7 Dwelling on the Past: The Materiality of Everyday Life at Xaltocan, Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACT This chapter explores the materiality of dwelling on the remains of the past at Postclassic Xaltocan, Mexico, using household archaeology evidence. Such continued occupation in place evinced not only practical concerns of flood control, but also materialized an ethos of repetition and duplication in which reiterative practices created a ritually charged place, an ethos also seen at monumental sites such as the Aztec Templo Mayor. Dwelling on the past created a household landscape ripe with tlazolli, polluting and symbolically powerful garbage; earthly genealogies and social memories that were marshaled as symbolic resources in household negotiations; and material resources, such as potsherds and bone, used in household production and child's play. Everyday life in this context entailed an engagement with material remains of the past at multiple temporal scales. This analytical framework for examining the materiality of household depositional practices—and reconstructing complex philosophies materialized therein—is relevant beyond Mesoamerica.

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