Archived under:

According to one estimate Teotihuacan was once home to a quarter of a million people, and we don’t know exactly who these quarter of a million people were.

But we know that they were not just one people, rather Teotihuacan was a metropolis where people from a diverse cultural background coexisted, and different ethnic communities, some of them originating from places far away, had their own residential barrios within the city.

1x
Map of Teotihuacan “Plan of the city of Teotihuacan, marked with the locations of the Merchant’s Barrio, Structure 19, and the Oaxaca Barrio.” Illustration from “Foreigners’ Barrios at Teotihuacan: Reasons for and consequences of Migration” (Sergio Gómez Chávez) in Teotihuacan: City of water, city of fire. Illustration by Hillary Olcott after R. Millon, Drewitt, and Cowgill.

This mix — of people with different cultural backgrounds, different philosophies, religions, craft skills, knowledge, and perspectives — fertilized the artistic blossoming and material prosperity of Teotihuacan, a civilization which had no coeval equivalent. While keeping in mind that we don’t know a whole lot about the reality of everyday life in Teotihuacan, I conclude (perhaps speculatively?) that this city state is an example of how diversity combined with a general spirit of cooperation, alliance, and amalgamation can lead to sensational results and benefit everybody involved. Opposite, I venture, to the results of monoculture and affective polarization.

1x
Effigy urn 450-550. Ceramic greenstone, shell, and pigments. 33.8 x 21 x 23 cm. Found in the Oaxacan barrio of Teotihuacan, but probably imported from Oaxaca. Reproduced in Teotihuacan: City of water, city of fire. Museo Nacional de Antropología / INAH, 10-393504 (Número de Catálogo: 09.0-04878)

Sources: