Marital Alliance in the Political Integration of Mixtec Kingdoms

Abstract

Analysis of pictographic and conventional documentation from Prehispanic and Colonial times reveals mechanisms of succession and alliance operative in the formation, expansion, and integration of Mixtec kingdoms. It is suggested that marital alliance be considered, along with other coercive and voluntaristic forces, in the dynamics of state formation and development. Royal marital alliances were exceedingly important not only in the maintenance of individual Mixtec “ministates” or kingdoms, but also in the creation of a social, political, and economic network that linked numerous communities and political domains into a broad social field bridging varied geographical zones ranging from tropical lowlands to highland valleys .