Abstract
The last 20 years have seen advances in the understanding of city-states, especially in ancient Greece, where textual information fuels new theories about institutions and the ancient economy. Archaeological research makes significant contributions with data comparable across multiple city-states on settlement patterns, urban and rural development, political and ritual activities, and other materializations of institutionalized behavior. Using a new corpus of 74 city-states from Oaxaca, Mexico, I show that city-states differ from one another in patterned ways, and I argue that this variation depends on internal factors such as the social mode of production and external factors including place in regional and interregional exchange.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References Cited
Acheson, J. M. (2015). Private land and common oceans: Analysis of the development of properly regimes. Current Anthropology56: 28–55.
Aguirre Beltrán, G. (1967). Regiones de refugio: El desarrollo de la comunidad y el proceso dominical en mestizo América, Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Mexico.
Alcock, S., Berlin, A. M., Harrison, A. B., Heath, S., Spencer, N., and Stone, D. L. (2005). Pylos regional archaeological project, part vii: Historical Messenia, Geometric through Late Roman. Hesperia74: 147–209.
Appel, J. (1986). A central place analysis of Classic and Late Postclassic settlement patterns in the Valley of Oaxaca. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement2: 375–418.
Archibald, Z. H., Davies, J. K., and Gabrielsen, V. (eds.) (2011). The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries BC, Oxford University Press, Oxford
Árnason, J. P., Raaflaub, K. A., and Wagner, P. (eds.) (2013). The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-Cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK.
Balkansky, A. K. (2002). The Sola Valley and the Monte Albán State: A Study of Zapotec Imperial Expansion, Memoir No. 36, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Bang, P. F., and Scheidel, W. (eds.) (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, New York.
Beckert, S. (2014). Empire of Cotton: A Global History, Knopf, New York.
Berdan, F. F., Blanton, R. E., Boone, E. H., Hodge, M. G., Smith, M. E., and Umbarger, E. (eds.) (1996). Aztec Imperial Strategies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.
Bernal, I. (1966). Ruinas de Santo Domingo, Oaxaca. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Boletín24: 8–12.
Bernal, I., and Gamio, L. (1974). Yagul: El palacio de los seis patios, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.
Blanton, R. E. (1978). Monte Albán: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotec Capital, Academic Press, New York.
Blanton, R. E., and Fargher, L. F. (2008). Collective Action in the Formation of Pre-Modern States, Springer, New York.
Blanton, R. E., with Fargher, L. F. (2016). How Humans Cooperate: Confronting the Challenges of Collective Action, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Blanton, R. E., Fargher, L. F., and Heredia Espinoza, V. Y. (2005). The Mesoamerican world of goods and its transformations. In Blanton, R. (ed.), Settlement, Subsistence, and Social Complexity: Essays Honoring the Legacy of Jeffrey R. Parsons, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, pp. 260–294.
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., and Appel, J. (1982). Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part I: The Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Central and Southern Parts of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Memoir No. 15, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor.
Bonfil Batalla, G. (1987). El México profundo, una civilización negada, Editorial Grijalbo, Mexico.
Bresson, A. (2016). The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy: Institutions, Markets, and Growth in the City-States, Rendall, S. (trans.), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Brownstone, A. (ed.) (2015). The Lienzo of Tlapiltepec: A Painted History from the Northern Mixteca, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Byland, B. E. (1980). Political and Economic Evolution in the Tamazulapan Valley, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México: A Regional Approach, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Byland, B. E., and Pohl, J. M. D. (1994). In the Realm of Eight Deer: The Archaeology of the Mixtec Codices, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. (2017). Caracol, Belize, and changing perceptions of ancient Maya society. Journal of Archaeological Research25: 185–249.
Coase, R. H. (1937). The nature of the firm. Economica4: 386–405.
Cornell, T. J. (2000). The city-states in Latium. In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 209–228.
Creekmore III, A. T., and Fisher, K. D. (eds.) (2014). Making Ancient Cities: Space and Place in Early Urban Societies, Cambridge University Press, New York.
de Vries, J., and van der Woude, A. (1997). The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1821, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dijkman, J. (2011). Shaping Medieval Markets: The Organization of Commodity Markets in Holland, c. 1200–c. 1450, Brill, Leiden.
Eggan, F. (1954). Social anthropology and the method of controlled comparison. American Anthropologist56: 743–763.
