Geographical Areas of Specialization: Mexico, Mesoamerica
Topical Interests: Ancient & Colonial Mexico, household archaeology, identity, food practices, soil chemistry and microscale methods in archaeology, social theory, culture contact
Current Courses: P200 Introduction to Archaeology, P399/P600 Archaeologies of Identity
Profile:
My research focuses on the peoples of Oaxaca, Mexico between 1500 B.C. to the present. I am particularly interested in how people in the past negotiated their place in the social, political, and economic world around them. I am interested in the ways that people figure out and creatively construct who they are, how they materially mark these identities, and how they experience life as people with multiple overlapping and intersecting social identities. In my research, I have argued that age was a strongly materially marked vector of identity in coastal Oaxaca (A.D. 900-1100) and in spite of overwhelming evidence that gender difference played an important role in ancient Mesoamerica, gender, here, appeared to have made little difference. Rather, male and female adult household members were treated similarly in death and their burial beneath house floors marks an important connection between deceased members of house groups and those still living. My research at Río Viejo in coastal Oaxaca also explores the economic specialization in cotton cloth and thread production, the organization of space in residential areas, mortuary practices and burial beneath houses, reuse and social memory, and the relationship between commensality and household membership. I used soil chemistry, paleoethnobotany, and micromorphology as methods to address daily practices of food preparation, cooking, and food sharing at Río Viejo.
My new research in Nejapa de Madero and Santa Ana Tavela in southeastern Oaxaca, Mexico is in its preliminary stages, but holds much promise. This region lies at the crossroads between the highland Valley of Oaxaca and the southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which experienced multiple small and large-scale movements of people from as early as the Olmec period through the Colonial period. This will involve exploring the vicissitudes of multi-ethnic landscapes, with a specific focus on Olmec, Mixe, Chontal, Zapotec, Aztec, and Spanish presence. I am trying to look at how people living along trade routes interacted with more "complex" societies - how the economies, politics, and social identities of people in intermediate zones were (or were not) intertwined with those in more urban areas. My ultimate goal is to build a collaborative community-based long-term field program in these local communities. The project will begin with the initial documentation of archaeological sites, the construction of a ceramic chronology, and a study of existing artifact collections.
At IU, I teach undergraduates and graduate students in the following courses: COLL E104 Rise and Fall of Ancient Civilizations, P200 Introduction to Archaeology, P365 Archaeology of Ancient Mexico, P399/P600 Archaeologies of Identity, P600 Household Archaeology, and P399/600 Food in the Ancient World (with Prof. Sonya Atalay). In Summer 2008 I will be co-teaching an Overseas Study Summer Field Program in Oaxaca, Mexico (with Profs. Anya Royce, Dan Suslak, and Catherine Tucker).
Selected Publications:
| n.d |
Stacie M. King. Interregional Networks of the Coastal Oaxacan Early Postclassic. In After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Late Classic/Postclassic Oaxaca, Mexico, edited by Jeffrey A. Blomster, University Press ofColorado, Boulder. (to be published in early 2008) |
| n.d. |
Stacie M. King. The Spatial Organization of Food Sharing in Early Postclassic Households: An Application of Soil Chemistry in Ancient Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science. (accepted for publication August 2007) |
| 2006 |
Stacie M. King. The Marking of Age in Ancient Coastal Oaxaca. In The Social Experience of Childhood in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Traci Ardren and Scott R. Hutson, pp. 169-200. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. |
| 2004 |
Arthur A. Joyce, Andrew G Workinger, Byron Hamann, Peter Kroefges, Maxine Oland, and Stacie M. King. Lord 8 Deer “Jaguar Claw” and the Land of the Sky: The Archaeology and History of Tututepec. Latin American Antiquity 15(3):273-297. |
| 2003 |
Stacie M. King. Social Practices and Social Organization in Ancient Coastal Oaxacan Households. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California Berkeley. |
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