Though the evidence is far from conclusive, a case can be made that:
Beyond spatial location configuration and the evidence for hierarchy and vertical complexity already discussed, the only additional evidence supporting interaction and integration consists of differences of ceramic types occurring outside the Etla Valley during the Guadalupe phase.
The social institutions that facilitated and maintained the vertical complexity and social integration inferred from the archaeological evidence are not immediately apparent. However, one might plausibly speculate that something like a chiefdom operated in the Valley during most, if not all, this period.
The chief or big man resided at San José Mogote and presided over a redistributive economy that included all or most of the settled parts of the valley. In this economy, locally produced commodities from surrounding hamlets moved to San José Mogote from whence they were subsequently redistributed to the surrounding villages and hamlets. San José Mogote was also the focal point for the movement of commodities (e.g. magnetire and limenite mirrors) produced in the Valley to other regions and the movement of exotic commodities (e.g. obsidian, sea shells) into the Valley.
As a three tier settlement hierarchy developed late in the period, this system may have been elaborated to include redistributive nodes at the village level, possibly managed by the chief’s kinsmen.
Long distance trade is evident as early as the Tierras Largas Phase. Obsidian, not know to be present in the Valley of Oaxaca, is imported from Veracruz, Puebla and the Valley of Mexico. Marine and freshwater shell is imported from both the Pacific and Gulf Coasts. In the San Jos&e Phase, Magnetite and limenite mirrors from sources in the Etla Valley (presumably manufactured at San José Mogote) appear in Olmec sites such Chalcatzingo in Morelos and La Venta in Tabasco.