Estrada-Belli, F., and Tokovinine, A. (2016). A King’s apotheosis: Iconography, text, and politics from a Classic Maya temple at Holmul. Latin American Antiquity27: 149–168.
Fargher, L. F., Heredia Espinoza, V. Y., and Blanton, R. E. (2011). Alternative pathways to power in Late Postclassic highland Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology30: 306–326.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (2004). Hilltop Terrace Sites of Oaxaca, Mexico: Intensive Surface Survey at Guirún, El Palmillo, and the Mitla Fortress, Fieldiana Anthropology, n.s. No. 37, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (2013). Settlement Patterns of the Ejutla Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Diachronic Macroscale Perspective, Fieldiana Anthropology, n.s. No. 43, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.
Finley, M. I. (1999). The Ancient Economy, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Finsten, L. M. (1983). The Classic-Postclassic Transition in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: A Regional Analysis of the Process of Political Decentralisation in a Prehistoric Complex Society, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
Finsten, L. M. (1996). Periphery and frontier in southern Mexico: The Mixtec Sierra in highland Oaxaca. In Peregrine, P. N., and Feinman, G. M. (eds), Pre-Columbian World-Systems, Monographs in World Archaeology No. 26, Prehistory Press, Madison, WI, pp. 77–96.
Flannery, K. V. (1983). Precolumbian farming in the Valleys of Oaxaca, Nochixtlán, Tehuacán, and Cuicatlán: A comparative study. In Flannery, K. V., and Marcus, J. (eds.), The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations, Academic Press, New York, pp. 323–339.
Foias, A. E., and Emery, K. F. (eds.) (2012). Motul de San José: Politics, History, and Economy in a Classic Maya Polity, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Forsén, B. (2002). Was there a southwest German city-state culture? In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 91–106.
Garfinkle, S. (2013). Ancient Near Eastern city-states. In Bang, P. F., and Scheidel, W. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 120–160.
Garvin, R. D. (1994). Modern and Prehispanic Agriculture in the Sierra Mixteca, Oaxaca, Mexico, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary.
Gat, A. (2002). Why city-states existed? Riddles and clues of urbanisation and fortifications. In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 125–139.
Gaydarska, B. (2016). The city is dead! Long live the city! Norwegian Archaeological Review49: 40–57.
Gerhard, P. (1993). A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Golitko, M., and Feinman, G. M. (2015). Procurement and distribution of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican obsidian 900 BC–AD 1520: A social network analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory22: 206–246.
Graña-Behrens, D. (2018). New evidence for political hierarchy and power in the northern Maya lowlands (AD 600–1000). Ancient Mesoamerica29: 171–195.
Grube, N. (2000). The city-states of the Maya. In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 547–566.
Håkansson, N. T., and Widgren, M. (eds.) (2014). Landesque Capital: The Historical Ecology of Enduring Landscape Modifications, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
Hansen, M. H. (ed.) (2000). A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen.
Hansen, M. H. (2002). Introduction. In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 7–21.
Hansen, M. H. (2003). 95 theses about the Greek polis in the Archaic and Classical periods. Historia52: 257–282.
Hansen, M. H. (2006). Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Harris, E. M., Lewis, D. M., and Woolmer, M. (eds.) (2016). The Ancient Greek Economy: Markets, Households, and City-States, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Helmke, C., and Awe, J. (2012). Ancient Maya territorial organisation of central Belize: Confluence of archaeological and epigraphic data. Contributions in New World Archaeology4: 59–90.
Heredia Espinoza, V. Y., and Chamblee, J. F. (2013). La economía del Posclásico Tardío en la Mixteca Alta central: Una aplicación de modelos espaciales. In Chávez Torres, M., and Checa Artasu, M. (eds.), El espacio en las ciencias sociales: Geografía, interdisciplinaridad, y compromiso, Vol. 1, El Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, Mexico, pp. 233–260.
Hirth, K. G. (2003). The altepetl and urban structure in prehispanic Mesoamerica. In Sanders, W. T., Mastache, A. G., and Cobean, R. H. (eds.), Urbanism in Mesoamerica, Vol. 1, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico, and Pennsylvania State University, University Park, pp. 57–84.
Hirth, K. G. (2016), The Aztec Economic World: Merchants and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, Cambridge University Press, New York
Hodge, M. G. (1984). Aztec City-States, Memoir No. 18, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Hodge, M. G. (1997). When is a city-state: Archaeological measures of Aztec city-states and Aztec city-state systems. In Nichols, D. L., and Charlton, T. H. (eds.), The Archaeology of City-States: Cross-Cultural Approaches, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 209–228.
