Ancient Mesoamerica http://journals.cambridge.org/ATM Additional services for Ancient Mesoamerica: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here THREAD PRODUCTION IN EARLY POSTCLASSIC COASTAL OAXACA, MEXICO: TECHNOLOGY, INTENSITY, AND GENDER Stacie M. King Ancient Mesoamerica / Volume 22 / Issue 02 / September 2011, pp 323 ­ 343 DOI: 10.1017/S0956536111000253, Published online: 30 December 2011 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0956536111000253 How to cite this article: Stacie M. King (2011). THREAD PRODUCTION IN EARLY POSTCLASSIC COASTAL OAXACA, MEXICO: TECHNOLOGY, INTENSITY, AND GENDER. Ancient Mesoamerica, 22, pp 323­343 doi:10.1017/S0956536111000253 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ATM, IP address: 198.11.26.126 on 12 Oct 2012 Ancient Mesoamerica, 22 (2011), 323–343 Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2011 doi:10.1017/S0956536111000253 THREAD PRODUCTION IN EARLY POSTCLASSIC COASTAL OAXACA, MEXICO: TECHNOLOGY, INTENSITY, AND GENDER Stacie M. King Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Student Building 130, Bloomington, IN 47405 Abstract Excavations at the site of Río Viejo in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, yielded evidence of intensive cotton thread production during the Early Postclassic (a.d. 975–1220). Spindle whorls were recovered in relatively large quantities in and around houses at Río Viejo, indicating that thread production was interspersed with other household activities and residents likely produced enough thread for local use and for export. Measurements of coastal spindle whorls show that the Río Viejo thread was unique compared to other coastal and highland sites in Oaxaca and Mesoamerica beyond. I argue that this uniqueness may in part stem from the particular variety of cotton that they were spinning, but also might reflect an interregional demand for their thread. The whorl data are presented in multiple ways to compare to other sites where intensive thread production has been proposed. Here, I discuss the problems inherent in whorl calculations and make a call for more standardized recording, ideally with volumetric density measures. In the final section of the paper, I use mortuary data and other lines of evidence to re-evaluate the ethnohistorically-documented relationship between women and textile production. In coastal Oaxaca, the evidence suggests that thread production was not linked to specific gender identities in a way that is marked archaeologically. Instead, adult members of households in coastal Oaxaca materially emphasized a shared group identity over any specific gender-based identities. The production of thread was a broadly shared household-level practice that involved multiple producers, which both created and reinforced social bonds between residents and provided Early Postclassic residents with secure and comfortable access to highland goods, paving the way for the more developed thread production industry in the Late Postclassic period. Most research on the socioeconomic, political, and symbolic roles Viejo and studies of spinning and cloth production elsewhere in of thread and cloth production in Mesoamerica has focused on the highland and lowland Mesoamerica. I show that the thread produced Late Postclassic and early Colonial periods and the highland at Río Viejo was unique compared to that produced elsewhere and regions in and around the Valley of Mexico, which can be explained suggest that surplus thread was produced for export to regional in part by the rich ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence related and/or long-distance markets in other parts of Oaxaca and to the Aztec tributary economy (Brumfiel 1996b, 1997, 2006; Mesoamerica (King 2008). This Early Postclassic connection Hendon 2006; Joyce 2000a; McCafferty and McCafferty 2000; paved the way for the more strongly developed connection Parsons 1972; Parsons and Parsons 1990; Smith and Hirth 1988; between coastal thread producers and highland weavers during the Stark et al. 1998). My research on coastal Oaxaca has documented Late Postclassic period, documented in recent excavations in intensive thread production extending back into the Early nearby Tututepec (Levine 2007). Postclassic, and supports a scenario of long-distance interregional During the initial stages of this research I found little consistency interaction between the coast and the highlands that presages both in the reporting and quantification of spindle whorls in the Aztec rise to power in central Mexico and the historically- Mesoamerica, especially regarding the various ways researchers documented interaction between lowland peoples and Mixtec calculate whorl frequency and whorl density. The most accepted elites