This research project analyzes 5 middens from the Lower Rio Verde valley sites of Río Viejo and Yugüe, Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Terminal Formative period (150 BC to AD 250). The middens are analyzed to further our understanding of socio-political events in public spaces at both sites during this time. The study suggests a greater distinction in use of public spaces between the two sites than within Río Viejo. Frameworks established by Dietler and Hayden for the analysis of feasts do not seem to apply well to the middens analyzed here. Although I argue that evidence from Rio Viejo's middens does not dispute the viability of previous arguments regarding Terminal Formative Río Viejo ritual authorities', potentially elites, efforts to create regional-scale political affiliations, the level to which middens at Río Viejo are evidence of “scaled-up” versions of local practices at outlying sites is inconclusive. Though there is potential for larger feasts at Río Viejo, taken alone the Yugüe midden appears larger. The Río Viejo middens demonstrate greater likelihood for the diminished conspicuousness of status differentiation during the associated events.