Holmes, W. H. (1897). Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico: Part II, Monuments of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and the Valley of Mexico, Anthropological Series Vol. 1, No. 1, Field Columbian Museum, Chicago.
Hopkins III, J. W. (1984). Irrigation & the Cuicatec Ecosystem: A Study of Agriculture & Civilization in North Central Oaxaca, Memoir No. 17, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Hunt, E. (1972). Irrigation and the socio-political organization of the Cuicatec cacicazgos. In Johnson, F. (ed.), The Prehistory of the Tehuacán Valley, Vol. 4: Chronology and Irrigation, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 162–248.
Hunt, R. C., and E. Hunt (1976). Irrigation, conflict, and politics: A Mexican case. In Downing, T., and M. Gibson (eds.), Irrigation’s Impact on Society, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 129–157.
Hutson, S. R. (ed.) (2017) Ancient Maya Commerce: Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Jennings, J., and Earle, T. (2016). Urbanization, state formation, and cooperation. Current Anthropology57: 474–493.
Johanek, P. (2000). Imperial and free towns of the Holy Roman Empire—city-states in pre-modern Germany? In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 295–320.
Joyce, A. A., Workinger, A. G., Hamman, B., Kroefges, P., Oland, M., and King, S. M. (2004). Lord Eight Deer (Jaguar Claw) and the Land of the Sky: The archaeology and history of Tututepec. Latin American Antiquity15: 273–297.
Kirkby, A. V. T. (1973). The Use of Land and Water Resources in the Past and Present Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Memoir No. 5, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Kirkby, M. (1972). The Physical Environment of the Nochixtlán Valley, Oaxaca, Publications in Anthropology No. 2, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Kowalewski, S. A. (2011). La lógica de la investigación antropológica. In Williams, E., and Weigand, P. (eds.), Patrones de asentamiento y actividaders de subsistencia en el Occidente de México: Reconocimiento a la Doctora Helen P. Pollard, Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, Mexico, pp. 383–395.
Kowalewski, S. A. (2016). It was the economy, stupid. In Fargher, L. F., and Heredia Espinoza, V. Y. (eds.), Alternative Pathways to Complexity: A Collection of Essays on Architecture, Economics, Power, and Cross-Cultural Analysis in Honor of Richard E. Blanton, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, pp. 15–40.
Kowalewski, S. A. (2018). Economic institutions in ancient Greece and Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the 83rd annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC.
Kowalewski, S. A., Balkansky, A. K., Stiver Walsh, L. R., Pluckhahn, T. J., Chamblee, J. F., Pérez Rodríguez, V., Heredia Espinoza, V. Y., and Smith, C. A. (2009). Origins of the Ñuu: Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Mexico, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Kowalewski, S. A., Barba Pingarrón, L., Blancas Vázquez, J., Cortés Vilchis, M. Y., García Ayala, G., López Zárate, J. L., Ortiz Butrón, A., Pluckhahn, T. J., Steere, B. A., and Vilchis Flores, B. (2011). Dos ciudades prehispánicas en Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca. Cuadernos del Sur16: 93–111.
Kowalewski, S. A., Brannan, S. P., Cortés Vilchis, M. Y., Diego Luna, L., García Ayala, G., López Zárate, J. L., Méndez Sobel, F., Stiver Walsh, L. R., Turck, E. B., Turck, J. A., and Vepretskiy, S. (2017). Regional archaeology and local interests in Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca. Latin American Antiquity28: 353-372.
Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M., Finsten L., Blanton, R. E., and Nicholas, L. M. (1989). Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, Memoir No. 23, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
LeCount, L. J., and Yeager, J. (eds.) (2010), Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and its Hinterlands, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Lees, S. H. (1973). Sociopolitical Aspects of Canal Irrigation in the Valley of Oaxaca, Memoir No. 6, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Le Roy Ladurie, E. (1979). Carnival in Romans, Feeney, M. (trans.), Braziller, New York.
Lind, M. D. (2000). Mixtec city-states and Mixtec city-state culture. In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 567–580.
Lockhart, J. (1992). The Nahuas after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Lolos, Y. A. (2011). Land of Sikyon: Archaeology and History of a Greek City-State, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, NJ.
