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352 Pages·1984·15.197 MB·English
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The Zapotees* Princes, Priests, and Peasants T he Civilization of the A merican Indian Series THE ZAPOTECS PRINCES, PRIESTS, and PEASANTS By J oseph W. Whitecotton UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS ! NORMAN To Gordon and Usa Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whitecotton, Joseph W 1937— The Zapotees. Bibliography : p. Includes index, i. Zapotee Indians. I. Title. F1221 .Z iW48 Q7o’ .004*07 76—62*508 ISBN 0-8061-1914-4 Copyright © 1977 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publish­ ing Division of the University. Manufactured in the U.S.A. First edition, 1977. First printing of paperback edition, 1984. IV Preface traces the social and cultural history of an in­ This book digenous New World people who have continuously inhabited the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico from 1500 until the b.c. present. The Zapotec-speaking inhabitants of this state cover a con­ siderable percentage of its area, occupy diverse habitats, and have somewhat different histories. The Valley Zapotees, who occupy the fertile basin in the center of the state, who are the best known of the various Zapotees, and who are associated with the core region of Oaxacan history, are the primary subject of this account. The North­ ern Zapotees, the Southern Zapotees, and the Isthmus Zapotees also are discussed, primarily for purposes of comparison, although limita­ tions of space and knowledge have by necessity relegated them to a secondary role here. While this book traces the history of a specific people and culture, it is also an anthropological history, a term I have borrowed from Robert T. Anderson. Anthropological history, in my conception of it, at­ tempts to integrate the divers anthropological subdisciplines of archeology, linguistics, ethnohistory, ethnology, and social anthro­ pology. It also seeks to explore the common ground between the par­ ticular history of a specific culture and those processes which cut across a broader spectrum of human societies and cultures. Thus, this book reflects not only my concern with the Zapotees, but also my concern with anthropology, both of which began in 1957. Since that year, although I have continued to study the Zapotees, I also have done research on the Spanish-Americans of New Mexico and on the peoples and cultures of Italy. The themes explored in this book also reflect the cross-cultural anthropological interests which I have de­ veloped in my study of these other two cultures: the rise and nature of state societies, the nature of peasant societies, and the meaning and VI THE ZAPOTECS context of ethnicity in complex societies. In discussing these topics, I have attempted to present anthropological concepts in a language re­ moved from the technical, and frequently unnecessary, jargon which pervades the monographs and journals written by and directed to professional anthropologists. The only exception is the Appendix; it is intended primarily for the specialist. In 1957 there were but a handful of scholars interested in the Zapotees. Since 1965 there has been a tremendous growth of scholarly activity. Knowledge and publications have accumulated so rapidly that it is difficult for one person to cope with this expanding field, with publications pouring off the press at a remarkable rate and many others projected or in progress as well. The research on which this book is based was completed in January 1974 and the manuscript on which it is based was submitted in June of that year. Therefore, I have used only those materials which were available at that time. Some of the unpublished manuscripts cited in the notes have now appeared in print. In the course of my study of the Zapotees I have incurred many obligations. My longest standing debt is to John Paddock, now Director of the Institute of Oaxaca Studies, whose knowledge of Oaxacan anthropology is unsurpassed. He not only expanded my already budding interest in Oaxaca during my student days at Mexico City College in 1959-60, but also has served as a source of inspiration for me since then. A remarkable scholar, Paddock has almost single- handedly managed to cultivate a whole generation of Oaxacan anthro­ pologists; much of what is now known about Oaxaca is the fruit of his efforts. Through the years he has graciously answered my many inquiries and has helped me keep informed of recent developments. My debt to him is great indeed. I also must acknowledge Julian H. Steward and Oscar Lewis, both now deceased, who directed my graduate program at the University of Illinois and who contributed significantly to many of the ideas con­ tained in this book. In 1968 Julian Steward supervised my doctoral dissertation, “The