One aspect that has characterized the literature produce by researchers working in the modern state of Oaxaca Mexico is that rather than isolating the developments of a culture within its own borders, they have tried to locate them among their neighbors. Since most research has taken place primarily in two areas, the valley of Oaxaca and the Mixteca Alta, you most likely will find a synthesis of those two cultural areas combine. That being said, there are three books that for the most part represent the best background readings for the area:

1. The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations, edited by Kent Flannery and Marcus Joyce.

2. Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved, by Marcus Joyce and Kent Flannery.

3)Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico, by Arthur Joyce.

These three are going to be your best go to book for an introduction into the cultures of Oaxaca. However, as a word of advice, the archaeology of the area is highly contested and you will often find contradictory interpretations; for instance the third source contradicts some of the points put forward by the first two books. The main reason behind these contradictions is the conflictive anthropological theories used to analyze the archaeology of the area. While one camp uses a neo-evolutionist perspective, the other tends to align more with the social theory grounded in post-structuralism.