ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the relations between people, maize, rain, and earth and related phenomena involved the emergence of new kinds of beings, including deities and animate buildings as well as changes in acts such as rainfall and sacrifice through which vital forces were transferred among such beings. It highlights the inseparability of mountains, people, rain, earth, and maize in the development of urbanism at Monte Alban and throughout Mesoamerica. One of the earliest urban centers in the Mexican Highlands was the mountaintop city of Monte Alban inhabited by Zapotec-speaking peoples in the Valley of Oaxaca. The orientation of the buildings was changed from 8 degrees west of north to 3–6 degrees east of north, which would become the dominant one for public buildings at Monte Alban following its founding in ca. 500 bce. Monte Alban was founded in ca. 500 bce by people from San Jose Mogote and nearby communities.
