Verenice Y Heredia Espinoza
Biographic Data
| ID | 284673 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Verenice Y Heredia Espinoza |
| GIVEN NAMES | Verenice Y Heredia |
| FAMILY NAME | Espinoza |
| SIGNATURE | ESPINOZA V Y H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centro Universitario Juana de Asbaje |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4200-8516 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 198 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
An 8500‐Year Record of Lacustrine Activity and Changes in Archaeological Settlement Patterns in the Magdalena Lake Basin, Jalisco, Mexico
The Magdalena Lake Basin of Jalisco, Mexico, has a rich cultural history from the Early Formative to Protohistoric Periods (1500 BCE–1600 CE). We investigated the relationship between climate chronologies, lake‐level variations, and cultural changes before European contact. Chronostratigraphic reconstructions identified lake‐forming periods reflecting regional and local paleoclimate sequences and coincide with variations in site location, numbers…
Collective Action, Good Government, and Democracy in Tlaxcallan, Mexico
For nearly 200 years, Western social science has argued that good government, embodied in democracy, originated exclusively in Western Europe and was introduced to the rest of the world. This Eurocentric vision has profoundly shaped social science's approach to the non-Western World (and pre-modern Europe). Importantly, distinct theories (e.g., Oriental Despotism, Substantivism, etc.) were developed to address premodern state-building in Asia, th…
The Collapse of a Collective Society
Cross-cultural research on ancient societies demonstrates that collective social formations tend to experience a more sudden collapse with relatively catastrophic effects compared to formations low in collectivity. The demise of collective formations often involves more pronounced social unrest and a more complete disintegration of the agrarian and sociopolitical systems. This article further probes this general finding using the case of Teuchitl…
The Built Environment and the Development of Intermediate Socio-Spatial Units at Los Guachimontones, Jalisco, Mexico
Intermediate socio-spatial units (ISUs), materialized as neighborhoods and districts, were important elements in the ordering of the built environment in large ancient settlements. They are indicative of an increasing vertical and horizontal complexity because they lie between households and the governing authority. Collective action theory holds that ISUs can take many forms and can be created through bottom-up, top-down, or top-down/bottom-up p…
Ancient West Mexicos
What the Teuchitlán Tradition Is, and What the Teuchitlán Tradition Is Not
The Teuchitlán Tradition of Jalisco, Mexico is one of Mesoamerica’s earliest complex societies, but one that has not escaped from a rigid neo-evolutionary description. While this phenomenon has been variously described as a state-like society, a segmentary state, or a chiefdom, archaeologists continue to investigate its socio-political and economic structure. This chapter maintains that this lacuna can be partially filled if researchers focus on …
Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica
In premodern economic systems where the social embedding of exchange provided actors with the ability to control or monopolize trade, including the goods that enter and leave a marketplace, "restricted markets" formed. These markets produced external revenues that could be used to achieve political goals. Conversely, commercialized systems required investment in public goods that incentivize the development of market cooperation and "open markets…
Wealth inequality, social stratification, and the built environment in Late Prehispanic Highland Mexico
Geochemical Variability in the Paredón Obsidian Source, Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico
Chemical characterization reveals intra‐source variation in obsidian from the Paredón source area in Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico. Two chemical sub‐sources of obsidian from Paredón are spatially discrete and cannot be distinguished by visual characteristics. To facilitate future investigations of the prehistoric exploitation of these sub‐sources, an inter‐laboratory comparison of elemental concentrations is presented based on neutron activation ana…
Long-Term Regional Landscape Change in the Northern Tequila Region of Jalisco, Mexico
The Tequila Valleys, in Jalisco, Mexico, are well-known in archaeology for an early complex society known as the Teuchitlán tradition (350 b.c.–a.d. 450/500), but later developments have received little attention. Here I report on the first systematic, full-coverage survey of the Tequila region north of the Tequila volcano. I explore the ways in which the societies that occupied this territory experienced sociopolitical change diachronically by i…
Alternative Pathways to Complexity
The geopolitics of obsidian supply in Postclassic Tlaxcallan
Tlaxcallan
Arguing from the overall settlement plan and the form of buildings, the authors present a persuasive case that the Late Postclassic city of Tlaxcallan and its near neighbour Tizatlan constitute the central elements of a republican state. This is an unusual political prescription, not only in Mesoamerica but further afield
Alternative pathways to power in late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica
Egalitarian Ideology and Political Power in Prehispanic Central Mexico