of the famous Late Postclassic cacicazgos in Oaxaca (Joyce methods include measuring the number of spindle whorls in relation et al. 2004; Levine 2007; Monaghan et al. 2003; Spores 1993). to some standardized measure of artifacts, the number of whorls per Spindle whorls, which are the primary material paraphernalia of square meter of excavated (or even surveyed) area, and the number thread production preserved at Mesoamerican archaeological sites, of whorls per cubic meter of excavated area. To make the Río Viejo were found in and around Early Postclassic houses at the coastal data comparable to these other studies, I present the Río Viejo data Oaxacan site of Río Viejo in relatively large quantities. The ubiquity in various formats and draw comparisons between Río Viejo and of whorls in residential contexts suggests that coastal Oaxacan sites in other regions. While no method is without its own set of pro- peoples were involved in a household-based industry of thread pro- blems, in the end, I argue for more standardized reporting and pres- duction during the Early Postclassic. In this paper, I discuss the entation of whorl calculations and suggest more systematic use of technology, scale, and intensity of Río Viejo’s thread production volumetric whorl density measures. industry, drawing comparisons between the assemblage at Río The Río Viejo project was initially designed as a study of house- hold social organization during the coastal Oaxacan Early Postclassic, focusing on social meaning of food production and E-mail correspondence to: [email protected] food sharing (King 2003). During the course of the field 323 324 King excavations, fiber processing emerged as a key secondary activity Late Classic period platforms and mounds. Excavations in two evidenced across the site. Thread production, like food sharing, is Early Postclassic neighborhoods, directed by Arthur Joyce and a meaningful social practice that contributed to creating a shared myself, have revealed architecture, burials, and artifacts used in group identity. Residents emphasized the similarity between male domestic activities, but provide little evidence for differentiated and female adult house members rather than specifically linking social roles and statuses (Joyce and King 2001; Joyce et al. (or materially marking) women and thread production. The Río 2001b; King 2003). Early Postclassic residents of Río Viejo Viejo data show that the traditional linkage between women and devoted time to the production of thread, but also completed numer- cloth production apparent in Mesoamerican ethnohistoric sources ous other tasks in their houses in and around their houses, including may, on the ground, need to be read as less rigidly defining gen- making and using obsidian tools, costume ornaments, jewelry, and dered practices in specific places at specific points in time. figurines, and preparing and eating food in and around their houses. Residents also actively participated in interregional exchange net- works with the highlands and, in this way, tapped into many of RÍO VIEJO DURING THE EARLY POSTCLASSIC the goods, ideas, and symbols circulating throughout of the Río Viejo is located about 12 km inland on the fertile coastal plain greater Mesoamerican world (King 2008). of western Oaxaca known as the Costa Chica (Figure 1). The site The Operation B neighborhood of Río Viejo, which is the primary lies along the floodplain of the Río Verde, a river that flows from focus of this study, lies on a low broad platform elevated about five the Valley of Oaxaca to the coast, depositing rich alluvial sediments meters above the floodplain (Figure 2). Here, foundation walls (Joyce and Mueller 1992, 1997). The site was first occupied as early visible on the ground surface mark the presence of several dozen struc- as the late Middle Formative (700–400 b.c.), and was important tures. Operation B covers a total excavated area of 284 m2, including throughout the Formative and Classic periods, serving as the two complete structures, and portions of another five (King 2003) capital of a regional polity during the Late Classic (a.d. 500–800) (Figure 3). The neighborhood includes two periods of occupation, (Joyce 2005, 2008; Joyce et al. 2001a; Joyce and King 2000; three major stages of construction events, and numerous smaller-scale Joyce and Workinger 1996). The Early Postclassic occupation of discrete activities, with relatively limited space between structures the site is much more modest, lacking monumental architecture, cer- (King 2003). The buildings measure roughly 5 × 11 m and each con- emonial precincts, or a large central plaza. Early Postclassic resi- sists of a single room delimited by stone platform retaining walls, dents built humble, single-roomed