| Summary: | Settlement, mortuary and architectural data are used in this thesis to examine the emergence
and development of cultural complexity in Early and Middle Formative societies in the Soconusco
and Valley of Oaxaca. A model is presented that examines the degree to which a culture is internally
or externally focused in order to explore evolutionary process. I posit that there is an inverse
relationship between the quantity of energy that is expended on internally focused, intra-polity
competition and that which is expended on externally oriented, inter-polity endeavours. The
Soconusco data suggest an internally focused political organization that resulted in an early
development of political complexity. However, such power was fleeting and populations nucleated
around successive political centers across the region, none lasting more than a century or two.
Complexity in this region is documented through settlement patterns and the conspicuous
consumption of labour reflected in architectural construction, at the heart of each polity. Conversely,
data from the Valley of Oaxaca suggest a more externally focused system. San Jose Mogote
dominated the political arena for over a thousand years; expanding its size and focus beyond the
limits of the valley. Public architecture of a moderate scale and of a more uniform pattern at each
site is found throughout the Valley of Oaxaca. Domestic architecture was also modest and
underemphasized political and economic differences. The horizontal organization (i.e.,
internal/external focus) of the two regions affected the rate and form of their respective evolutionary
trajectories. Mortuary data from the Early Formative periods of both regions do not reflect the same
degree of complexity as the other classes of data and this suggests that when cultural complexity
is emerging expressions of social differentiation may lag behind political hierarchy. === Arts, Faculty of === Anthropology, Department of === Graduate
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