The goal of this dissertation is to identify the elite and non-elite power relationship between the Three Rivers Region primary center, La Milpa, and the small subsidiary center, Ixno'ha, during the Late Classic (A.D. 600 - 830/850). I analyze the domestic landscapes looking specifically at this relationship and how it reflected political change at the Late Classic beginning and end. The domestic landscape includes two parts: 1) the community patterns of house spatial associations to each other, environmental features, public centers, and infrastructure; 2) the household patterns of ceramic choices and house designs. What I found was that La Milpa and Ixno'ha shared many domestic landscape traits with largely similar Late Classic community and household choices. However, those choices shifted with greater similarity at the Late Classic end than the beginning. So, La Milpa elites showed potential influence over non-elite domestic choices during the late Late Classic. However, that influence was not overwhelming, thus suggesting a weakly centralized regional power structure. Moreover, the domestic landscape changes matched the political shifts only at the beginning of the Late Classic. This disparity suggests that non/elite and elite power regional relationships only partially connect to a regional political system. This research is about understanding hierarchical power relationships not just from the top-down elite view but also the bottom-up perspective, the domestic lives of the overall populations.

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The ancient Zapotec city of Monte Albán, in Oaxaca, Mexico, has been a focal point of numerous archaeological studies. It has long been presumed that grave offerings included a number of botanical elements such as maize. Nonetheless, studies of mortuary offerings and public activities have focused on architecture, ceramic assemblages, and human remains—not botanical residues. In this study, I examine botanical remains from vessels and sediment samples collected from mortuary contexts and sites of public rituals to provide novel information on those meaningful rites from three different angles. First, I examine the connections between the use of plants in temporally limited events (rituals) with medium-term phenomena (economic, political, social, etc.) taking place at Monte Albán. This study demonstrates the potential for future paleoethnobotanical studies targeting mortuary contexts and public rituals to provide novel information regarding ancient lifeways and beliefs. Second, in this study, I consider the relationship between botanical mortuary offerings and the social status of interred individuals at the Zapotec site. This allowed me to determine that there were no clear relationships between status of the deceased and plants placed plant offerings. Finally, I examine the relationship between private mortuary rituals and public rituals that took place at Monte Albán’s Main Plaza through the analysis of plant residues. This allows me to examine the key similarities and differences in those rituals that appear to have had different purposes. Indeed, as I argue in the following chapters, mortuary offerings were likely used to create a connection between the living and the dead, while public offerings allowed the inhabitants of Monte Albán to petition gods, spirits, and different supernatural entities. / Thesis / Doctor of Social Science

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This thesis presents an analysis of the Epiclassic and Postclassic period ceramic assemblages from the site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala, Mexico. Almost all of the sherds come from Feature 185, a sheet midden context deposited in c. 1200 CE. During this period, central Mexico was not dominated by a single polity, but the many smaller altepemeh (central Mexican city-states) were tied together economically and culturally. This interconnected system has been described as the Postclassic International World System by Smith and Berdan (2000; 2003). Although La Laguna was a small rural settlement on the periphery of this society, the wares and iconography present in the ceramic assemblage show that its inhabitants were involved with the regional economic and intellectual interactions of the time. I present the assemblage in terms of ware, vessel form, and iconography, and suggest avenues for future research on Postclassic ceramics in Tlaxcala.

During prehispanic times (1250 B.P. - 1521 A.D), Mesoamerica was the most powerful nation in the entire America continent. One of the most important ethnic groups was the Zapotecs located in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Their history started in those days and it has not ended. The ancient Zapotec gave human femora from the dead special treatments. This thesis seeks to understand the cultural meaning of human femora within ancient Zapotec belief systems, especially the cultural meaning when special treatment of femora was involved in mortuary rituals and practices long after the death of the individual. To understand when this practice began, who did it, why they did it, and what was the significance of human femora for the Zapotecs, it was necessary to know where those femora came from, from ancestors or captives. This research included bioanthropological methodologies considering sex, age and minimum number of individuals, to determine if this practice had a pattern, and also observations on whether human femora had cultural and natural taphonomic modifications. The data were collected from publications from Lambityeco, Mitla, Monte Albán and San Miguel Albarradas, Oaxaca. The results demonstrated that ancient Zapotecs used ancestors' remains as part of their rituals, particularly the femur. Therefore we still lack any bioanthropological evidence for Zapotecs taking human captives.

This research examines the mortuary customs of the Oaxaca Barrio, one of the foreign settlements in the ancient city of Teotihuacan. The Oaxaca Barrio is associated with the Zapotec homeland in the state of Oaxaca, southern Mexico (roughly 290 miles); but many questions remain unanswered about its origins and development. The mortuary customs of the Oaxaca Barrio show how Zapotec migrants adapted to living in Teotihuacan over a considerable period of time, maintaining aspects of their homeland identity, but also generating a new cultural repertoire by which members of the enclave redefined themselves. The presence of Zapotec people in Teotihuacan has at least three distinct moments or contexts: its origins in a time of Zapotec expansion (200 B.C), the formal settlement of the Oaxaca Barrio (A.D 100), and much later in time, when the barrio shows a hybridization process with singular characteristics (A.D 300). I address in this research two important questions: Why did Zapotec migrants keep their mortuary traditions? How did migrant identity change over time? To answer these questions I present in five chapters general characteristics of the Oaxaca Barrio, theoretical concepts, and archaeological evidence that support the analysis and discussion developed about this foreign group, and finally its mortuary customs and the relationship with its ethnicity. The Zapotec migration to Teotihuacan is important because social, political, economic and ideological aspects are involved, and this topic is not only useful to archaeological studies (in one of the most important cities in Mesoamerica), also it is helpful to anthropological research about modern migrations, and studies of identity and ethnicity in the contemporary world. In Chapter I, I present a general view of the Oaxaca Barrio in Teotihuacan, the chronology and a brief review of the situation in the Zapotec area and Teotihuacan at the moment of the Oaxaca Barrio's foundation, and a general idea of the mortuary customs in each place; also in this chapter I mention the objectives of this investigation and its limits. Chapter II mentions the main theoretical concepts related with this investigation: ethnicity and hybridization, I also approach the main ideas and hypotheses about the political and social structure in the Oaxaca Barrio. Later in Chapter III, I describe the most important archaeological evidence found in each compound excavated until now in the Oaxaca Barrio, and Chapter IV shows the archaeological record of mortuary customs identified in this foreign settlement; in this section I describe four important and basic elements in the mortuary system: type of burial, offerings and practice of funerary rites, and urns. And finally in Chapter V, I present the discussion of each element, making a comparison with funerary practices and characteristics in the Zapotec area, mainly Monte Alban, and Teotihuacan culture; also in this last chapter I mention how could be the syncretism-hybridization process of this foreign settlement, mainly identified through its funerary customs.

abstract: This dissertation research examines neighborhood socio-spatial organization at Calixtlahuaca, a Postclassic (1100-1520 AD) urban center in highland Mesoamerica. Neighborhoods are small spatial units where residents interact at a face to face level in the process of daily activities. How were Calixtlahuaca's neighborhoods organized socio-spatially? Were they homogenous or did each neighborhood contain a mixture of different social and economic groups? Calixtlahuaca was a large Aztec-period city-state located in the frontier region between the Tarascan and Triple Alliance empires. As the capital of the Maltazinco polity, administrative, ritual, and economic activities were located here. Four languages, Matlazinca, Mazahua, Otomi, and Nahua, were spoken by the city's inhabitants. The combination of political geography and an unusual urban center provides an opportunity for examining complex neighborhood socio-spatial organization in a Mesoamerican setting. The evidence presented in this dissertation shows that Calixtlahuaca's neighborhoods were socially heterogeneous spaces were residents from multiple social groups and classes coexisted. This further suggests that the cross-cutting ties between neighborhood residents had more impact on influencing certain economic choices than close proximity in residential location. Market areas were the one way that the city was clearly divided spatially into two regions but consumer preferences within the confines of economic resources were similar in both regions. This research employs artifact collections recovered during the Calixtlahuaca Archaeological Project surface survey. The consumption practices of the residents of Calixtlahuaca are used to define membership into several social groups in order to determine the socio-spatial pattern of the city. Economic aspects of city life are examined through the identification of separate market areas that relate to neighborhood patterns. Excavation data was also examined as an alternate line of evidence for each case. The project contributes to the sparse literature on preindustrial urban neighborhoods. Research into social segregation or social clustering in modern cities is plentiful, but few studies examine the patterns of social clustering in the past. Most research in Mesoamerica focuses on the clustering of social class. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2015

The amphibian fauna of Mesoamerica is one the most diverse, yet the most endangered in the area, perfectly exemplifying why the region is one of the world biodiversity hotspots. I carried out analyses from three interrelated perspectives: Conservation Genetics, species delimitation and Comparative Phylogeography of two genera of the family Hylidae in most of Mesoamerica: Agalychnis and Dendropsophus. First I performed a species delimitation analysis for the genus Agalychnis, with the specific aim of testing for cryptic diversity within the species A. callidryas, which exhibits wide morphological variation and the uncertainty of whether or not it represents more than one species has not been solved. Secondly, I did a conservation analysis of the genus Agalychnis adopting a comparative approach between endangered and non-endangered species and integrating ecological modelling and genetic information, with the aim of gathering key information for a better management and conservation planning at a regional scale of this genus in particular and Hylid frogs in general. This analysis resulted in the suggestion of short-term alternatives for conservation of critically endangered species and the management of non-endangered species at regional scale. Finally, I applied a comparative phylogeographic analysis between the two genera Agalychnis and Dendropsophus with the general objective of identifying factors and processes underlying species origin and dispersal within Mesoamerica. I proposed hypotheses for the colonization and dispersal of species of these two genera within Mesoamerica, on the basis of genetic data, geographical information, and ecological niche modelling. As part of data gathering for the latter analysis a new country record leading to the considerable extension of the geographical distribution of D. phlebodes is reported.

A much debated and sensationalized aspect of Classic period Maya history pertains to the understanding of the intersections between foodways, agriculture and collapse. Traditional collapse models focusing on large city centers follow the framework of environmental degradation as a result of swidden agriculture and maize monocropping leading to the Classic period Maya collapse. New research utilizing paleoethnobotanical methodologies has begun to create the foundation for a new understanding of collapse. During the Classic period an amalgamation of agricultural methods including agroforestry, homegardens and milpas coupled with a broad range of food crop species such as manioc, arrowroot, sweet potato, lerén, and canna enabled resiliency of Classic period Maya communities. In the Usumacinta River region within the southern Maya lowlands, Budsilha, a smaller secondary political center of Piedras Negras, provides the ideal location to study Classic period subsistence strategies and plant use. The purpose of this study was to determine which plants were consumed and present in the environment during the Classic period and the role of maize in subsistence relative to wild taxa and root crops. Microbotanical analysis of phytoliths and starch grains recovered from artifact residues, human teeth, and sediments provided evidence of diverse subsistence and agricultural practices. Maya people inhabiting Budsilha during the Classic period grew various drought-resistant crops such as manioc, alongside expected crops like maize. These findings have implications for understanding Classic period Maya foodways, plant use, and the framing of Maya societal “collapse”. Understanding how Maya communities were able to sustain large populations during climatic shifts can provide possible solutions for countries undergoing similar stresses today. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Plant residues recovered from the archaeological record, have the potential to provide valuable information about a wide range of human-plant activities. Microscopic botanical residues were extracted from sediments and artifacts recovered from Maya archaeological contexts at the Classic period site of Budsilha, Chiapas, Mexico to track plant use and agricultural production. I targeted phytoliths (fossilized plant cells), and starch grains (a plant’s sugar storage unit) which allow for various plant taxa and species to be identified based on their distinctive morphology. This research contributed to the archaeology of the Maya area by providing new information about plant use and agricultural production. Moreover, mapping plant use during the highly populated and possibly environmentally-stressed Maya lowlands during the Classic Period (250-900 CE) reveals how ancient people were able to sustain large populations. This research can provide new insights into best practices in agriculture and environmental sustainability today.