Drs. Richard E. Blanton and Lane F. Fargher, of Purdue University, along with an international team of scholars from the US and Mexico, will carry out research on the impact of political policy on households at the late pre-Hispanic city of Tlaxcallan in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Social scientists have long been interested in understanding how and why cities and states evolved; especially, the strategies developed to collect revenues and govern large populations. After WWII, explanations for the evolution of social complexity and states focused predominantly on the ways in which ruling elites (e.g., kings, magnates) profited from demographic expansion and resource stress to coerce subordinate populations into supplying tribute. However, recent research has demonstrated that peasants and other commoners remain neither powerless nor passive in the face of rapacious elites. Especially important has been Drs. Blanton and Fargher's research on cooperation and collective action in premodern states. Using insights developed in economics and political science on rational choice, public goods, and bureaucratization, they showed that governing authorities who relied on a large segment of citizens for revenues in premodern states had to respond to commoner voice, control public officials, and limit their luxury consumption in order to promote compliance with taxation. Moreover, structural changes associated with building such collective political regimes were found to leave behind indelible marks on households and landscapes.
Given that a shift towards collective governance creates a strong material imprint on households and landscapes, archaeology is especially well suited for studying the long-term evolution of cooperation, collective action, and democracy in human societies. This is particularly the case with the late pre-Hispanic (AD 1300 - 1519) terraced, hilltop city of Tlaxcallan. In the face of growing threats from the Aztec empire, the Tlaxcalteca (the people of Tlaxcallan) built a republic rich in commoner voice and public goods to encourage citizens to defend the state and its territory. The implementation of these political policies guided the construction of an urban landscape unique in pre-Hispanic Mexico. With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Blanton and Fargher, and their colleagues will evaluate the impact of Tlaxcallan's collective policies in the city's households and neighborhoods. Combining geophysical survey and archaeological excavations, they will locate and expose houses, communal areas, and terrace construction histories. The multidisciplinary team will use architectural analysis, palynology, ceramic analysis, soil chemistry, stratigraphy, faunal analysis, lithic analysis, skeletal studies, and radiocarbon dating to reconstruct household organization, activity patterns, and construction sequences. This information will shed light on the ways that collective political policy affected daily life in houses and neighborhoods. These data will be pivotal to growing social scientific understanding of the long-term evolution of cooperation, collective action, and democracy in human history. They will also provide enhanced educational and training opportunities for students and young professional archaeologists.
