Sosis, an anthropologist at theUniversity of Connecticut has summarised the archaeological findings with the observation:
the Michigan archaeologists' study delineated the process of religion adapting to different environments as Oaxacan society changed. Among foragers, ritual serves to cement solidarity, he said, and the "powerful moralistic gods that we associate with contemporary religions" are a later development, introduced at the stage when priests have acquired control of a religion and "are effectively controlling the masses through ritual activities that instill the fear of supernatural punishment.
When Christianity made in roads into the Valley in 1521, the valley was part of the Aztec tribute empire with Tenochtitlan as the capital (present day Mexico City) and Spanish settlements came into existence to exploit the rich land and mineral resources of the valley. The first record of Baptism in the valley was that of the King of Teozapotlan, the most important Valley ruler, in 1521. He was baptized asDon Juan Cortes. Nobles, who converted to Christianity, were permitted to keep their traditional rights under a 1557 order by Phillip II of Spain. Spaniards pursued their with proselytisation activity with dedicated single minded devotion throughout the 18th century with the �goal of saving the souls of their subjects.� It took several years of dogged persuasion for the Christian practices to discourage the Zapotec people to give up their pantheon of idolatry, shamanistic and cannibalistic practices of the Mesoamerican religion, which was denigrated by the Church.
Now, in Mexico, Roman Catholics are 89% of the total population, 47% of whom attend church services weekly, one of the lowest of the developing world. In absolute terms, Mexico has the world's second largest number of Catholics after Brazil. While most indigenous Mexicans are at least nominally Catholic, some combine or syncretize Catholic practices with native traditions
