Distribution, Transportation, and the Persistence of Household Ceramic Production in the Tarascan State

Abstract

The transportation of pots to market in the Prehispanic Tarascan State was not merely transference of these goods, but part of the logistics of marketing, an act embedded within a local cultural context and comprised of physical and cultural limits upon the participants. This paper addresses two concerns and draws heavily upon geographic information systems and the ethnohistoric and ethnographic record from the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, in Michoacán, Mexico and the highlands of Western Mexico. First, we model the practicality of household potters controlling the transportation of their products within the Tarascan market system. To construct this model we address issues of transport technology, the topography of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, and information regarding the cultural and political rules governing transportation access within the Late Postclassic Lake Pátzcuaro Basin. Second, we consider the relative stability of the household organization of ceramic production during the emergence of the Tarascan state in light of the significant recent changes in the Basin’s transport technology and networks. We conclude that, despite changes associated with state emergence, basic walking and water transportation networks did not significantly change, and household potters within the Tarascan state retained control over both the transportation of their ceramics and their distribution within the marketplace.