ABSTRACT
A critical theme in the archaeology of religion is the dynamic tension between those beliefs and practices that connect people and those that divide them. Tensions between more politicized religion promoted by the powerful and the differential participation of rural inhabitants and commoners were especially acute during periods that witnessed the transition to urban lifeways and institutionalized inequality. This chapter examines similarity and variability in the cultural logic of religious structures and practices within precolumbian central Mexico (ca. 1500 BCE – 1521 CE). Using the site of La Laguna, Tlaxcala, as a detailed case, I describe elements of the religious tradition that crystallized during the later Formative period (ca. 600 BCE – 100 CE) and show how its cultural logic fostered the simultaneous growth of communities and differentiation of their members.
