book chapter

The Monte Albán synoikism

Zapotec civilization : how urban society evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley, Joyce Marcus, Kent V. Flannery • New York, N.Y. • Published In 1996 • Pages: 139-154, 248

By: Marcus, Joyce, Flannery, Kent V..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Marcus and Flannery discuss how quickly Monte Albán became a city in what had been a no-man's-land in the Rosario phase. They examine the 'urban revolution' or the bringing together of many settlements to form a single polity (synoikism) that occurred during Monte Albán I and compare it to what occurred in ancient Greece. The reasons behind this process were not environmental, agricultural, or economic, but political as it is very costly to resettle large numbers of people. The evidence for this political process can be seen in the evidence for warfare and in the monuments to conquest which depict named, in other word known, slain or sacrificed enemies; indicating competing elites within the Valley of Oaxaca were behind the synoikism.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Urban and rural life
Internal migration
Warfare
Visual arts
Social relationships and groups
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Highland Mesoamerican Late Preclassic
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2010
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Middle America and the Caribbean
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
General Middle America and the Caribbean
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
book chapter
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Sarah Berry; 2008
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
2500-2100 BP (500-100 BC)
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico
NotesAdditional notes
Joyce Marcus, Kent V. Flannery
Includes bibliographical references (p. 248)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
95060561
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Zapotec Indians--Antiquities/Zapotec Indians--Politics and government/Land settlement--Mexico--Oaxaca Valley/Excavations (Archaeology)--Mexico--Oaxaca Valley/Oaxaca Valley (Mexico)--Antiquities