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An Inquiry into the Development of Complex Society at Chalcatzingo, Morelos, Mexico: Methods and Results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mark E. Harlan*
Affiliation:
Office of Contract Archaeology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131

Abstract

The development of social complexity at the Formative period site of Chalcatzingo, Morelos, Mexico, is traced through its effect on the distribution of variability in the anthropomorphic figurines found there. A new methodology for the analysis of stylistic data is applied. The implications of the character and timing of elite developments at Chalcatzingo are placed in the more general context of highland developments in central Mexico. It is suggested that complex society arose in the region primarily as a result of internal processes and that external stimulus from the Olmec area was relatively unimportant.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1979

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