This book is built from the data presented in Chapters 4 through 7. Around this substantive core, Chapters 3 and 8 create an interpretive lens through which three competing models are presented and then evaluated. Chapter 2 lays out an anthropological perspective that employs ethnographic and archaeological data to flesh out the types of behavior that articulate local political organization (in this case the Soconusco) and interaction with societies further afield (such as those on the Gulf Coast). A historical materialist perspective situates the Early and Middle Formative Mesoamerican case study presented here within a broader understanding of emergent complexity.

In this final chapter, I summarize the substantive contributions of the Cuauhtémoc data, tie up some loose ends raised in the course of my discussion and highlight the important transformations in the Soconusco that occurred during Horizons I and II. First, I summarize the demographic, economic, ideological and exchange data from Cuauhtémoc. Next, I discuss how the definition of a knowledge kula operating in an archipelago of complexity helps with an understanding of Horizon I Mesoamerica. I then address the structure of the mother versus sister culture debate and argue that San Lorenzo was an important (if distant) ancestor of later Mesoamerican civilizations.