People, Fields, and Strategies: Dissecting Political Institutions in the Tequila Valleys of Western Mexico

This chapter synthesizes and expands prior studies of the role of sociopolitical institutions in the Teuchitlan culture (1000 BCE–CE 500) of the Tequila Valleys, Jalisco, western Mexico. Western Mexico lies geographically intermediate to the contemporary urban center of Teotihuacan in central Mexico, and the later Puebloan societies of the American Southwest. The Teuchitlan culture shares elements of collective governance with both groups. In a discussion that alternates between theory and archaeological evidence, I address the association of elites with different forms of capital, and how we can better incorporate commoners through an assessment of the resources available to them. I then elaborate upon prior work that found certain types of formal architecture were more appropriate for the enactment of exclusionary or corporate strategies. With these strands in place, I relate these proposals to the evidence for the diversification and interaction of strategies and institutions in the Tequila Valleys.