ABSTRACT
Macro-regional investigations in Mesoamerica have focused primarily on two "text-aided" contexts, the structure of the Late Postclassic Aztec tribute domain, and the relations between the multiple Maya polities that inhabited the eastern lowlands during the Classic period. This chapter investigates the dynamic interactions between the centers and their surrounding hinterlands. It argues that the occupants of the Central area, with the exception of the inhabitants of Monte Alban, were not involved in craft activities because they were encouraged or coerced to emphasize agricultural production to help feed the non-producers at the urban center. The chapter suggests that the character of occupational specialization was different in Ejutla than in the Valley of Oaxaca. The Ejutla region continued to be a lightly settled frontier lacking any archaeological indication of the emergent hierarchical institutions so evident in Oaxaca at the time. During Monte Alban V, the relative political fragmentation of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca was maintained.
