Ronald Spores, who recently retired from Vanderbilt University’s anthropology department, has been a leader in the study of the Mixteca civilization. His books on ethnohistory, as well as many articles on the archaeology and history of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, in both English and Spanish, have pushed our knowledge to new levels of research. In recognition of his work, this anthology begins with a chapter by Joyce Marcus and Kent Flannery reviewing Spores’s contribution to Mesoamerican studies and especially studies of the Mixtee. Of the 13 subsequent chapters, this reviewer concentrated on those dealing with chiefdoms or cacicazgos, as the book’s title suggests.
John K. Chance presents a stimulating comparative analysis of the Indian elites during the late colonial period (chapter 2). He compares the Indian elites of northern Yucatán, the Valley of Oaxaca, the Oaxacan Sierra Zapoteca, and Central Mexico. He presents a very interesting model that accounts for the variability observed in the elite structure of these regions.
Another excellent contribution is by John Monaghan (chapter 8). He uses the model developed by John Murra for the Central Andes, known as control vertical de pisos ecológicos, and, in a very refreshing way, relates it to the Mixtee chiefdoms. Monaghan discusses the control of irrigation systems in Mixtee chiefdoms and shows how polities developed mechanisms to integrate ecozones of different altitudes to supply the central cacicazgo with more diverse resources. In reviving Murra’s model, Monaghan adds an aspect that the original ignored: the seasonality of food production; this dimension makes his model more dynamic and meaningful.
An article by Elsa M. Redmond and Charles Spencer (chapter 10) compares the Taino chiefdoms to the highland chiefdoms of the Cuicatlán Cañada that at one point were dominated by the Zapotec. It also explores the possibility that some chiefdoms persisted even when tied to the tributary domain of expansionist states. The last article on chiefdoms (chapter 13), by Judith F. Zeitlin, focuses on the role of pre-Columbian barrios in the señoríos, or cacicazgos, of the Zapotec population in Oaxaca. Zeitlin concludes that the prevalent view of the Zapotee as politically highly centralized does not agree with the archaeological study of the barrios and settlement patterns, which seems to suggest more autonomy at the sociopolitical level of the barrio units than had been previously thought.
The chapters on chiefdoms unquestionably are excellent, and open new avenues for theoretical and practical understanding of the caciques in Latin American studies. Other interesting contributions to this book include the comparative study by Joyce Marcus on the Aztec, Mixtee, and Maya; Teotihuacan; and the inauguration of a Zapotee lord, an issue that is new and very enlightening for the study of empowerment. On the topic of codexes, two articles, by Michael Lind and Mary E. Smith, discuss, respectively, the codexes of Cholula and of Selden. A chapter by Frederic Hicks presents a historical view of the Xaltocan region under Aztec domination. The book lacks an index; a significant deficiency, because some of the chapters are destined to be obligatory reference sources.
