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Science 27 October 1967:
Vol. 158. no. 3800, pp. 445 - 454
DOI: 10.1126/science.158.3800.445
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Articles

Farming Systems and Political Growth in Ancient Oaxaca

Physiographic features and water-control techniques contributed to the rise of Zapotec Indian civilization

Kent V. Flannery 1, Anne V. T. Kirkby 2, Michael J. Kirkby 3, and Aubrey W. Williams Jr. 4

1 Office of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
2 Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, England
3 Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
4 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park

The Valley of Oaxaca's large flat floor, high water table, low erosion rate, and frost-free floodplain give it a higher agricultural potential than that of most surrounding areas. The development of the pot-irrigation system early in the Formative period gave it a head start over other valleys, where the low water table did not permit such farming; Oaxaca maintained its advantage by assimilating canal irrigation, barbecho, infield-outfield systems, flood-water farming, and hillside terracing as these methods arose. With the expansion of population in the high-water-table zone of the high alluvium, competition for highly productive land and manipulation of surpluses may have led to initial disparities in wealth and status; competition probably increased when canal-irrigation systems were added during the Middle Formative, improving some localities to the point where one residental group owned land more valuable than that of its neighbors.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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