edition with a study by Wigberto Jiménez Moreno, by Fray Francisco de Alvarado. Instituto National Indigenista and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1964 Interpretation ofthe Codex Seiden. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1966 Interpretation of the Codex Colombino. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico.Google Scholar
Castellanos, Abraham 1910 El Rey Lukano y los Hombres de Oriente. A. Carranza e Hijos, Mexico.Google Scholar
Clark, James Cooper 1912 The Story of “Eight Deer” in Codex Colombino. Taylor and Francis, London.Google Scholar
Doxiadis, Constantinos 1968 Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ericson, J.E., and Earle, T.K. 1982 Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Furst, Jill L. 1978 Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I: A Commentary. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Glass, John B. 1975 A Survey of Native Middle American Pictorial Manuscripts. In Handbook of Middle American Indiens, vol. 14, Wauchope, R., general editor, pp. 380. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Haggett, Peter 1972 Geography: A Modern Synthesis. Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Hodder, Ian, and Orton, Clive 1976 Spatial Analysis in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Hunt, Eva 1977 The Transformation of the Hummingbird: Cultural Roots of a Zinacantan Mythical Poem. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.Google Scholar
Jansen, Maarten 1982 Huisi Tacu: Estudio Interpretativo de un Libro Mixteco Antiguo: Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I. Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika, vols. 24–25, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Jansen, Maarten, and Winter, Marcus 1980 Un Relieve de Tilantongo, Oaxaca, del Año 13 Buho. Antropología e Historia: Boletin del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 3a epoca 30:319.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, Steven, Feinman, Gary, Finsten, Laura, Blanton, Richard, and Nicholas, Linda 1989 Monte Albán's Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlan, The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Memoirs 23, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehmann, Walter 1966 Las Cinco Mujeres del Oeste Muertas en el Parto y los Cinco Dioses del Sur en Mitología Mexicana. In Traducciones Mesoamericanistas, vol. 1, pp. 147175. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico.Google Scholar
Lind, Michael 1977 Mixtec Kingdoms in the Nochixtlan Valley: A Preconquest to Postconquest Archaeological Perspective. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, University Microfilms 7718594.Google Scholar
Nowotny, Karl Anton 1961 Tlacuilloli, Die Mexikanische bilderhandschriften. Sil und Inhalt. Mit Einem Katalog der Codex Borgia-Gruppe. Ibero-Amerikanische Bibliotek, Berlin.Google Scholar
Nuttall, Zelia 1902 Codex Nuttall. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Plog, Fred T. 1974 The Study of Prehistoric Change. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Pohl, John 1984 The Earth Lords: Politics and Symbolism of the Mixtec Codices. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, University Microflims 8505662.Google Scholar
Rabin, Emily 1974 Some Problems of Chronology in the Mixtec Historical Manuscripts, Part I. Paper presented at the 1974 International Congress of Americanists, Mexico.Google Scholar
Rabin, Emily 1976 Some Problems of Chronology in the Mixtec Historical Manuscripts, Part II. Paper presented at the 1976 Cambridge Symposium on Recent Research in Mesoamerican Archaeology, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Rabin, Emily 1979 The War of Heaven in Codices Zouche-Nuttall and Bodley: A Preliminary Study. In Actas of the XLII International Congress of Americanists, vol. VII, pp. 173182.Google Scholar
Ravicz, Robert, and Romney, Kimball 1969 The Mixtec. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 7, pp. 367399, Wauchope, R., general editor. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Reyes, Antonio de los 1976/1593 Arte en Lengua Mixteca…. Facsimile of 1593 edition published as Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology 14, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Sack, Robert 1980 Conceptions of Space in Social Thought: A Geographical Perspective. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sell, James, Taylor, Jonathan, and Zube, Ervin 1984 Toward a Theoretical Framework for Landscape Perception. In Environmental Perception and Behavior: An Inventory and Prospect, edited by Saaringen, T., Seamon, D., and Sell, J., pp. 6183. The University of Chicago Department of Geography Research Paper no. 209, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elizabeth 1973a Picture Writing from Ancient Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elizabeth 1973b The Relationship Between Mixtec Manuscript Painting and the Mixtec Language. In Mesoamerican Writing Systems, edited by Benson, E.. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elizabeth 1983 Codex Seiden: A Manuscript from the Valley of Nochixtlan? In The Cloud People, edited by Flannery, K. and Marcus, J., pp. 238245. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Spinden, Herbert J. 1935 Indian Manuscripts of Southern Mexico. Annual Report ofthe Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1933, pp. 429–451. Washington, DC.Google 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 Nochixtlan Valley, Oaxaca. Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology No. l, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1974 Marital Alliance in the Political Integration of Mixtec Kingdoms. American Anthropologist 76:297311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spores, Ronald 1984 The Mixtecs in Ancient and Colonial Times. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, Vincas 1981 Settlement Hierarchies and Political Complexity in Nonmarket Societies: The Formative Period of the Valley of Mexico. American Anthropologist 83:320363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troike, Nancy 1974 The Codex Colombino-Becker. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London.Google Scholar
Troike, Nancy 1978 Nourish, Sustain, Invoke, and Remember: Salute to the Creation and Destruction of the World. Paper delivered at the 1978 meeting of the American Society of Ethnohistory, Austin, TX.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon 1953 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Viru Valley, Peru. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 155. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Winter, Marcus 1989 Oaxaca: The Archaeological Record. Minutiae Mexicana, Mexico City, Mexico.Google Scholar