Subsistence Patterns, Social Identity and Symbolism at the Early Formative Period Site of Cantón Corralito, Chiapas, Mexico

The goal of this dissertation is to present a new perspective on the economic, political, and social implications of food procurement in Early Formative Period (1600 – 900 BC) Mesoamerica. The dataset consists of archaeobotanical remains recovered through water flotation from the Formative Period site of Cantón Corralito, located in Chiapas, Mexico (1600-900 BC). The stratigraphic record covers the Locona through Ocós, Cherla, and Cuadros phases. The site is significant because Mokaya people were influenced by Gulf Coast Olmec culture as early as the Ocós phase (1250 – 1150 BC) with increasing contact in the Cherla phase (1150 – 1000 BC). Previous research at the site suggested that Olmec individuals, possibly from the Gulf Coast site of San Lorenzo, resided at Cantón Corralito in the latter part of the Early Formative Period during the Cuadros phase (1000-900 BC). It has been hypothesized that trade and resource extraction led Olmec traders to migrate into the region and establish Cantón Corralito as an administrative center amidst the local Mokaya peoples. My primary objective was to identify and interpret the distribution of botanical remains recovered from Cantón Corralito. I focused on discovering the degree of dependence upon both wild and domesticated resources by the inhabitants at the site. My second goal was to gain insight into how these food resources reflect the socio-political system and to investigate how food resources might reflect social complexity. Identifying the resources at Cantón Corralito involved analyzing the characteristics of the botanical remains and then identifying botanical categories using a Mesoamerican archaeobotanical comparative collection at the University of Cincinnati. Cantón Corralito's 34 soil samples yielded 147 seeds and 50 seed fragments; twenty eight samples had carbonized seeds. The carbonized archaeobotanical remains were the focus of the study because only carbonized seeds are considered indicative of ancient human-plant interaction. Of the 13 carbonized seed types identified at Cantón Corralito, six were identified as food resources, four as possible food resources, and three as environmental remains. All but one of the botanicals identified as either a food resource or possible food resource would have been collected from the environment. There is some suggestion of special plant procurement and even possible management in two wild plant species, Potentilla sp. and Solanum hispidum, which would have come from an area of higher elevation. The only domesticated resource identified was maize. Five statistical indices were used to identify the level of utilization for each resource at Cantón Corralito: absolute counts, ubiquity measurements, ranking, relative abundance, and seed density. Analyzing the combined results of these index measurements allowed for the interpretation of the significance each resource carried within the total food package. Wild resources within the Solanaceae family were a significant part of the domestic food suite at Cantón Corralito and possibly an essential ingredient in medicine. Non-local botanicals, such Potentilla sp. and Solanum hispidum, may have been relied upon. The presence of maize at the site contributes to the body of evidence supporting the use of domesticates and maize in particular during the Early Formative Period in the Mazatán zone. The presence of maize also opens up a dialogue about how food can contribute to understanding social identity both within and between groups. Maize appeared to be specifically identified with elite contexts at Cantón Corralito.