CHAPTER 2 LATE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA 105in codices and other documents, but archaeological research at Mixtec sites, partic-
ularly work in the Nochixtlan Valley and at Tilantongo and Jaltepec, also has provided
critical data for understanding the ancient Mixtecs.
Mixtec Economy. The agricultural foundation for Mixtec society was based on
the cultivation of maize, beans, and squash, which were supplemented by other
crops grown locally and imported from elsewhere, and by hunting wild game and
collecting wild plants. In the fertile highland valleys, agricultural production was
carried out along the alluvial plains of rivers and on the terraced hillsides through
the use of run-off irrigation. The resources needed to produce a number of basic
household goods such as pottery, manos and metates, mats and baskets, stone
tools, and textiles were not evenly distributed across the Mixteca, and many of
these items could be produced only in certain regions. Inter-community and inter-
regional trade was well-developed, however, and communities across the Mixteca
had access to a wide range of goods.
Mixtec society was highly stratified, perhaps the most stratified society in
Mesoamerica. Social divisions were tightly regulated, and these divisions were re-
flected in economic and political organization and in ideology. The Mixtecs were
divided into two major hereditary social strata, the nobility and the commoners, and
each of these had two or more subdivisions. The nobility included the ruling class (yaa
tnuhu) and a lesser nobility (tay toho). Commoners included free commoners (nanday
tay nuu, tay yucu,or tay sicaquai); landless tenants who functioned as serfs or servants
(tay situndayu); and slaves who had been captured in battle, acquired as tribute, pur-
chased, or born to a slave. Free commoners were allowed access to less-productive
lands in return for tribute and service to the nobility, and landless tenants and slaves
were under the direct control of the nobility.
Mixtec social divisions were rigid, social mobility was virtually nonexistent, and
class endogamy prevailed. Among the high-ranking royalty, marriage between closely
related individuals was not uncommon, and there are numerous examples of males
in ruling families marrying half- or even full-siblings, their siblings’ daughters, or
cross- or parallel-cousins. The ruling nobility controlled productive agricultural lands
and other resources, they demanded tribute and the labor of the commoners under
their control, they oversaw religious activities, they controlled craft production, and
they enjoyed a number of other exclusive privileges. Because rulers exercised such
complete authority and rarely delegated power, the Mixtecs did not develop an ad-
ministrative bureaucracy in the same way that the Aztecs did.
The Mixtecs are noted for their extraordinarily high-quality gold, silver, and
stonework, polychrome ceramics, and manuscript paintings. In contrast to the way the
Aztecs organized craft production, in which artisans were members of guildlike groups
who lived and worked together in special residential wards, Mixtec artisans were mem-
bers of the royal families, and they lived and worked in the royal courts. The organi-
zation of trade for the Mixtecs also stands in contrast to the Aztec system of trade
described above where a professional merchant class (the pochteca) engaged in long-
distance commercial exchange. The Mixtecs did not have a specialized merchant