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The Political Economy of Ancient Mesoamerica: Transformations during the Formative and Classic Periods. Edited by Vernon L. Scarborough and John E. Clark. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. Pp. ix, 228. Illustrations. Index. $45.00 cloth.
The editors' esteem for Barry Isaac (long-time editor of the annual Research in Economic Anthropology) led them to honor Isaac's editorial skills and signal contributions to economic anthropology. They selected scholars representing the geographic breadth of ancient Mesoamerica and convened a symposium at the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting in Montreal in 2004. Contributions focused on polities in the Mesoamerican world system and most of the papers appear in this 11 -chapter festschrift, supplemented by 66 figures, 3 tables, 614 references cited, and an index.
The editors' Introduction considers statecraft, the control and flow of labor and goods, population relocation, and subsistence intensification, providing a basis for the other papers. Clark's "Mesoamerica's First State" provides a compelling case for San Lorenzo (Veracruz) a 1300 BCE polity with a dynasty of monarchs who recruited labor and services, created a city of 10,000 inhabitants,...