Social and Ethnic Identity in the Classic Metropolis of Teotihuacan

Abstract

Teotihuacan's degree of urban planning and its population density were among the highest in prehispanic times; it is the first case of a vast multiethnic metropolis, and it has a corporate organization. Two different spatial scales may be used to address the problem of social and ethnic identity: the apartment compound as a whole is one of the scales where social identity is recreated through the determination of access to subsistence resources; occupational specialization; distribution of imported or exotic materials; and religious ritual and funerary practices. The second scale where social identity may be analyzed is the ward or barrio . Although Millon's model of social stratification is suggestive, a more complex scenario has appeared when analyzing data from the extensive excavations. The competition of the neighborhood centers to amass sumptuary goods and the enrichment of their intermediate elites tore down the corporate desideratum of the Teotihuacan society.