Python Options

http://wiki.python.org/moin/ConfigurationAndBuildTools

Distutils

Included in the Python distribution.

Setuptools

http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools

Virtualenv

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv

zc.buildout

Recipes, cfg files

Trac/Bitten

XML

Fabric

http://www.nongnu.org/fab/

Uses "fabfiles"

Vellum

http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/vellum/

Build Spec Format - "vel" files, like build.vel

Non-Python Alternatives

There are plenty of non-Python alternatives. I was most familiar with Apache Ant, but there are many others and a more complete list can be found on Wikipedia.