or inherited social power. People lived in tribal communities
consisting of hamlets of perhaps 20 or so huts built near the
fi elds the inhabitants tended. No one’s hut was much better or
worse than anyone else’s. Much of the society’s activity cen-
tered on agriculture and seasonal changes in the weather. Most
communities were entirely independent, but some contact and
trade occurred as one community, because of ecological fac-
tors, was able to produce a commodity useful to a neighboring
community that was unable to produce it for itself.
It was during the Middle Preclassic Period that a social
order began to develop. Th roughout Mesoamerica important
changes took place, particularly in agriculture. People began
to control the environment by building bridges, dams, and ca-
nals to store and channel water. Th ey began not only to grow
and harvest larger crops but also to grow a greater variety
of crops. Further, they began to specialize. Each microregion
increasingly focused on the crops that were best suited to the
local conditions and then traded with other communities for
crops that were better suited to those communities’ environ-
ments. Ultimately, a greater abundance of food enabled some
people to specialize in nonagricultural activities, such as pot-
tery making.
Along with this increased prosperity and technical inno-
vation came social stratifi cation, meaning that a social hierar-
chy began to develop. (Th e word stratifi cation comes from the
Latin strata, meaning “layers.”) For example, archaeologists
studying the Olmec civilization of the Gulf Coast of Mex-
ico have discovered that this society was the fi rst in Meso-
america to bury some people in more elaborate tombs, fi lled
with richer funerary off erings, than they buried most of the
population. Surviving art depicts people wearing sumptuous
clothing, and it appears that the elite came to place high value
on clothes made from exotic materials, oft en imported from
far-fl ung locations. Further, archaeologists have discovered a
considerable number of artifacts that could have been owned
only by higher-class, wealthier people. Th ese artifacts include
ceramics made with rich and various colors, mirrors made
with exotic minerals, fi gurines made of greenstone, cinnabar
powder (used as a pigment), and jewelry made of semipre-
cious stones, shells, and bones.
Historians have off ered many theories about why social
stratifi cation took place. Most of the theories have to do with
the control of precious resources. Some people may have
achieved a higher status because they had better access to val-
ued resources. Others may have acquired special skills that
had value as populations became larger and denser. Others
may have possessed particular knowledge about agriculture
or waterworks or some such useful subject. Still others may
have acquired control over networks for trade and exchange
with other communities, becoming the Americas’ fi rst entre-
preneurs and business moguls. Finally, some belonging to a
priestly class may have been thought to have special divine or
supernatural powers.
No matter what the cause, it is likely that kinship groups
played a role, as families acquired resources or means of so-cial control that were passed down through the generations.
Th us power and social status were now inherited rather
than earned, as they had been in earlier societies. Another
important factor was the development of writing systems.
Th e ability to write—and therefore to record history, myth,
and political information—placed power and prestige in the
hands of an educated few.THE ZAPOTEC
Th e shift toward stratifi ed societies is illustrated by the Za-
potec people of the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, whose civili-
zation began to fl ourish in about 600 c.e. and who built a
number of large cities. Th e Zapotec believed that there was
a genealogical connection between people and the spirit
world. In other words, they believed that certain people had
divine origins. Th is belief was rooted in the Zapotec cosmol-
ogy—the branch of thought that deals with the history and
origins of the universe.
Th e Zapotec believed that there were two realms, that of
the earth and that of the sky. Th e earth was generally kind,
but it occasionally expressed anger, primarily through earth-
quakes. Th e celestial realm, too, was generally kind, but it
expressed anger through bolts of lightning and thunder—a
thunder roll was called “lightning’s earthquake.” Highly
stylized images depicting earthquakes and lightning began to
appear on the earliest Zapotec pottery. Th ese images appear
on burial pottery, but only for males—suggesting to archae-
ologists that the Zapotec believed that the earth and sky were
the ancestors of some male descent groups.
Other evidence supports the notion that Zapotec civi-
lization was marked by status diff erences. One is called the
“mat” motif. It is believed that the civilization’s rulers showed
their status by not allowing their feet to touch the ground.
Unlike ordinary people, the elite wore sandals rather than go-
ing barefoot; they sat on benches, thrones, or stools, and they
placed reed mats on the fl oors when they held an audience
with others. Pottery illustrates all of these behaviors.
Burial position also can provide clues about social status.
Archaeologists have excavated a number of Zapotec cemeter-
ies, and their fi ndings shed light on the status of the people
buried there. In one cemetery most of the people were bur-
ied in a prone position with a jade bead in the mouth and
a modest collection of pottery in the tomb. Th eir arms were
at their sides. However, six people, all men, were buried in a
kneeling position. Archaeologists believe that these men, as
well as people in other cemeteries who were buried in a sit-
ting position or with their knees drawn up (perhaps seated
on stools that have since decayed), were of higher status and
probably rulers. Th ose buried prone were in a subordinate po-
sition. Similar diff erences in burial practices have been found
in other parts of Mesoamerica. In Panama, for instance, the
bodies of chiefs were fi rst dried out in a smokehouse and then
buried in common graves.
Cranial deformation, or reshaping of the head, is an-
other mark of social status. In human infants the cranium1042 social organization: The Americas0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1042 1042 10/10/07 2:30:51 PM