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Procurement and Distribution of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Obsidian 900 BC–AD 1520: a Social Network Analysis

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Abstract

Ancient economies have been characterized by many researchers as localized, highly controlled by political actors, and static over long periods of time. In Mesoamerica, recent research has cast doubt on these views, with the recognition of early market place exchange, production by households for exchange, and the wide-ranging integration of communities into regional trade networks. Here, we expand on an earlier network analysis of obsidian assemblages from the Maya region during the Classic and Postclassic periods to incorporate data for all of Mesoamerica between 900 BC and AD 1520. Using both visual graphical representations and formal network metrics, we find that the Mesoamerican economy was dynamic and generally not highly centralized over time. The topology of this interactive network underwent significant changes over time. In particular, trends towards decreasing network hierarchy and size culminated in the highly commercialized “international” economy of Late Postclassic period as noted in previous studies. Based on this analysis, we make the case that the ancient Mesoamerican economy was neither predominantly top-down nor static, and so does not conform with oft-held presumptions regarding preindustrial economies.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Tom Brughmans, Barbara Mills, Fiona Coward, and Anna Collar for inviting us to participate in the “Connected Past” session at the 2013 Society for American Archaeology meetings in Honolulu at which an early version of this paper was presented, as well as for their editorial efforts on this special issue of Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. The authors are grateful to Nelly Roblés García, Jorge Ríos Allier, Jaime Vera, Guillermo Ramón Celis, Iván Olguín, and the Centro Regional de Oaxaca for allowing us to study and publish results of archaeological analyses of collections that were made and/or curated by them. Linda Nicholas also has our gratitude for her key role facilitating the sourcing of obsidian samples from the Valley of Oaxaca. We also thank Marilyn Masson, who provided us with unpublished data from Mayapan, and Jeffrey Buechler, who helped us to interpret the chronological assignment of archaeological assemblages from the Petexbatún region. Barbara Mills provided numerous helpful comments on an earlier draft for which we are grateful, as did two anonymous reviewers—any remaining errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors.

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  1. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA

    Mark Golitko & Gary M. Feinman

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Correspondence to Mark Golitko.

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Golitko, M., Feinman, G.M. Procurement and Distribution of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Obsidian 900 BC–AD 1520: a Social Network Analysis. J Archaeol Method Theory 22, 206–247 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-014-9211-1

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