Producing communities: salt-making in late Postclassic and early Colonial Mexico

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ABSTRACT This article examines relationships between the production of salt in the Basin of Mexico and the emergence of salt-making settlements during the Late Postclassic (ca. 1350–1521 CE) and Early Colonial (ca. 1521–1650 CE) periods. In archaeological practice, the veil that hides producers behind commodities becomes more difficult to pierce when the commodities themselves are invisible today, as is the case with an ephemeral good like salt. Nevertheless, archaeological and ethnohistoric data show how locally produced salt became a widely traded commodity in the expanding economy of the Triple Alliance and how its uses diversified within the early capitalist economy of New Spain. Contrary to the expectation that commodification leads to alienation, I find evidence that the work of producing salt also produced communities. In fact, these communities endured for centuries, adapting and adjusting to new demands and new consumers in the context of decreasing control of production and knowledge of markets.