Valley of Oaxaca at Spanish Contact,” and pre­ sented me with visions of anthropology as a cross-cultural science freed from the burden of a particularistic descriptive tradition which treated all cultures as unique entities. His Theory of Culture Change stands as a seminal work of anthropological theory. PREFACE Vil Oscar Lewis taught me mostly about peasants. His books on peas­ ants and city dwellers (Life in A Mexican Village, Pedro Martinez, Five Families, The Children of Sánchez, and La Vida) have forever changed anthropological conceptions of poverty. Joseph Casagrande, Demitri Shimkin, Douglas Butterworth, and Carl Deal of the University of Illinois and J. Ignacio Rubio Mañé of the Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, were also most helpful to me during an earlier period of research on Oaxaca. Funds from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois and from the Faculty Research Program at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, permitted me to pursue research in Mexico. Many individuals have been most helpful to me during the time that this book has been in preparation. Ralph L. Beals, Ignacio Bernal, Richard E. Blanton, Beverly Chiñas, Scott Cook, Martin Diskin, Theodore E. Downing, Kent V. Flannery, James A. Neely, Carl W. O’Nell, Arthur J. Rubel, Henry Selby, and Ronald Waterbury re­ sponded to specific inquiries and provided useful information on their own work in Oaxaca. Richard E. Blanton, John K. Chance, Beverly Chiñas, Scott Cook, Philip Dennis, Theodore E. Downing, Carl O’Neil, and John Paddock generously shared with me their unpub­ lished manuscripts. Richard E. Blanton, Kent V. Flannery, Ronald Spores, and Charles R. Wicke read portions of various versions of the manuscript and made helpful suggestions for improvement. Jimmy C. Diecker, my ad­ vanced graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, spent months reading various versions of the complete manuscript and saved me from many errors of fact and interpretation; this work has been im­ proved because of his tireless efforts on my behalf. It is with eager anticipation that I await the results of his own work on a village in New Mexico which should prove to be the most thorough study of a Spanish-American community to date. Several individuals helped in the preparation of the illustrations. Terry Prewitt drew all of the maps and some additional drawings; Sarah Whitecotton and Carol Smith also contributed some drawings ; Kay Parker, Ronald Spores, Bruce Byland, and Beverly Chiñas kindly permitted me to use some of their photographs. The Peabody Museum of Harvard University and the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- viii THE ZAPOTECS ington, D.C., provided me with photographs of Zapotee ceramic sculptures. The specific contributions of these individuals and insti­ tutions are acknowledged in the captions to the plates and figures. All other photographs are my own. Robert Fields, Jr., and Roberta Pailes contributed their expertise in photographic processing to many a difficult problem. Carolyn Emery typed and retyped the final manuscript and coped successfully with my incessant deletions, additions, and last-minute changes. The University of Oklahoma granted me a sabbatical leave of absence from my duties in the Department of Anthropology during the spring semester of 1974. Without this released time it is doubtful that I could have finished this book. Of course, none of the above individuals or institutions necessarily endorse, are responsible for, or agree with the final outcome; I alone assume this responsibility. NOTE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION A considerable number of publications about the Zapotees have ap­ peared since this book was written. In the archaeological field, the results of recent projects are summarized in The Cloud People (Academic Press, 1983), edited by Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Mar­ cus. While this impressive work includes contributions on all pre- Hispanic periods by several distinguished scholars, the Formative period is the focus of most of the original research. Although my discussions of that period in Oaxaca are still essentially valid, it would now be possible to refine the chronology further and to address more fully specific sites and their relationships to the emergence of state institutions. Monte Albán’s character and role within the Oaxacan region has also been reexamined (see, in addition to the above, Richard E. Blan­ ton, Monte Alban, Academic Press, 1978). Monte Albán’s relationship to its hinterland, for example, seems to have been quite different from that of Teotihuacan in central Mexico. It was not a dominating, com­ bined commercial-political-religious center, and it may have been what Blanton calls a “disembedded capital,” whose character was more