Book contents
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Global developments
- Part II Eurasian commonalities
- Part III Growing interactions
- Part IV Expanding religious systems
- Part V State formations
- 18 State formation and empire building
- 19 State formation in China from the Sui through the Song dynasties
- 20 The Mongol Empire and inter-civilizational exchange
- 21 Byzantium
- 22 Early polities of the Western Sudan
- 23 Mesoamerican state formation in the Postclassic period
- 24 State and religion in the Inca Empire
- 25 “Proto-globalization” and “Proto-glocalizations” in the Middle Millennium
- Index
- References
23 - Mesoamerican state formation in the Postclassic period
from Part V - State formations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Global developments
- Part II Eurasian commonalities
- Part III Growing interactions
- Part IV Expanding religious systems
- Part V State formations
- 18 State formation and empire building
- 19 State formation in China from the Sui through the Song dynasties
- 20 The Mongol Empire and inter-civilizational exchange
- 21 Byzantium
- 22 Early polities of the Western Sudan
- 23 Mesoamerican state formation in the Postclassic period
- 24 State and religion in the Inca Empire
- 25 “Proto-globalization” and “Proto-glocalizations” in the Middle Millennium
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter focuses on the Mesoamerican Postclassic period, c. 700-1519. Archaeological data for Postclassic Mesoamerica is particularly strong for economic phenomena such as agricultural systems, craft production, and long-distance exchange. Most regions of Mesoamerica experienced two major demographic peaks prior to the Spanish conquest. The chapter reviews the nature of Postclassic society and its change in seven key regions of Mesoamerica. It explains the central Mexican highlands, the best-documented region of Postclassic Mesoamerica. The Postclassic period in Mesoamerica was a time of major change and growth in many dimensions, from demography to political organization to economics. Although archaeological coverage is uneven and native historical accounts do not contribute useful information until well into the Late Postclassic period, it is possible to summarize the major processes and changes on a large scale. The chapter describes demographic and agricultural growth, migrations, growth of commercial networks, and writing systems and literacy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 610 - 637Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further reading
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European Hegemony: The World System, A.D. 1250–1350. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Beekman, Christopher S. “Recent Research in Western Mexican Archaeology,” Journal of Archaeological Research 18 (2010): 41–109.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E. and Fargher, Lane F.. Collective Action in the Formation of Pre-Modern States. New York, NY: Springer, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blomster, Jeffrey P., ed. After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2008.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth H. Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Carmack, Robert M. The Quiché Mayas of Utatlan: The Evolution of a Highland Guatemala Kingdom. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Carmack, Robert M., Gasco, Janine and Gossen, Gary H., eds. The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2007.Google Scholar
Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Hall, Thomas D.. Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York, NY: Viking, 2004.Google Scholar
Diamond, Jared and Robinson, James A., eds. Natural Experiments of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P. Lords of the Hills: Ancient Maya Settlement in the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico. Madison, WI: Prehistory Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan T. Ancient Mexico and Central America, 2nd edn. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 2008.Google Scholar
Fargher, Lane F., Expinoza, Verenice Y. Heredia and Blanton, Richard E.. “Alternative Pathways to Power in Late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica,” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30 (2011): 306–26.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M. “Variability in States: Comparative Frameworks,” Social Evolution and History: Studies in the Evolution of Human Societies 7 (2008): 54–66.Google Scholar
Garraty, Christopher P. and Stark, Barbara L., eds. Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2010.Google Scholar
Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810. Stanford University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Hansen, Mogens Herman, ed. A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2002.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G., ed. Archaeological Research at Xochicalco. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Kowalski, Jeff Karl and Kristan-Graham, Cynthia, eds. Twin Tollans: Chichén Itzá, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2008.Google Scholar
Lockhart, James. The Nahuas after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. Stanford University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael. “The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms and Results,” European Journal of Sociology / Archives européennes de sociologie 25 (1984): 185–213.Google Scholar
Mastache, Alba Guadalupe, Cobean, Robert H. and Healan, Dan M.. Ancient Tollan: Tula and the Toltec Heartland. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2002.Google Scholar
McNeil, Cameron L., Burney, David A. and Burney, Lida Pigott. “Evidence Disputing Deforestation as the Cause for the Collapse of the Ancient Maya Polity of Copan, Honduras,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (2010): 1017–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hara, Sarah L., Metcalfe, Sarah E. and Street-Perrott, F. Alayne. “On the Arid Margin: The Relationship between Climate, Humans and the Environment: A Review of Evidence from the Highlands of Central Mexico,” Chemosphere 29 (1994): 965–81.Google Scholar
Oudijk, Michel R. Historiography of the Bènizàa: The Postclassic and Early Colonial Periods (1000–1600 A.D.). Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Universiteit Leiden, 2000.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen Perlstein. Tariacuri's Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Restall, Matthew and Chuchiak, John F. IV. “A Re-evaluation of the Authenticity of Fray Diego De Landa's Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán,” Ethnohistory 49 (2002): 651–70.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. and Rice, Don S., eds. The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in the Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2009.Google Scholar
Sanders, William T., Parsons, Jeffrey R. and Santley, Robert S.. The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. New York, NY: Academic Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Mathews, Peter. The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1998.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. Aztec City-State Capitals. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2008.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. “Aztec Taxation at the City-State and Imperial Levels,” in Monson, Andrew and Scheidel, Walter (eds.), Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. “The Aztlan Migrations of the Nahuatl Chronicles: Myth or History?”, Ethnohistory 31 (1984): 153–86.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. “City Size in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica,” Journal of Urban History 31 (2005): 403–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E. ed. The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. “Tula and Chichén Itzá: Are We Asking the Right Questions?”, in Kowalski, and Kristan-Graham, (eds.), Twin Tollans: Chichén Itzá, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, 579–617.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., eds. The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Stahle, David W., Villanueva-Díaz, José, Burnette, Dorian J., Paredes, Julián Cerano, Heim, Richard Jr, Fye, Falko K., Soto, Rodolfo A., et al. “Major Mesoamerican Droughts of the Past Millennium,” Geophysical Research Letters 38 (2011): 1–4.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. Big Structures, Large Processes, and Huge Comparisons. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1984.Google Scholar
Webster, David. The Fall of the Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of the Maya Collapse. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2005.Google Scholar
Whitmore, Thomas M. and Turner, B. L. II. Cultivated Landscapes of Middle America on the Eve of Conquest. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar