This study demonstrates that by willingly entering a process of peaceful negotiation and consent the indigenous leadership of Teposcolula played a determining role in planning and building their new urbanization on the valley floor, relocating and resettling their community from its pre-Columbian mountain-top redoubt. The effect of changes in the total formal environment on the indigenous mental world is examined using a holistic approach suggested by the interpretation of Focillon and Kubler outlined in the Introduction. Chapter Two provides a highly compressed synthesis of what is known about pre-Columbian Mixtec culture. Chapters Three and Four examine early evangelization in Teposcolula in light of a letter from Domingo de Betanzos, considered here for the first time in English. A mystic tradition in the Dominican Order focused on Passion iconography and emphasizing mental prayer was transmitted into the New World, shaping the nature of the evangelization there. Dominican efforts to implant the practice of distinctly Christian forms of meditation and mental prayer by an architecturally transmitted iconographic program are shown. Architecture was used as a medium for ideological integration, by the friars in the use of the Rosary beads over the arches, and by the indigenous leaders in iconographic elements on the church, fusing and transforming pre-Columbian and Christian meaning. Chapter Five examines of the use of the disk frieze spanning over seven hundred years in pre-Columbian and early colonial architecture. This is the first study ever to explore and interpret the meaning of the disk frieze. The evidence presented supports the case for negotiation and consent in the early colonial period because the continued use of clearly pre-Columbian iconography was permitted. The symbolic use of disk frieze ornament flourished even in <i>conventos</i> built for friars. Chapter Six shows peaceful negotiation and consent in planning and constructing a new urbanization in Teposcolula designed to focus attention and prestige on the new ceremonial center, the <i>capilla de Indios</i>, and on the royal palace directly facing it in a clearly intended ceremonial and symbiotic relationship. / Ph. D.

Numerous historical reports written by Spaniards in the Americas during the Early Colonial Period describe public life. However, less is known about quotidian lives during this period. In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a region encompassing dozens of cultural groups, little is known about the everyday life of Mixtecs and how they reacted towards the newly established Spanish authority in their households. When they arrived at Achiutla, one of the biggest religious centres of ancient Oaxaca (Byland 2008), the Spaniards imposed their power on the public sphere, using religion and economy amongst others (Terraciano 2001:294, 340). My objective is to study the Mixtecs’ reaction to the arrival of Spaniards in the region by using paleoethnobotany to study foodways and how Achiutla’s inhabitants negotiated the arrival of new food items and to what level they accepted, incorporated, and resisted them. This study presents the traditional Mixtec and Spanish foodways and the important role they played in their beliefs, traditions, and identities. I present elements supporting the claim that certain Spaniards might have tried to modify Indigenous foodways in the Americas, while others believed it was preferable for Spaniards and Indigenous people to eat different foods. This study also presents other results obtained in Colonial foodways studies made in the Americas and in the Mixteca Alta region. This study includes the analysis of 27 paleoethnobotanical samples, 22 of them being macrobotanical remains obtained from light fractions and 5 of them coming from microbotanical residues extracted from artifacts. All these samples were collected by Jamie Forde in 2013 at San Miguel Achiutla in the course of the PASMA archaeological project and come mainly from two terraces (10 and 13) likely occupied by Mixtec nobility. By combining samples coming from the Postclassic and the Early Colonial Periods, this study establishes the Mixtec diet prior to the arrival of Europeans in the region, enabling a better comparison between the two. This study supports the idea that the Mixtec diet likely remained the same at Terraces 10 and 13 during the Postclassic and the Early Colonial Periods. Two genera dominate the paleoethnobotanical assemblage: Chenopodium sp. (pazote, apazote) and Amaranthus sp. (huisquelite or quelite), the presence of which demonstrates continuity through times. I assess different scenarios that might explain the absence of European introduced plant species at Achiutla, cautiously presenting a hypothesis linked to Mixtec colonial resistance. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis is a case study about three textile cooperatives made up of women from three indigenous ethnic groups in the Mexican state of Oaxaca: Galvain Cuy (Zapotecs, Teotitlán del Valle community), Jiñi Ñuu (Mixtecs, San Juan Colorado community) and Kee Nshií (Chatino people, Santiago Yaitepec community). Together with other Oaxaca handcraft cooperatives, these are connected with the community firm Color y Cultura, which looks after the sales and promotion of their products. This paper maps the cooperative work of the indigenous women who are involved in handcrafted textile production in the above-mentioned three communities, and how the umbrella firm Color y Cultura residing in Oaxaca de Juárez operates. It examines how these women perceive the cooperative business model and the Color y Cultura community firm, which they are connected with, as well as the advantages and weaknesses of this model of a work organisation. It also treats their ethnic self- perception in relation to their actual handcraft work and the promotion thereof. The membership in Color y Cultura makes it possible for the women in the cooperatives studied to avoid dealing with a middleman thanks to its brick and mortar shop in Oaxaca. This brings them a higher profit, creative freedom and direct contact with the customer....

As the focus of over 70 years* of archaeological research, Oaxaca, Mexico, is one of Mesoamerica*s best understood regions. Yet, despite the volume of work in Oaxaca, information about one of its key resource areas, the central Pacific coast, remains limited. Specifically, the ambiguous role of Oaxaca*s Central Coast in interregional relationships during pre-Hispanic times to the sites of Monte Alban and Tututepec has been a chronic problem and major source of debate for decades. The purpose of this thesis is to begin clarifying the role of Oaxaca*s Central Coast in interregional networks and its pre-Hispanic history. Analysis utilized surface observations, surface collections, and information from limited excavations performed by the Proyecto Arqueologico Laguna de Manialtepec (PALM) in the Manialtepec Basin, located on the Central Coast of Oaxaca. The data was then mapped using ArcGIS software to render settlement and artifact patterns. Based on the results of this project I suggest a history of settlement for this area. I also argue that the Basin contained three centers, maintained interregional interactions, and was invaded by the Mixtecs of highland Oaxaca during the Late Postclassic Period (A.D. 1200-1500).