administrative than economic. It may not have been an agro-town, as NOTE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION IX I have characterized it, because there is some question whether Monte Albán had resident agriculturalists. Both of those points are the sub­ ject of considerable debate, but were I to revise Chapter 2 today, I would not use the term “empire” to describe Monte Alban’s hegemony, because that concept implies a coterminous political, economic, and religious system that was not typical of local or regional Mesoamerican states. Instead, the states were simply parts of a larger social system, integrated by trade and common ideological concerns, that cut across political boundaries and formed a single “world.” Our knowledge and our reading of documentary sources for pre- Hispanic Zapotee history and ethnography have expanded consider­ ably. Some “new” pictorial and linguistic sources have been recently identified and interpreted that relate to Chapters 3 and 4. They show that Mixtee elites were intimately involved in the history of the Valley of Oaxaca from the time of the “fall” of Monte Albán (if they were not involved in that fall) until the Spanish conquest. These sources also confirm that Mixtee elites figured in the complex events that oc­ curred in the post-Classic eastern arm of the Valley. We now conceptualize a long Monte Albán V period in the Valley, during which both Zapotee and Mixtee elites were involved and ethnicity was more a fluid dimension than a fixed designation. Inter­ marriage between Mixtees and Zapotees had resulted in a common elite culture. Yet that common culture did not promote political inte­ gration because identification with specific princedoms or lineages promoted strong interregional conflicts. These more recent interpretations of post-Classic ethnohistory and the sources on which they are based may be found in two publications: Joseph W. Whitecotton and Judith Bradley Whitecotton, eds., Native American Ethnohistory (University of Oklahoma, Papers in Anthro­ pology, vol. 23, no. 2, 1982) ; and John Paddock, Lord Five Flower's Family (Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology, no. 29, 1983). John Chance has contributed an important monograph on colonial Oaxaca City (Race and Class in Colonial Oaxaca, Stanford University Press, 1978). He argues that the concept of “class” is far more im­ portant than the notion of “estate” in understanding social position in colonial society, primarily because Oaxaca had been permeated by X THE ZAPOTECS capitalist institutions and was tied into a larger “world system.” Chance’s argument is well documented, and were I to rewrite Chap­ ter 5 today, I would give greater attention to the influence of capitalistic activities in the countryside, though I still feel that the concept of “estate” aids in understanding the social hierarchy in rural areas. I agree that it is not useful to discuss societies as “dual” or “part feudal and part capitalist,” especially when such conceptualizations imply different “stages” of development. Recent studies have recognized considerable differences among modern Oaxacan villages and towns, differences that may in part be accounted for by their relationships to regional, national, and inter­ national social systems. While the concept of peasantry places the “Zapotee” villages in a broard crosscultural niche, there is greater diversity than I emphasize in Chapter 6. These village varieties may be explored in Social, Political, and Economic Life in Contemporary Oaxaca, edited by Aubrey Williams (Vanderbilt University Publica­ tions in Anthropology, no. 24, 1979). The way in which village specialists relate with the larger society may be seen in an excellent study by Scott Cook (Zapotee Stone workers. University Press of America, 1982). While there is still no overarching concept of Zapotee ethnicity in Oaxaca, a monograph by Anya Royce (Prestigio y afiliación en una communidad urbana, Instituto Indigenista, México, 1975) shows that Zapotee ethnicity asserts itself in certain local, situational contexts as it has in the Isthmus region at various times over the past 500 years. Yet, regardless of possible future manifestations of Zapotee consciousness, it is clear that modern Zapotees on the whole show little cultural con­ tinuity with the remote past, even though symbols relating to the remote past may be incorporated into modern conceptualizations. The above comments and references only provide a superficial over­ view of recent works. It is unfortunate that space limitations prevent mention of many other excellent studies. I hope that this brief note will indicate to the reader that the Zapotees continue to be of utmost importance to history and to the modern world. Norman, Oklahoma Joseph W . W hitecotton

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