The distance decay model of commodity distribution is examined for its potential utility in accounting for the interregional patterning of nonlocal goods during prehistoric times. Data obtained through a spectrochemical trace element analysis of Mesoamerican obsidian artifacts serve to expose some of the model´s explanatory deficiencies and, when viewed in the context of what we know about the events of Mesoamerican prehistory, suggest that variables of a sociopolitical nature must entre into any comprehensive attemps to undrstand the processes by which long distance networks of commodity distribution evolved and were maintained.