This paper examines ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence of Inka imperial strategies for controlling resources and people in the Titicaca Basin and the coastal valleys of southern Peru and northern Chile, and suggests that Inka imperial policies were adapted to meet local conditions in a series of dynamic political and economic interactions. In the coastal region between the Tambo Valley of southern Peru and the Azapa Valley of northern Chile, Inka policies included, variously, the resettlement of labor colonists (mitmaqkuna), the direct incorporation of coastal groups, and the maintenance of alliances with autonomous coastal elites. Altiplano elites exploited the imperial system to extend their own networks of colonization and exchange. Recent archaeological surveys in the Ilo-Ite coastal region, as well as unpublished data collected by Gary Vescelius between 1958 and 1960, indicate that the Inka developed more direct control of the south-central coast than earlier polities had achieved, but that imperial control over this region was limited and influenced by the persistence of autonomous coastal groups. Groups around Ilo remained fairly independent, while parts of the Tambo and Sama valleys and the Quebrada Tacahuay were brought under direct imperial control.

For any particular historical circumstance, explanations of ceramic evolution should consider the performance characteristics of pottery vessels in their behavioral contexts, as well as the varying effects of evolutionary processes operating at different social, spatial, and temporal scales. The replacement of tempered black and differentially fired serving vessels by fine-paste wares during the Formative to Classic transition in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico illustrates these points. New radiocarbon assays from the Bezuapan site document the rapidity of this transition. Evaluation of visual performance characteristics and contextual associations suggest that the Tuxtlas fine-paste tradition began as a Late Formative prestige technology. Adoption of updraft kilns in the Terminal Formative period lowered the risk of firing losses and allowed savings in paste preparation and resource procurement costs to be realized. As a result, the fine-paste tradition spread to wider segments of society, ultimately replacing earlier traditions. A volcanic eruption at the close of the Formative period and subsequent immigration of Central Mexican settlers constituted evolutionary sorting mechanisms, which perturbed general trends in ceramic evolution within a restricted area of the central Tuxtlas.

This analysis uses flaked stone artifacts to gain insight into the social and economic structure of the Casas Grandes region, northern Chihuahua, Mexico. It begins by considering the intrasite variation in flaked stone reduction at Galeana, a large site near the modern town of Galeana. The analysis of debitage and cores from Galeana indicates that the assemblage is primarily the product of hard hammer, generalized reduction of locally available materials. Differences within the assemblage indicate the presence of spatially distinct reduction areas, with initial core reduction occurring in open areas, and then continuing in room blocks. We then compare the Galeana assemblage with the flaked stone assemblage from the site of Paquimé (Casas Grandes), Chihuahua. The analysis indicates that the reduction technique employed at both sites is similar, but that the Paquimé assemblage is characterized by a greater proportion of cryptocrystaline silicates and obsidian than the Galeana assemblage. Furthermore, much of the raw material from Paquimé does not appear to be locally available. We conclude that the prehistoric inhabitants of Paquimé had greater access to cryptocrystaline silicates and obsidian acquired through trade than did the inhabitants of Galeana. This evidence indicates that the economic pattern evident at Paquimé did not extend to Galeana and supports the idea that Paquimé's economic and political influence over other Casas Grandes sites was limited beyond a 30-km radius.

Off-mound excavations at a residential group near the site of Dos Hombres, Belize have revealed a series of unusual modifications to the limestone bedrock. The primary purpose of these modifications appears to have been to facilitate drainage of excess surface and subsurface moisture during periods of heavy rain. By utilizing a variation of lithic mulching in the soil, however, the Maya also may have been able to slow the loss of moisture through evaporation during lengthy dry periods. We suggest that these finds reflect soil and water management in house-lot gardening, and that these measures were necessary to overcome localized geologic, pedologic, and regional climatologic conditions. The use of such a drainage system together with gravel fill at the household level is previously unreported in the Maya Lowlands, and represents an important line of inquiry into gardens as ancient agricultural production systems.