During the central Mexican late Postclassic period, the Aztec Triple Alliance became the largest and most powerful empire in Mesoamerica. Yet ancient Tlaxcallan (now Tlaxcala, Mexico) resisted incorporation into the empire despite being entirely surrounded by it and despite numerous Aztec military campaigns aimed at the defeat of the Tlaxcaltecas. How did it happen that a relatively small (1,400 km2) polity was able to resist a more powerful foe …
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
Alternative Pathways to Complexity
"[T]he volume represents an important contribution to the examination of issues for which Blanton has furthered scholarship, organized as three sections with cases from Mesoamerica, the Old World, and cross-cultural studies." ?American Antiquity. Alternative Pathways to Complexity focuses on the themes of architecture, economics, and power in the evolution of complex societies. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Europe examine the r…
Alternative pathways to power in late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica
Egalitarian Ideology and Political Power in Prehispanic Central Mexico
During the central Mexican late Postclassic period, the Aztec Triple Alliance became the largest and most powerful empire in Mesoamerica. Yet ancient Tlaxcallan (now Tlaxcala, Mexico) resisted incorporation into the empire despite being entirely surrounded by it and despite numerous Aztec military campaigns aimed at the defeat of the Tlaxcaltecas. How did it happen that a relatively small (1,400 km2) polity was able to resist a more powerful foe …
Tlaxcallan
Arguing from the overall settlement plan and the form of buildings, the authors present a persuasive case that the Late Postclassic city of Tlaxcallan and its near neighbour Tizatlan constitute the central elements of a republican state. This is an unusual political prescription, not only in Mesoamerica but further afield
The geopolitics of obsidian supply in Postclassic Tlaxcallan
Wealth inequality, social stratification, and the built environment in Late Prehispanic Highland Mexico
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica
In premodern economic systems where the social embedding of exchange provided actors with the ability to control or monopolize trade, including the goods that enter and leave a marketplace, "restricted markets" formed. These markets produced external revenues that could be used to achieve political goals. Conversely, commercialized systems required investment in public goods that incentivize the development of market cooperation and "open markets…
Geochemical Variability in the Paredón Obsidian Source, Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico
Chemical characterization reveals intra‐source variation in obsidian from the Paredón source area in Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico. Two chemical sub‐sources of obsidian from Paredón are spatially discrete and cannot be distinguished by visual characteristics. To facilitate future investigations of the prehistoric exploitation of these sub‐sources, an inter‐laboratory comparison of elemental concentrations is presented based on neutron activation ana…
Long-Term Regional Landscape Change in the Northern Tequila Region of Jalisco, Mexico
The Tequila Valleys, in Jalisco, Mexico, are well-known in archaeology for an early complex society known as the Teuchitlán tradition (350 b.c.–a.d. 450/500), but later developments have received little attention. Here I report on the first systematic, full-coverage survey of the Tequila region north of the Tequila volcano. I explore the ways in which the societies that occupied this territory experienced sociopolitical change diachronically by i…
Collective Action, Good Government, and Democracy in Tlaxcallan, Mexico
For nearly 200 years, Western social science has argued that good government, embodied in democracy, originated exclusively in Western Europe and was introduced to the rest of the world. This Eurocentric vision has profoundly shaped social science's approach to the non-Western World (and pre-modern Europe). Importantly, distinct theories (e.g., Oriental Despotism, Substantivism, etc.) were developed to address premodern state-building in Asia, th…
The Collapse of a Collective Society
Cross-cultural research on ancient societies demonstrates that collective social formations tend to experience a more sudden collapse with relatively catastrophic effects compared to formations low in collectivity. The demise of collective formations often involves more pronounced social unrest and a more complete disintegration of the agrarian and sociopolitical systems. This article further probes this general finding using the case of Teuchitl…
The Built Environment and the Development of Intermediate Socio-Spatial Units at Los Guachimontones, Jalisco, Mexico
Intermediate socio-spatial units (ISUs), materialized as neighborhoods and districts, were important elements in the ordering of the built environment in large ancient settlements. They are indicative of an increasing vertical and horizontal complexity because they lie between households and the governing authority. Collective action theory holds that ISUs can take many forms and can be created through bottom-up, top-down, or top-down/bottom-up p…
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
Egalitarian Ideology and Political Power in Prehispanic Central Mexico
During the central Mexican late Postclassic period, the Aztec Triple Alliance became the largest and most powerful empire in Mesoamerica. Yet ancient Tlaxcallan (now Tlaxcala, Mexico) resisted incorporation into the empire despite being entirely surrounded by it and despite numerous Aztec military campaigns aimed at the defeat of the Tlaxcaltecas. How did it happen that a relatively small (1,400 km2) polity was able to resist a more powerful foe …
Tlaxcallan
