The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras ...

production, and thus economy and religion cannot be separated in a clear and concise
manner. Monaghan (1998:48) noted that:
It is usually the case that the terms translated as “ritual” refer either to specific
ceremonies or to a class of acts—such as “ordering,” “feeding,” or “planting”—
that are not confined to religious ceremonies. Moreover, in the Mixtec-speaking
town of Santiago Nuyoo, people do not separate the creation of objects into
“practical” versus “ritual” aspects.
In an example of house building, Monaghan (1998:48) observed the importance of
making offerings to the earth god before a terrace is excavated. However, this aspect of
production is so important to the overall process that, according to one informant, “not
making an offering would be like putting down shingles without nailing them to the
crossbeams” (1998:48), which suggests a doxic or “taken for granted” form of ritualized
production. However, it should be pointed out that Monaghan argued that “the
classification of any behavior as “ritual” in relation to other activities is impossible”
(1998:48), which renders the analytical category of “ritual” as useless. I continue to use
the term ritualized in the present argument, however, in order to stress the importance of
the interconnection between the material and symbolic in production activities in
Mesoamerica.
Ethnohistoric evidence suggests that ritualized production was carried out in other
Mesoamerican contexts. Brumfiel (1998:148) noted that elite Aztec craft specialists were
trained in temple schools and that feather workers, for example, “assert[ed] that their
craft required the same spiritual and intellectual qualities as governing.” Feather workers,
pulque makers, oil makers, and mat makers purchased slaves to sacrifice to their patron
deities as a form or ritual circumscription of production activities (Brumfiel 1998:149).
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