Lyttkens, C. H. (2013). Economic Analysis of Institutional Change in Ancient Greece: Politics, Taxation, and Rational Behavior, Routledge, London.
Mackil, E. (2013). Creating a Common Polity: Religion, Economy, and Politics in the Making of the Greek Koinon, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Manning, J. G., and Morris, I. (eds.) (2005). The Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Marcus, J. (1998). The peaks and valleys of ancient states: An extension of the dynamic model. In Feinman, G. M., and Marcus, J. (eds.), Archaic States, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM, pp. 59–94.
Marcus, J., and Feinman, G. M. (1998) Introduction. In Feinman, G. M., and Marcus, J. (eds.), Archaic States, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM, pp. 3–17.
Marcus, J., and Sabloff, J. A. (2008). Introduction. In Marcus, J., and Sabloff, J. A. (eds.), The Ancient City: New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World, School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe, NM, pp. 3–26.
Masson, M. (ed.) (2014), Kukulcan’s Realm: Urban life at Ancient Mayapán, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
McMahon, A., Sołtysiak, A., and Weber, J. (2011). Late Chalcolithic mass graves at Tell Brak, Syria, and violent conflict during the growth of early city-states. Journal of Field Archaeology36: 201–220.
Morris, I. (2004). Economic growth in ancient Greece. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics160: 709–742.
Nichols, D. L., and Charlton, T. H. (eds.) (1997). The Archaeology of City-States: Cross-Cultural Approaches, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
North, C. D. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Ober, J. (2011). Wealthy Hellas. Journal of Economic Asymmetries8: 1–38.
Ober, J. (2015). The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Osborne, R. (2010). Athens and Athenian Democracy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Ostrom, E. (1986). An agenda for the study of institutions. Public Choice48: 3–26.
Oudijk, M. R. (2002). The Zapotec city-state. In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Six City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 73–90.
Paddock, J. (1983). Lord Five Flower’s Family: Rulers of Zaachila and Cuilapan, Publications in Anthropology No. 29, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Palerm, J. V. (2017). The greatest generation: Apropos of Sydney Montz. American Ethnologist44: 414–424.
Pérez Rodríguez, V. (2006). States and households: The social organization of terrace agriculture in Postclassic Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity17: 3–22.
Prak, M. (2000). The Dutch Republic’s city-state culture (17th–18th centuries). In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 343–358.
Reina, L. (ed.) (1988). Historia de la cuestión agraria mexicana: Estado de Oaxaca, 2 vols., Juan Pablos Editor, Mexico.
Resnick, J., and Curtis, D. E. (2011). Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Rincón Mautner, C. A. (1999). Man and the Environment in the Coixtlahuaca Basin of Northwestern Oaxaca, Mexico: Two Thousand Years of Historical Ecology, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.
Romero Frizzi, M. A. (1996). El sol y la cruz: Los pueblos indígenas de Oaxaca colonial, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social y Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Mexico.
Scheidel, W. (2008). Demography. In Scheidel, W., Morris, I., and Saller, R. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 38–86.
Scheidel, W., Morris, I., and Saller, R. (eds.) (2008). The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Scheidel, W., and von Reden, S. (eds.) (2012). The Ancient Economy, Taylor and Francis, Hoboken, NJ.
Scherer, A. K., and Golden, C. (2009) Tecolote, Guatemala: Archaeological evidence for a fortified Late Classic Maya political border. Journal of Field Archaeology34: 285–305.
Sit, V. S. F. (2010). Chinese City and Urbanism: Evolution and Development, World Scientific, Singapore.
Small, D. (2019). Ancient Greece: Its Social Structure and Evolution, Cambridge University Press, New York, in press.
Smith, Carol A. (1984). Local history in global context: Social and economic transitions in western Guatemala. Comparative Studies in Society and History26: 193–228.
Smith, Charlotte A. (1993). Prehispanic Mixtec social organization: The architectural evidence. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens.
Smith, M. E. (2008). Aztec City-State Capitals, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Smith, M. E. (2017). Cities in the Aztec Empire: Commerce, imperialism, and urbanization. In Nichols, D. L., Berdan, F. F., and Smith, M. E. (eds.), Rethinking the Aztec Economy, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 44–67.
Spencer, C. S., and Redmond, E. M. (1997). Archaeology of the Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca, Anthropological Paper 80, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Spores, R. (1969). Settlement, farming technology, and environment in the Nochixtlán Valley. Science166: 557–569.
Spores, R. (1972). An Archaeological Settlement Survey of the Nochixtlán Valley, Oaxaca, Publications in Anthropology No. 1, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Spores, R. (2007). Ñuu Ñudzahui, la Mixteca de Oaxaca: La evolución de la cultura mixteca desde los primeros pueblos preclásicos hasta la independencia, Instituto Estatal de Educación Pública de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Spores, R., and Balkansky, A. K. (2013). The Mixtecs of Oaxaca: Ancient Times to the Present, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Spores, R., and Robles García, N. M. (eds.) (2014). Yucundaa: La ciudad mixteca y su transformación prehispánica-colonial, Insitituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia y Fundación Harp Helú, Mexico.
Stark, B. L. (1999). Formal architectural complexes in south-central Veracruz, Mexico: A capital zone? Journal of Field Archaeology26: 197–225.
Stark, B. L., Box, M. A., Gasco, J., Gonzalez Lauck, R. B., Hedgepeth Balkin, J. D., Joyce, A. A. et al. (2016). Economic growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian consumption in the coastal lowlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology41: 263–282.
Stark, B. L., and Stoner, W. D. (2017). Watching the game: Viewership of architectural Mesoamerican ball courts. Latin American Antiquity28: 409–430.
Stercken, M. (2000). Reichsstadt, eidgenössischer Ort, städtische Territorialherrschaft. Zu den Anfängen der Stadtstaaten im Gebiet der heutigen Schweiz. Summary: The formation of Swiss city-states (13th–15th centuries). In Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen, pp. 321–342.
Stratford, E. (2017). A Year of Vengeance. Volume 1: Time, Narrative, and the Old Assyrian Trade, DeGruyter, Boston.
Taylor, W. B. (1972). Landlord and Peasant in Colonial Oaxaca, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Terraciano, K. (2001). The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui History, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Terrenato, N., and Haggis, D. C. (eds.) (2011). State Formation in Italy and Greece: Questioning the Neoevolutionist Paradigm, Oxbow Books, Oxford.
Thomas, A. R. (2012). Urbanization before cities: Lessons for social theory from the evolution of cities. Journal of World-Systems Research18: 211–235.
van der Vliet, E. Ch. L. (2008). The early state, the polis, and state formation in early Greece. Social Evolution & History7: 197–221.
van Doesburg, S. (2001). De linderos y lugares: Territorio y asentamiento en el Lienzo de Santa María Nativitas. Relaciones22:15–82.
van Doesburg, S. (2010). Asentamiento y transición en el Lienzo de San Jerónimo Otla, Coixtlahuaca. Relaciones31: 55–105.
van Doesburg, S., and Swanton, M. W. (2011). Mesoamerican philology as an interdisciplinary study: The Chochon (Xru Ngiwa) “barrios” of Tamazulapan (Oaxaca, Mexico). Ethnohistory58: 613–652.
Vásquez Cruz, F. R. (1999). Arqueología de la Cañada de Cuicatlán, Oaxaca: Vigilancia y compromiso de un custodio, Centro INAH Oaxaca and Editorial Colina de Jade, Pueblo Nuevo, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Warburton, D. A. (2009). Economics, anthropological models and the ancient Near East. Anthropology of the Middle East4: 65–90.
Warman, A. (1976). …Y venimos a contradecir: Los campesinos de Morelos y el estado nacional, Casa Chata, Tlalpan, Mexico.
Williams, E. (ed.) 2004. Bienes estratégicos del antiguo Occidente de México: Producción e intercambio, Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora, Mexico.
Wolf, E. R. (1959). Sons of the Shaking Earth, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Wolf, E. R. (1982). Europe and the People without History, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Woolmer, M. (2016). Forging links between regions: Trade policy in classical Athens. In Harris, E. M., Lewis, D. M., and Woolmer, M. (eds.), The Ancient Greek Economy: Markets, Households, and City-States, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 66–89.
Yoffee, N. (2005). Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Zuiderhoek, A. (2017). The Ancient City, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bibliography of Recent Literature
Blomster, J. P. (2008). After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Burger, R. L., and Rosenswig, R. M. (eds.) (2012). Early Mesoamerican Monumentality, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Braswell, G. E. (ed.) (2012), The Ancient Maya of Mexico: Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands, Routledge, London.
Carballo, D. M. (ed.) (2013). Cooperation and Collective Action: Archaeological Perspectives, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Chapdelaine, C. (2010). Recent advances in Moche archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research19: 191–231.
Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z., and Smith, M. E. (2009). States and empires in ancient Mesoamerica. Ancient Mesoamerica20: 175–182.
Drennan, R. D., Berrey, C. A., and Peterson, C. E. (2015). Regional Settlement Demography in Archaeology, Eliot Werner Publications, Clinton Corners, NY.
Falconer, S. E., and Redman, C. L. (eds.) (2009). Polities and Power: Archaeological Perspectives on the Landscapes of Early States, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Fantalkin, A., and Yasur-Landau, A. (eds.) (2008). Bene Israel: Studies in the Archaeology of Israel and the Levant During the Bronze and Iron Ages in Honour of Israel Finkelstein, Brill, Leiden.
Fargher, L. F., Blanton, R. E., Heredia Espinoza, V. Y., and Millhauser, J. (2011). Tlaxcallan: The archaeology of an ancient republic in the New World. Antiquity85: 172–186.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (2012). The late prehispanic economy of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico: Weaving threads from data, theory, and subsequent history. Research in Economic Anthropology32: 225–258.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (2016). After Monte Albán in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca: A reassessment. In Faulseit, R. K. (ed.), Beyond Collapse: Archaeological Perspectives on Resilience, Revitalization, and Transformation in Complex Societies, Occasional Paper No. 42, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, pp. 43–69.
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (2016). Reconsiderando la “invasión” Mixteca del Valle de Oaxaca en el Posclásico. Anales de Antropología50: 247–265.
Fernández-Götz, M. (2017). Urbanization in Iron Age Europe: Trajectories, patterns, and social dynamics. Journal of Archaeological Research26: 27–162.
Fernández-Götz, M., and Krausse, D. (eds.) (2016). Eurasia at the Dawn of History: Urbanization and Social Change, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Glassman R. M. (2017). The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States, Springer, Cham, Switzerland.
Garraty, C. P., and Stark, B. L. (eds.) (2010). Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Houk, B. (2015) Ancient Maya Cities of the Eastern Lowlands, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Isendahl, C., and Smith, M. E. (2013). Sustainable agrarian urbanism: The low-density cities of the Mayas and Aztecs. Cities31: 132–143.
Joyce, A. A. (2008). Reflexiones críticas sobre el estudio de la escritura pictográfica en México. Desacatos27: 139–146.
Joyce, A. A. (2010). Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA.
Joyce, A. A., Levine, M. N., King, S. M., Balkina, J. H., and Barber, S. B. (2014). Political transformations and the everyday in Postclassic Oaxaca. Ancient Mesoamerica25: 389–410.
King, E. (ed.) (2015), The Ancient Maya Marketplace: The Archaeology of Transient Space, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
King, S. M. (2015). Settlement survey, landscape transformations, and the meaning of unoccupied land in Postclassic Nejapa, Oaxaca. In Buchanan, M. E., and Skousen, J. (eds.), Tracing the Relational: The Archaeology of Worlds, Spirits, and Temporalities, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
King, S. M., Workinger, A., Konwest, E., Badillo, A. E., and Enríquez, J. J. (2014) Un cuento de dos fortalezas en la región de Nejapa. Cuadernos del Sur19: 21–41.
King, S. M., and Higelin Ponce de León, R. (2017). Postclassic and early colonial mortuary practices in the Nejapa region of Oaxaca, southern Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science13: 773–782.
Kowalewski, S. A., Barba Pingarrón, L., García Ayala, G., Steere, B. A., Blancas, J., Cortés Vilchis, M. Y., López Zárate, J. L., Ortiz, A., Pluckhahn, T. J., and Vilchis Flores, B. (2010). La presencia azteca en Oaxaca: La provincia de Coixtlahuaca. Anales de Antropología44: 77–103.
Kurnick, S., and Baron, J. (eds.) (2016) Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Levine, M. N. (2011). Negotiating political economy at Late Postclassic Tututepec (Yucu Dzaa), Oaxaca, Mexico. American Anthropologist113: 22–39.
Levine, M. N., Joyce, A. A., and Glascock, M. D. (2011). Shifting patterns of obsidian exchange in Postclassic Oaxaca, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica22: 123–133.
Lind, M. D. (2008). Arqueología de la Mixteca. Desacatos27: 13–32.