Arguing from the overall settlement plan and the form of buildings, the authors present a persuasive case that the Late Postclassic city of Tlaxcallan and its near neighbour Tizatlan constitute the central elements of a republican state. This is an unusual political prescription, not only in Mesoamerica but further afield
Alternative pathways to power in late Postclassic Highland Mesoamerica
The geopolitics of obsidian supply in Postclassic Tlaxcallan
Alternative Pathways to Complexity
Long-Term Regional Landscape Change in the Northern Tequila Region of Jalisco, Mexico
The Tequila Valleys, in Jalisco, Mexico, are well-known in archaeology for an early complex society known as the Teuchitlán tradition (350 b.c.–a.d. 450/500), but later developments have received little attention. Here I report on the first systematic, full-coverage survey of the Tequila region north of the Tequila volcano. I explore the ways in which the societies that occupied this territory experienced sociopolitical change diachronically by i…
Geochemical Variability in the Paredón Obsidian Source, Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico
Chemical characterization reveals intra‐source variation in obsidian from the Paredón source area in Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico. Two chemical sub‐sources of obsidian from Paredón are spatially discrete and cannot be distinguished by visual characteristics. To facilitate future investigations of the prehistoric exploitation of these sub‐sources, an inter‐laboratory comparison of elemental concentrations is presented based on neutron activation ana…
Ancient West Mexicos
What the Teuchitlán Tradition Is, and What the Teuchitlán Tradition Is Not
The Teuchitlán Tradition of Jalisco, Mexico is one of Mesoamerica’s earliest complex societies, but one that has not escaped from a rigid neo-evolutionary description. While this phenomenon has been variously described as a state-like society, a segmentary state, or a chiefdom, archaeologists continue to investigate its socio-political and economic structure. This chapter maintains that this lacuna can be partially filled if researchers focus on …
Exchange Systems in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica
In premodern economic systems where the social embedding of exchange provided actors with the ability to control or monopolize trade, including the goods that enter and leave a marketplace, "restricted markets" formed. These markets produced external revenues that could be used to achieve political goals. Conversely, commercialized systems required investment in public goods that incentivize the development of market cooperation and "open markets…
Wealth inequality, social stratification, and the built environment in Late Prehispanic Highland Mexico
The Built Environment and the Development of Intermediate Socio-Spatial Units at Los Guachimontones, Jalisco, Mexico
Intermediate socio-spatial units (ISUs), materialized as neighborhoods and districts, were important elements in the ordering of the built environment in large ancient settlements. They are indicative of an increasing vertical and horizontal complexity because they lie between households and the governing authority. Collective action theory holds that ISUs can take many forms and can be created through bottom-up, top-down, or top-down/bottom-up p…
Collective Action, Good Government, and Democracy in Tlaxcallan, Mexico
For nearly 200 years, Western social science has argued that good government, embodied in democracy, originated exclusively in Western Europe and was introduced to the rest of the world. This Eurocentric vision has profoundly shaped social science's approach to the non-Western World (and pre-modern Europe). Importantly, distinct theories (e.g., Oriental Despotism, Substantivism, etc.) were developed to address premodern state-building in Asia, th…
The Collapse of a Collective Society
Cross-cultural research on ancient societies demonstrates that collective social formations tend to experience a more sudden collapse with relatively catastrophic effects compared to formations low in collectivity. The demise of collective formations often involves more pronounced social unrest and a more complete disintegration of the agrarian and sociopolitical systems. This article further probes this general finding using the case of Teuchitl…
An 8500‐Year Record of Lacustrine Activity and Changes in Archaeological Settlement Patterns in the Magdalena Lake Basin, Jalisco, Mexico
The Magdalena Lake Basin of Jalisco, Mexico, has a rich cultural history from the Early Formative to Protohistoric Periods (1500 BCE–1600 CE). We investigated the relationship between climate chronologies, lake‐level variations, and cultural changes before European contact. Chronostratigraphic reconstructions identified lake‐forming periods reflecting regional and local paleoclimate sequences and coincide with variations in site location, numbers…
Alternative Pathways to Complexity
"[T]he volume represents an important contribution to the examination of issues for which Blanton has furthered scholarship, organized as three sections with cases from Mesoamerica, the Old World, and cross-cultural studies." ?American Antiquity. Alternative Pathways to Complexity focuses on the themes of architecture, economics, and power in the evolution of complex societies. Case studies from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Europe examine the r…
Archaeology (12 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (12 works) · Geography (11 works) · Latin American history and culture (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Collective action (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (6 works)