Intermediate Elites in Pre-Columbian States and Empires

Christina M. Elson, R. Alan Covey

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780816524761
• eBook ISBN: 9780816549900
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: Social Sciences

From the Mesoamerican highlands to the Colca Valley in Peru, pre-Columbian civilizations were bastions of power that have largely been viewed through the lens of rulership, or occasionally through bottom-up perspectives of resistance. Rather than focusing on rulers or peasants, this book examines how intermediate elites—both men and women—helped to develop, sustain, and resist state policies and institutions. Employing new archaeological and ethnohistorical data, its contributors trace a 2,000-year trajectory of elite social evolution in the Zapotec, Wari, Aztec, Inka, and Maya civilizations.

This is the first volume to consider how individuals subordinate to imperial rulers helped to shape specific forms of state and imperial organization. Taking a broader scope than previous studies, it is one of the few works to systematically address these issues in both Mesoamerica and the Central Andes. It considers how these individuals influenced the long-term development of the largest civilizations of the ancient Americas, opening a new window on the role of intermediate elites in the rise and fall of ancient states and empires worldwide.

The authors demonstrate how such evidence as settlement patterns, architecture, decorative items, and burial patterns reflect the roles of intermediate elites in their respective societies, arguing that they were influential actors whose interests were highly significant in shaping the specific forms of state and imperial organization. Their emphasis on provincial elites particularly shifts examination of early states away from royal capitals and imperial courts, explaining how local elites and royal bureaucrats had significant impact on the development and organization of premodern states.

Together, these papers demonstrate that intricate networks of intermediate elites bound these ancient societies together—and that competition between individuals and groups contributed to their decline and eventual collapse. By addressing current theoretical concerns with agency, resistance to state domination, and the co-option of local leadership by imperial administrators, it offers valuable new insight into the utility of studying intermediate elites.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Intermediate Elites in New World States and Empires / Christina M. Elson and R. Alan Covey
• 2. Resistance Strategies and Early State Formation in Oaxaca, Mexico / Charles S. Spencer and Elsa M. Redmond
• 3. Intermediate Elites and the Political Landscape of the Early Zapotec State / Christina M. Elson
• 4. Intermediate-Elite Agency in the Wari Empire: The Bioarchaeological and Mortuary Evidence / Tiffany A. Tung and Anita G. Cook
• 5. The Role of Intermediate Elites in the Balkanization and Reformation of Post-Wari Society in Nasca, Peru / Christina A. Conlee and Katharina Schreiber
• 6. Intermediate Elites in the Inka Heartland, A.D. 1000 - 1500 / R. Alan Covey
• 7. The Management of Scale or the Creation of Scale: Administrative Processes in Two Inka Provinces / Craig Morris and R. Alan Covey
• 8. The Role of Provincial Elites in the Aztec Empire / Frances Berdan
• 9. Provincial Elites and the Limits of Dominant Ideology in the Aztec Empire / Elizabeth Brumfiel
• 10. Collagua "Eco-Logistics" : Intermediate Elites and Hybrid Community Structures in the Colca Valley, Peru / Steven Wernke
• 11. Identifying Elites and Their Strategies / Joyce Marcus
• References
• List of Contributors
• Index