Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies

4: A Multiscalar Perspective on Market Exchange in the Classic-Period Valley of Oaxaca

85 The market, it turns out, is the hollow core at the heart of economics. (lIE 1997:342) All economies are embedded in societies, and the economic anthropological approach to economic analysis sensitizes us to the same issues in large-scale industrialized societies. (PlAttnER 1989A:4) The new paradigm begins by rejecting the idea of state intervention in the economy. It insists that state action always plays a major role in constituting economies. (BloCk 1994:696) Until recently, the role, significance, and diversity of preindustrial markets (and perhaps issues surrounding markets more generally) have been insufficiently theorized and investigated by archaeologists and scholars in cognate disciplines (Minc 2006:82). Of late, however, conceptual perspectives have begun to shift (see Block 1994; Lie 1997; Plattner 1989a:4) with the growing realization by researchers in several fields that all economies (despite significant diversity) are culturally constituted and embedded in larger societal contexts, albeit in different ways (e.g., Alexander and Alexander 1991; Barber 1995; Block 2003; Dequech 2003; Gemici 2008; Granovetter 1985; Krippner 2001). As a consequence, the oft-supposed complete break in operating principles and institutions between economies in the ancient past Gary M. Feinman and Linda M. Nicholas Chapter Four A Multiscalar Perspective on Market Exchange in the Classic-Period valley of oaxaca gARy M. FEInMAn And lIndA M. nICHolAS 86 and the industrialized present is not as revolutionarily distinctive as many earlier scholars envisioned (Garraty, Chapter 1). With the recognized narrowing of this previously presumed gulf in economic practice, some historians, economists, classicists, and economic sociologists have reframed their attention productively on ancient economies, particularly in the Mediterranean world (e.g., Manning and Morris, eds. 2005; Temin 2001), yielding new findings concerning the importance of market exchange and commercialization. With a few key exceptions (e.g., Blanton 1983; M. E. Smith 1979), anthropologists and archaeologists have yet to probe these issues as deeply, despite their great potential to broaden empirically and theoretically the investigatory scope on preindustrial economies outside the classical world. Now, with this volume and other ongoing studies , topics concerning markets and market exchange are being placed more squarely on the archaeological agenda. We begin by briefly summarizing important conceptual and analytical shifts relevant to the study of markets and preindustrial economies. Although many of these new perspectives have been formulated outside archaeology, they are relevant to anthropological perspectives on past economies. From this broadened interpretive perspective, we turn our attention to a multiscalar examination of the Classic-period (AD 200–900) economy of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico (Figure 4.1). Employing this multiscalar perspective, we propose that a system of marketplace exchange was a key element of Oaxaca’s economy over a millennium ago and discuss implications of this interpretive position. Marketplaces and markets are (and have been) central institutions for many societies , taking distinct forms in past and present global contexts. At the same time, historical analyses now indicate that market exchange and marketplaces, like many other core human institutions (such as state forms of government), had multiple lines of origin and development and, seemingly, deeper temporal roots than previous generations of scholars thought (Dahlin et al. 2007; Gledhill and Larsen 1982; Manning and Morris, eds. 2005; Shen 1994; Temin 2006; Abbott, Chapter 3). Like states, market systems also were and are highly variable in organization and scale (e.g., C. Smith 1974, 1976a, 1976b). Because of their significance, diversity in character, the varied contexts in which they appear to have operated, and their deep histories, the origins and long record of market activities ought to be a fertile topic for investigation by archaeologists and scholars in cognate fields. To date, we have often been hamstrung by two impediments: (1) problems concerning the traditional ways questions about market exchange, marketplaces, and their past importance were framed theoretically across the relevant disciplines, and (2) the empirical difficulty of defining and documenting market exchange, activities, and places unequivocally through archaeological research. We consider both of these issues, albeit somewhat indirectly. We briefly outline the theoretical shifts in several fields that are spurring reconsideration of issues regarding marketplaces, market exchange, and their historical significance. Then, building on this broadened perspec- A MultISCAlAR PERSPECtIvE on MARkEt ExCHAngE 87 tive, we turn our attention to prehispanic Oaxaca. Because there is likely no single archaeological indicator to identify and define the nature of markets and marketplace exchange indisputably, we adopt a multiscalar perspective to study the economy of...