RITUAL DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL IDENTITIES: A STUDY OF MORTUARY BEHAVIORS AT TEOTIHUACAN

The research presented here confronts the issue of ritual variation and its role in
structuring the social dynamics of ancient Teotihuacan, a state that dominated central
Mexico during the first half-millennium A.D. Most of Teotihuacan’s urban population
lived in apartment compounds located across the city, but the nature of these co-residing groups is not well understood. Even less is known about how subordinate settlements beyond the city limits were organized and to what degree they identified socially with urban Teotihuacan. Because ritual practices are salient in the negotiation of social identities related to gender, age, ethnicity, social status, and religious affiliation, they are an important focus of archaeological research.

This project involved a comparative investigation of mortuary practices at four
distinctive residential locales: the urban compounds of Tlajinga 33, La Ventilla 3, and
Tlailotlacan 6, and the rural settlement of Axotlan, 35 km west of Teotihuacan. The ritual and social organization of each of these residential groups was explored through a detailed investigation of the mortuary treatments of individuals of varying sex and age. The groups were then compared on a larger scale to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the social topography of Teotihuacan society. Results indicate that Teotihuacan’s residential groups were socially delineated in part through the perpetuation of distinctive ritual practices and associated materials. At the level of the state, Teotihuacan exhibited a great deal of outward uniformity in material culture. However, it concomitantly comprised a highly heterogeneous population whose members did not engage in uniform ritual conventions. This has important implications for understanding how ancient states succeeded, politically, in the face of persistent qualitative differences between the official transcript of state-level ceremony and the reality of domestic ritual. Moreover, intrasocietal variation in ritual practices and associated ideologies may reflect sources of social tension that ultimately contributed to the dissolution of the Teotihuacan state.

本研究聚焦于仪式差异问题，及其在塑造公元首个千年前半叶统治中墨西哥地区的古代特奥蒂瓦坎（Teotihuacan）城邦的社会动态过程中所扮演的角色。特奥蒂瓦坎的绝大多数城市居民居住在散布于全城的公寓式复合居住区中，但学界对这类共居群体的社会属性仍知之甚少；而对于城市外围从属聚落的组织模式，以及它们在社会层面对特奥蒂瓦坎城市的认同程度，我们的认知则更为匮乏。鉴于仪式实践在协商性别、年龄、族群、社会地位与宗教归属相关的社会身份过程中具有显著作用，其遂成为考古学研究的重要议题。
本项目对四处具有代表性的居住遗址的丧葬习俗开展了比较研究：分别是特奥蒂瓦坎城内的特拉因加33（Tlajinga 33）、拉文蒂利亚3（La Ventilla 3）与特拉伊洛特拉克坎6（Tlailotlacan 6）三处城市复合居住区，以及位于特奥蒂瓦坎以西35公里的乡村定居点阿克斯托兰（Axotlan）。研究通过对不同性别与年龄个体的丧葬处置方式展开细致分析，探究了上述每一处居住群体的仪式与社会组织结构；随后通过更大尺度的群体比较，以期全面解析特奥蒂瓦坎社会的空间格局。研究结果表明，特奥蒂瓦坎的各居住群体在社会层面的边界划分，部分依托于独特仪式实践及其关联物质遗存的延续传承。在城邦层面，特奥蒂瓦坎在物质文化层面展现出高度的外在统一性，但与此同时，其内部人口构成具有高度异质性，不同群体并未遵循统一的仪式传统。这一发现对于理解古代城邦如何在官方国家仪式范式与民间家庭仪式实践之间持续存在的质性差异面前，仍能在政治上维系统治具有重要启示意义。此外，仪式实践与相关意识形态的社会内部差异，或可反映出社会紧张关系的根源，而此类张力最终促成了特奥蒂瓦坎城邦的衰落与瓦解。