The Presence of Teotihuacan in the Cuitzeo Basin, Michoacán, Mexico: A world-system perspective

Traditionally, the large, monumental site of Teotihuacan has been seen as being the core in a core-periphery model, controlling excahange networks and exercising political control over a passive and subordinate periphery. This study questions whether this was indeed the case with regard to relations between Teotihuacan and the Cuitzeo Basin in western Mexico. Through analysing ceramic and iconographic evidence, as well as control over resources such as obsidian, Filini argues that the sites in the Cuitzeo Basin participated in the Teotihuacan ideological system on a very selective basis and therefore maintained some degree of autonomy.