Mesoamerican Plazas: Arenas of Community and Power

Introduction. Gathering in an Open Space: Introduction to Mesoamerican Plazas / Takeshi Inomata and Kenichiro Tsukamoto

3 IntroduCtIon Gathering in an open space Introduction to Mesoamerican Plazas Takeshi inomaTa and kenichiro TsukamoTo Plazas are focal points of mesoamerican public life. Throughout mesoamerican history, plazas have been essential components of the site layouts of cities, towns, and even small villages. The integration of formal plazas into public spaces dates back to the Early Formative period (ca. 1650 Bc) in mesoamerica (clark 2004), and plaza-centered designs continue today in many Latin american cities (Low 2000; richardson 2003; Wagner et al. 2013). Despite this ubiquity and long historical tradition, archaeological and historical studies of ancient mesoamerican plazas have been limited in contrast to those of surrounding monumental architecture such as pyramidal temples and palaces. The scarcity of studies examining plazas results from two problems. First, many scholars assumed that prehispanic mesoamericans invested much labor, wealth, and symbolic value in pyramids and other prominent buildings and viewed plazas as remaining empty spaces of lesser cultural and social import. second, even when researchers recognized the potential value of plazas, they thought that these vacant spaces offered few clues about their use and meaning (holley et al. 1993:306). The goal of this volume is to challenge these perceptions. The authors set plazas as central foci of their inquiry and examine their social significance in various parts of mesoamerica (figure i.1). We recognize that plazas do not represent the only type of public space in most parts of mesoamerica. There were most likely other kinds of space, ranging from broad causeways to unmarked open spaces outside of settlements, where a large number of people could interact. nonetheless, plazas stand out as clearly recognizable and marked spaces. The high visibility of plazas is probably not unrelated to the social significance that people invested in those spaces. The chapters in this volume show that the study of plazas concern the broad issues of lived experiences of people and the political processes that they participated in. Figure i.1. map showing the location of sites discussed in this volume. Introduction 5 Politics of Public Spaces our interest in plazas derives from theoretical perspectives that emphasize the importance of bodily actions set in specific historical and material settings in the creation and negotiation of social relations and values, as outlined by practice theory (Bourdieu 1977; Giddens 1979, 1984; ortner 1984) and performance theory (coben and inomata 2006; schechner 1985; Turner 1982). These theories direct our attention to the interplay between power relations and embodied practices mediated by material culture and historically shaped perceptions of meanings. The central point is that physical interactions among people are not mere masks or outcomes of political machinations held behind the scene, but they are the political processes in which people create, negotiate, and subvert social realities. if so, spacious plazas that were arguably designed for interactions among a large number of individuals must have provided a critical arena for the constitution and transformation of society (Foucault 1977, 1984; Geertz 1980; houston 1998; inomata 2006a; inomata and Lawrence 2006; rabinow 2003; schechner 1985; scott 1998; Turner 1982). moreover, any society necessitates interactions among individuals based on their sensory perceptions to produce and reproduce collective identities (Geertz 1980; inomata 2006a). in premodern societies that lacked print and communication technologies, which facilitated such interactions across distance, physical gatherings of many individuals in large spaces could contribute significantly to this process. The centrality of large plazas in most mesoamerican settlements suggests that their residents consciously or unconsciously recognized the necessity of such gatherings and that plazas formed essential elements in historically ingrained forms of political discourse and interaction in this area. more specifically, the study of plazas concerns the central issues in archaeology including the negotiation of power relations, community-making, and the constitution of political authorities. it addresses both Foucault’s version of power rooted in social relations and collectivity and Weber’s version, which is possessed and executed by certain individuals, groups, and institutions. as to the former, many mesoamerican plazas appear to provide classic examples for the technology of power based on spectacles that Foucault (1977) saw prevailing in premodern societies. as dramatic events were witnessed by many individuals, the authority and value of society were created and reconstituted. Foucault argued that in modern European society this form of power was replaced by disciplinary power that created docile bodies through physical and perceived interactions set in certain spatial devices. however, as many critics have noted, we probably...