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Cultivation Intensity and Residential Site Structure: An Ethnoarchaeological Examination of Peasant Agriculture in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas W. Killion
Thomas W. Killion*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
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Abstract

Agricultural and residential space were integrated in prehistoric lowland Mesoamerica for productive and domestic activities to produce distinctive patterns of settlement and land use visible in the archaeological record. Ethnoarchaeological studies provide information on the behavioral component of site formation in such contexts. Contemporary residential refuse treatment and the use of infield agricultural land are examined here from a sample of farming households in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas of southern Veracruz, Mexico. A model of site structure (the House-Lot model) relates the maintenance of refuse-free (clear area) and refuse-laden (intermediate area) spaces within the house lot to household farming activities outside of the residential lot. Variation in the intensity of cultivation on infield plots is shown to correlate with variability in the size of areas within house lots. This research suggests that the distribution of prehistoric residential debris might be used to diagnose factors of ancient agriculture and settlement in contexts commonly encountered during archaeological excavation and survey.

Este trabajo presenta un modelo de cómo los campesinos contemporáneos utilizan el espacio residencial y cómo este uso del espacio resulta en un patrón regular del sitio habitacional. El modelo, basado en investigaciones etnoarqueológicas en la Sierra de los Tuxtlas al sur del estado de Veracruz, México, llama la atención sobre las diferencias básicas en el uso del espacio habitacional de los solares campesinos tropicales y permite una expansión en nuestro entendimiento de las consecuencias materiales del uso del espacio habitacional fundamental al desarollo de métodos arqueológicos en contextos residenciales en Mesoamérica. El enfoque de la ponencia es la relación observada entre las actividades agrícolas realizadas afuera de la residencia familiar y la distribución espacial de los elementos estructurales y desechos adentro del solar. El modelo solar está compuesto de áreas de actividades domésticas incluyendo el núcleoestructural (los edificios), el árealibre o limpia de desechos alrededor de los edificios residenciales, y el área intermedia de despedicios (dispersos y concentrados) en la periferia del solar. La muestra de familias estudiadas (N = 40) en la región de los Tuxtlas sugiere que el tamaño de estos componentes cambia, en parte, con la intensidad de cultivo de los campos cercanos y los campos lejanos de las familias campesinas. El estudio tiene importancia para la interpretación material de los comportamientos en contextos domésticos actuales y la interpretación del registro arqueológico en contextos similares de las tierras bajas y húmedas de Mesoamérica antigua.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , September 1990 , pp. 191 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1990

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