Lind, M. D., and Urcid, J. (2010). The Lords of Lambityeco: Political Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca during the Xoo Phase, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Lind, M. D. (2015). Ancient Zapotec Religion: An Ethnohistorical and Archaeological Perspective, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Liu, L. (2009). State emergence in early China. Annual Review of Anthropology38: 217–232.
Marken, D. B., and Fitzsimmons, J. L. (eds.) (2015). Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands: Integration, Interaction, Dissolution, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Monson, A., and Schaedel, W. (eds.) (2015). Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Nichols, D. L., Berdan, F. F., and Smith, M. E. (eds.) (2017). Rethinking the Aztec Economy, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Nichols, D. L., and Rodríguez-Alegría, E. (eds.) (2017), The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs, Oxford University Press, New York.
Osborne, J. F. (2013). Sovereignty and territoriality in the city-state: A case study from the Amuq Valley, Turkey. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology32: 774–790.
Pérez Rodríguez, V., Anderson, K. C., and Neff, M. N. (2011). The Cerro Jazmín Archaeological Project: Investigating prehispanic urbanism and its environmental impact in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of field Archaeology36: 83–99.
Purvis, M. (2009). Between late-lasting empire and late-developing nation-state: A Triestine perspective on city-state relations. Social & Cultural Geography10: 299–317.
Rincón Mautner, C. A. (2012). Linajes y casas señoriales de los tolteca-chichimeca de Coixtlahuaca en la Mixteca Alta de Oaxaca. In Daneels, A., and Gutiérrez Mendoza, G. (eds.), El poder compartido: Ensayos sobre la arqueología de organizaciones políticas segmentarias y oligárquicas, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social y Colegio de Michoacán, Mexico, pp. 115–172.
Scott, T. (2012). The City-State in Europe, 1000–1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Smith, M. E. (ed.) (2012). The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Smith, M. L. (2014). The archaeology of urban landscapes. Annual Review of Anthropology43: 307–323.
Steere, B. A., and Kowalewski, S. A. (2012). Wealth stratification in ancient Mesoamerica. Social Evolution & History11: 20–48.
Tymowski, M. (2008). State and tribe in the history of medieval Europe and Black Africa—A comparative approach. Social Evolution & History7: 171–196.
VanValkenburgh, P., and Osborne, J. F. (2012). Home turf: Archaeology, territoriality, and politics. In Osborne, J. F., and Van Valkenburgh, P. (eds.), Territoriality in Archaeology, Archeological Papers No. 22, American Anthropological Association, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, pp. 1–27.
Waley, D., and Dean, T. (2013). The Italian City–Republics, 4th ed., Routledge, Abingdon.
White, D. A., and Barber, S. B. (2012). Geospatial modeling of pedestrian transportation networks: A case study from precolumbian Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science39: 2684–2696.
Whittington, S., and Gonlin, N. (2016). The map leads the way: Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. In Gonlin, N., and French, K. D. (eds.), Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica: Empirical Approaches to Mesoamerican Archaeology, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, pp. 125–154.
Wilkinson, T. J., Philip, G., Bradbury, J., Dunford, R., Donoghue, D., Galiatsatos, N., Lawrence, D., Ricci, A., and Smith, S. L. (2014). Contextualizing early urbanization: Settlement cores, early states and agro-pastoral strategies in the Fertile Crescent during the fourth and third millennia BC. Journal of World Prehistory27: 43–109.
Williams, R. L. (2009). Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca: Reading History in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Winter, M., and Sánchez Santiago, G. (eds.) (2014). Panorama arqueológico: Dos Oaxacas, Centro INAH Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Zvorober, D., and Kroefges, P. C. (eds.) (2015). Bridging the Gaps: Integrating Archaeology and History in Oaxaca, Mexico, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Acknowledgments
This research would simply be impossible without full-coverage regional archaeological surveys. I thank the project directors (and their crews) who devoted years to planning and doing the surveys and publishing the data. In order of appearance, they are Ron Spores, Richard Blanton, Bruce Byland, Charles Spencer and Elsa Redmond, Gary Feinman and Linda Nicholas, Laura Finsten, and Andrew Balkansky. For their inspiration or much needed, not always heeded, advice, I thank the editor, Gary Feinman, and Richard Blanton, Jessica Dijkman, Edward Harris, Naomi Norman, Chris Pool, Jackie Saindon, David Small, and several anonymous reviewers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kowalewski, S.A. Advances in City-State Research, with an Example from Mesoamerica. J Archaeol Res 28, 3–52 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09130-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09130-z