The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations

by Kent V. Flannery (Editor), Joyce Marcus (Editor)

A case study in the divergent evolution of Mexico's Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations, this collection has become a basic resource in the literature of Mesoamerican prehistory and has been widely cited by scholars working on divergent evolution in other parts of the world. Originally published by Academic Press in 1983, a new introduction by the editors updates the volume in terms of discoveries made during the subsequent two decades.

Genres: History, Archaeology

391 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1983

About the author

Kent Vaughn Flannery is a North American archaeologist who has conducted and published extensive research on the pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, and in particular those of central and southern Mexico.

Reviews

[Lorena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book one reads cover to cover. I live in Oaxaca, Mexico, so I read it in conjunction with visiting Zapotec and Mixtec ruins, bit by bit. It covers a lot of ground and since I'm here looking at what these scholars are talking about, I greatly appreciate the depth and particularity of the discussion.

[AskHistorians]

This work is somewhat of a staple within Oaxaca studies and constituted the first comprehensive synthesis of Mixtec-Zapotec history. Flannery and Marcus not only bring the Zapotec and the Mixtec together but also place the region - often treated as isolated from the rest of Mesoamerica - into a larger context that helps explain the fission of both cultures as well as the peculiarities that separated them from the rest of Mesoamerica. Some of his conclusions are controversial. Specifically, scholars such as A. Joyce (2009) claim that he places too much emphasis on military and ecological factors in his explanations of state formation. The issue is currently a subject of controversy in the academic literature. Nevertheless, his work is well written and easily digestible to a lay audience, as long as one takes his causal explanations 'with a grain of salt.'

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

whoa: zapotec/mixtec are there any more children of the olmec? the slow study of movement from wet, clay, flooding plains and temples made of crumbling bricks (like ours) to stone cities carved out of tuft and solid mass above rainy fertile plains. monte alban as a prototype washington d.c. if our geologic consciousness for building manners dates is in hundreds of years of progressions, then we might never learn the slowness of genetics of planet-growing. how can we slow time down enough to figure out how to travel inside it?