Wetlands Agriculture and its Impact on Institutional and Subsistence Economics among the Postclassic Populations of the Valley of Puebla and Tlaxcala

The development of agricultural technologies has been a key element in the formulation of theories that address state control of food production. In Mesoamerican societies, the cultivation of species under improved environmental conditions suggests intensification processes to fund the growth and expansion of the state apparatus. Nonetheless, the relationship between production at the institutional level and that reserved for subsistence and its association with indigenous tributary systems is poorly understood. During the pre-Hispanic period, parts of the western region of Puebla and central Tlaxcala harbored significant wetland areas that allowed for the development of cultivation technologies adapted to flooded environments through the creation of raised and drained fields. This paper explores the relationship between small-scale technological development, wetland agricultural intensification, and its impact on the domestic and institutional economy in the Postclassic populations of the Puebla-Tlaxcala region.

Aurelio López is a researcher at the Tlaxcala center of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. He studied for his Ph.D. in the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University (2011). His research interests include the development of ancient agricultural systems in the Puebla-Tlaxcala region, the study of the domestic and institutional economy of the Pre-Hispanic peoples of central Mexico, and processes of change in indigenous land tenure systems in the Postclassic and Early Colonial periods. Today, he is Co-director of the Tepeticpac, Tlaxcala, Archaeological Project and a collaborator in the Tlalancaleca, Puebla, archaeological project. His recent publications include "Los glifos de suelo en códices Acolhua de la Colonia Temprana: un reanálisis de su significado" (Desacatos, 2011), "Tepeticpac: la arqueología del primer señorío de Tlaxcallan"(Jornadas de Antropología e Historia INAH, 2011), "El impacto de la canícula en poblaciones agrícolas de Tepeaca, siglo XVI" (Itinerarios, 2012), and "Terrazguero smallholders and the function of agricultural tribute in sixteenth-century Tepeaca, México"(Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 2012).