Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Anthropology

Advisor/Mentor

Stoner, Wesley D.

Committee Member

Vining, Benjamin R.

Second Committee Member

Kay, Marvin

Keywords

Collective Action; Economic History; Geochemistry; Mexico; Neutron Activation Analysis; Political Economy

Abstract

Within nation-states, agencies, cooperatives, and other groups seeking to coordinate in the management of resources, conflicting interests can hinder cooperation and preclude joint action. Increasing transparency in resource management policies and facilitating communication among groups can reduce cooperative dilemmas by building trust. Developments in collective action research have demonstrated that increased communication and transparency among participants can build trust because future outcomes and behaviors can be predicted based on observations of past actions. Archaeology provides case studies to explore some of the earliest attempts by nation-states to reduce tensions caused by competing factions. This dissertation explores one such case study from Late Postclassic (1250 AD to 1530 AD) Tlaxcallan, Mexico. Ethnohistoric accounts suggest that the multiethnic Tlaxcallan confederacy was comprised of multiple social, ethnic, and political groups with competing interests. Despite their differences, cooperation was achieved through two strategies 1) establishment of a council-based government, and 2) building a cohesive identity through resistance against foreign economic and territorial conquest. Symbols of cooperative institutions at Tlaxcallan are revealed by “egalitarian” iconography visible on public buildings. Similar iconography painted on Codex-Style polychrome pottery is examined to determine if participants in different households, neighborhoods, and districts engaged in this collective ideology. Codex-Style polychromes painted with statements of self-aggrandizement, instead of inclusionary themes, reveal if households deviated from ideology painted on public architecture. Public plazas were one location where Codex-Style pottery would have been used in public performance alongside public architecture. The variation in methods used to construct public plazas and residential terraces is compared at three levels of political organization (state, district, and neighborhood) to identify where their construction was coordinated. Identifying where the authority behind the construction of these spaces was situated, which was necessary for producing and reproducing a state identity, can reveal where collective institutions were organized. The hoarding of goods promoting statements of prestige and power, such as polychrome pottery, projectile points, and foreign obsidians reveals whether household members practiced the message of symbolic egalitarianism proclaimed on public architecture. Neutron Activation Analysis of polychrome pottery is used to identify if any bottlenecks formed around the exchange of these items. Portable X-ray fluorescence is used to identify if Tlaxcaltecan producers and consumers favored an obsidian source open to all members of the community, or if foreign sources available to comparatively smaller groups were used. A technological analysis of obsidian blades, projectile points, and other tools is used to understand if any exclusionary economic controls existed around the production and exchange of these goods. I argue that the creation of a shared identity through the use of more inclusive iconography, equitably distributed public space, and open exchange networks of obsidian and ceramic items allowed residents located in different districts and neighborhoods to build trust across large distances, ethnicities, and socio-economic factors. While not all households participated, efforts to build trust and reduce competitive tensions among a multiethnic population are indicated. This dissertation contributes to the limited body of research on how trust is created among large-scale organizations such as nation-states.

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