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Evaluating the Distributional Approach to Inferring Marketplace Exchange: A Test Case from the Mexican Gulf Lowlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Christopher P. Garraty
Christopher P. Garraty*
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402 (cpgarraty@asu.edu)
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Abstract

Over a decade ago Kenneth Hirth (1998, 2000) developed a “distributional approach” for archaeologically inferring the existence of marketplace exchange based on analyses of domestic artifact collections. Domestic collections, he reasoned, will be relatively homogeneous in areas where most or all households rely on marketplace exchange to acquire domestic provisions. The present study evaluates Hirth’s distributional approach using a statistical measure of diversity (heterogeneity) to quantify variability among domestic collection units over a large area. The data for this study come from the Middle Postclassic lower Blanco region of Veracruz (A.D. 1200–A.D. 1350), an unknown context of marketplace exchange. A comparison of diversity scores calculated on surface sherd collections from the lower Blanco region with scores from Late Postclassic Teotihuacan (A.D. 1350–A.D. 1520)—a known context of marketplace exchange—suggests the existence of a marketplace exchange system in the lower Blanco region, likely centered at the town of El Sauce. In addition, changes in intercollection diversity (sherds) and obsidian concentrations with increasing distance from the center suggest El Sauce’s market service area encompassed a radius of approximately six to nine kilometers.

Casi hace una década Kenneth Hirth (1998, 2000) desarrolló su “método distribucional” para deducir arqueológicamente la existencia del intercambio de mercado basada en análisis de las ensambladuras domésticas de artefactos. Las ensambladuras domésticas son relativamentes homogéneos en lugares donde la mayoría de las unidades domésticas dependen del intercambio de mercado para obtener las provisiones domésticas. Este estudio evalúa el método distribucional usando una técnica estadística de diversidad para cuantificar variabilidad entre las ensambladuras domésticas a través de un área grande. Específicamente, se trata de variabilidad entre las ensambladuras de la region del bajo Río Blanco en Veracruz, un contexto desconocido del intercambio de mercado, durante el período posclásico medio (1200–1350 d. C). Una comparación de las estadísticas el período posclásico tarde (1350–1520 d. C), un contexto conocido del intercambio de mercado, sugiere la existencia de intercambio de mercado en la región del bajo Río Blanco, centrada probablemente en el centro de El Sauce. Además, patrones de cambiar en las estadísticas de diversidad y en las concentraciones de obsidiana con el aumento de la distancia del centro sugieren que la área de servicio del mercado abarcara un radio de seis a nueve kilómetros.

Type
Part 2: Themed Section on Mesoamerica
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 157 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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