Zapotecs

The Zapotec are an ethnic group that has long inhabited modern Oaxaca in Mexico. The ancient Zapotec produced one of Mesoamerica's earliest civilizations, replete with cities, monumental architecture, writing and calendrical systems, accomplished artisans, complex sociopolitical organization, and far-reaching economic ties. Contemporary Zapotec peoples refer to their ancestors as binni gula'sa' (or Ben ‘Zaa), the Cloud People, and in doing so stress the vibrant role of the past in their present-day lives. Similarly, binni sa, or binni za, which translates as “the type of people we are,” is also used. This term offers a desirable alternative toZapotec, which is a Nahuatl-derived word and thus an externally imposed category.

Predicated upon linguistic evidence, scholars have argued that the Zapotec and Mixtec, another ethnic group of Mexico, split from one another as early as 3700 BC. By approximately 1500 BC, the Zapotec most likely occupied areas in present-day Oaxaca. The fertile Valley of Oaxaca long served as the heart-land of Zapotec civilization. Communities were established throughout the valley's three arms, the best-known being San Jose Mogote and Tierras Largas in the Etla subvalley. At the end of the Rosario phase (ca. 700–500 BC),settlement in the valley's arms dramatically declined. This decline coincides with initial occupation of Monte Albán. Scholars have [Page 2362]argued that the center, which would become the Zapotec capital, was established by a confederation of elites. Cultural elements and material remains distinguishable as ethnically Zapotec crystallized between 400 BC and AD 100.

Monte Albán is situated atop a 400-meter mountain at the junction of the Oaxaca Valley's three arms. There is no known natural source of water, suggesting that the location was selected as a consequence of physical centrality, political strategy, and military defense. The center's inhabitants carved agricultural and domestic terraces from the mountain's slope, and they leveled its top. To meet the growing center's sustenance demands, Monte Albán's inhabitants developed the surrounding piedmont via intensive canal irrigation. By the Monte Albán II period (ca. 200BC–AD 100), an administrative hierarchy, palace structures, royal tombs, and monuments depicting conquest were all in evidence at the center. It is this last attribute that informs our understanding of the methods used to consolidate the Oaxaca Valley. The emergence of the Zapotec state appears to have been wedded with violence. Architecture and iconography at Monte Albán underscore the need for defense and success in conquest. Fortifications ring the hilltop city, and stone slabs carved with naked, mutilated, and slain individuals adorn the eastern wall of Building L. These images were originally identified asdanzantes (dancers), and most likely represent prisoners, who were of Zapotec ethnicity, captured during military campaigns. Such evidence suggests that, even in antiquity, the Zapotec were by no means a unified ethnic group.

During this time, Zapotec influence reached beyond the borders of the valley's three arms. A Zapotec presence at the central Mexican site of Teotihuacán is particularly noteworthy. Ceramic wares and tombs in Monte Albán styles suggest that the Zapotec had established an Oaxaca Barrio, and maintained a politically autonomous and amicable relationship with Teotihuacános. Such amicability does not seem to characterize interactions between the Zapotecs and other foreigners. Iconography associated with Building J at Monte Albán provides evidence of these aggressive interactions. “Conquest slabs,” carved with place glyphs and inverted human heads, were inset into the external façade of the building. Scholars have argued that these images represent foreign communities conquered or colonized by the Zapotec.

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