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Soft Infrastructure: Realizing Value of Craft Producers in Small Centers and Settlements in Veracruz, Mesoamerica

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Realizing Value in Mesoamerica

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies ((PASTAE))

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Abstract

The role of craft production within centers in Mesoamerica is interpreted in various ways, depending on its identified proximity to centers and, by extension, its political valuation. This paper will explore how craft-producing households realized value as a kind of soft infrastructure that was durable through political vicissitudes using a case study in Sauce, Veracruz, Mexico. Prior research on Late Classic era centers in south-central Veracruz indicated that their political elites, coming after the decline in power and settlement of the large Classic period center of Cerro de las Mesas, may have supported craft production directly, using craft production as a means of establishing political legitimacy. By the Middle Postclassic period settlements of the regions, craft production and producers show variable levels of independence, and apparently had access to wealth and possibly more arable land, despite evidence suggesting less direct connections to elites in the Sauce center.

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Acknowledgements

The Sauce Archaeological Project was supported by Grants from the NSF (BSC-0742324) and SHESC(Anthropology) at ASU, with permission from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia of Mexico. I am very grateful to Barbara L. Stark for her guidance and support for SAP. The field project relied on Don Ciro and Gerardo Barragán, and the help and guidance of Annick Daneels and Sergio Vázquez Zárate on local Postclassic materials and logistical advice. I am grateful for the invitation from Scott Hutson and Charles Golden to think harder about valuation in Mesoamerica. I am also grateful for support from Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Plum Ossa-Richardson, Jeff Stepien, and Iris and Alan Ossa-Stepien. Any errors that remain are my own.

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  1. State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, USA

    Alanna Ossa

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  1. Alanna Ossa
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Correspondence to Alanna Ossa .

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    Scott R. Hutson

  2. Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Charles Golden

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Ossa, A. (2023). Soft Infrastructure: Realizing Value of Craft Producers in Small Centers and Settlements in Veracruz, Mesoamerica. In: Hutson, S.R., Golden, C. (eds) Realizing Value in Mesoamerica. Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44168-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44168-4_11

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