Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Household Intensification and Agrarian States: Excavation of a House and Terraced Field in a Mixtec Cacicazgo

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Veronica Perez Rodriguez女士将在墨西哥瓦哈卡州的Mixteca Alta地区进行考古和民族历史研究。米斯特卡阿尔塔是墨西哥南部的一个山区，以其前西班牙晚期的cacicazgos或王国而闻名。该项目将研究后古典米斯特克社会（公元800-1521年）的经济、社会分层和农业集约化。古代米斯特克人通过建造梯田和加强农业生产来适应山区环境，这些方式在许多世纪中都是可持续的；历史记载表明，平民在这些梯田上劳作，但对他们的生活或在集约化农业生产中的作用知之甚少。学者们通常将农业集约化解释为对人口增长的回应，或者是精英和国家的需求。Perez Rodriguez女士的研究采用了“自下而上”的视角，考察了生产粮食的普通家庭及其在集约化农业生产体系中的作用。米斯特克王朝的历史记载了政治的兴衰。但真正长期支持米斯特克社会的是普通家庭稳定的农业生产。几个世纪以来，米斯特克农业生产是如何组织和维持的？生产粮食的普通家庭如何为集约化农业生产体系做出贡献？对今天的人口增长和环境退化问题有什么教训？本研究将探讨生产粮食的普通家庭可以自主指导集约化农业生产的Mixtec系统的命题。佩雷斯·罗德里格斯女士将绘制、调查和挖掘米斯特克后古典遗址——尼卡尤胡——一个人口密集的山顶梯田遗址，周围环绕着仍然存在的前西班牙农业梯田。测绘和调查数据将用于确定普通住宅职业和其他挖掘区域。对住宅和农业梯田的挖掘将提供有关梯田建设的信息，并将确定平民是否居住在这些梯田上或对这些梯田拥有用益权。在挖掘出的居住区中，职业的连续性将支持这样一种假设，即普通家庭可以创造并自我指导集约化农业生产。与家庭劳动力逐渐增加相一致的农业梯田建设（即家庭通过占领和使用农业梯田及相关住宅区来确保其权属权利）将提供进一步的支持。佩雷斯·罗德里格斯女士将在墨西哥城的州和国家档案馆研究殖民时期的文件，得出一个关于前西班牙农业生产、土地使用和土地使用权的民族历史模型，该模型将用于解释挖掘结果。这项研究很重要，因为它将为国家在创建和实施集约化农业生产中的作用提供数据。它将探讨可持续集约化农业系统可能起源于家庭一级的倡议和决策的可能性，而这些倡议和决策只能来自对当地环境的非常深入的了解。这项研究将是对瓦哈卡州后古典时期平民家庭和附近农业梯田的第一次系统挖掘。研究结果将为梯田可持续性和侵蚀控制提供时间-深度视角；并将产生关于农业集约化的社会组织和粮食生产阶级的数据。

With National Science Foundation support Ms. Veronica Perez Rodriguez will conduct archaeological and ethnohistorical research in the Mixteca Alta region, Oaxaca, Mexico. The Mixteca Alta is a mountainous region in southern Mexico, known for its late prehispanic cacicazgos or kingdoms. This project will study economy, social stratification, and agricultural intensification in Postclassic Mixtec society (AD 800-1521). The ancient Mixtec adapted to their mountainous environment by building terraces and intensifying agricultural production in ways that were sustainable over many centuries; historical accounts suggest that the commoners worked these terraces, but little else is known about their lives or roles in intensive agricultural production. Scholars usually explain agricultural intensification as a response to population growth, or the demands of elites and the state. Ms. Perez Rodriguez's study takes a "bottom up" perspective by looking at the food-producing commoner households and their role in the system of intensive agricultural production. Mixtec dynastic history contains accounts of political rises and falls. But what actually supported Mixtec society over the long term was the stable agricultural production of commoner households. How was Mixtec agricultural production organized and sustained over centuries? How did food-producing commoner households contribute to the system of intensive agricultural production? What lessons are there for today's issues of population growth and environmental degradation? This study will investigate the proposition that food-producing commoner households could have self-directed the Mixtec system of intensive agricultural production. Ms. Perez Rodriguez will map, survey, and excavate a Postclassic Mixtec site-Nicayuhu-a densely populated hilltop terraced site surrounded by still-standing prehispanic agricultural terraces. Mapping and survey data will be used to identify commoner residential occupations and other areas for excavation. Excavations in residential and agricultural terraces will provide information on terrace construction and will determine whether commoners lived on or had usufruct rights over these terraces. Continuity of occupation in the excavated residential area would support the hypothesis that commoner households could have created and self-directed intensive agricultural production. Agricultural terrace construction that was consistent with gradual accretion by household labor (i.e., households secured their tenure rights through occupation and use of agricultural terraces and associated residential areas) would lend further support. Ms. Perez Rodriguez will study Colonial documents at State and National archives in Mexico City to derive an ethnohistorical model of prehispanic agricultural production, land use, and land tenure that will be used to interpret the excavation results.This research is important because it will provide data on the role of the state in the creation and implementation of intensive agricultural production. It will explore the possibility that sustainable intensive agricultural systems may have originated from household-level initiatives and decision-making that can only come from very intimate knowledge of the local environment. This study would be the first systematic excavation of Postclassic commoner households and nearby agricultural terraces in the state of Oaxaca. The results will provide a time-depth perspective to measure terracing sustainability and erosion control; and will generate data on the social organization of agricultural intensification and the food-producing class.