An Archaeological Perspective on Rural Development and Rural Poverty

Rural people and places have deep histories that provide insight into present situations and future potentials. Archaeological and ethnohistorical research in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, reveal a high degree of rural demographic and economic development associated with an intensive and productive agroecosystem during the century before the Spanish conquest of AD 1521. What made this possible, here and in many respects in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica generally, were political and economic institutions rather distinct from Old World experience. The case illustrates that there are alternative paths of rural development.