Environmental Limitation on Maya Culture: A Re‐Examination

Coe, William R.

doi:10.1525/aa.1957.59.2.02a00130

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Initially, tropical environments were believed to be unsuitable for the development or maintenance of urbanism (Meggers 1954; but see Coe 1957). Several factors contributed to a general view that the Maya were less complex than their northern neighbors in central Mexico and were not truly urban (e.g., Sanders and Webster 1988; but see D. Chase et al 1990;Smith 1989): an incomplete understanding of the scale and variability of Maya sites (A. combined with the early investigation of sites with smaller populations in the southern lowlands (e.g., Piedras Negras [Weeks et al 2005] and Copan [Andrews and Fash 2005]), a lack of recognition of the variation in naturally available resources within the Maya Lowlands (Sanders 1973) and of their economic system (subsequently corrected by Dahlin et al 2007;Feinman and Garraty 2010;Garraty and Stark 2010), and to some degree expectations that urban forms should fit Western models (see discussion by Smith 2007).…”

Section: Maya Urbanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Chase

2016

J Archaeol Res

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Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, home to over 100,000 people at its height between AD 600 and 700. The investigations at Caracol underscore the utility of long-term archaeological projects incorporating large-scale settlement study that combine excavation with varied research designs and the use of a contextual approach. By employing Maya epigraphic history, traditional archaeology, and modern technology like LiDAR, research at Caracol details the rise, maintenance, and fall of an ancient Maya city, affording a large window into ancient Maya lifeways. Archaeological work provides evidence of sustainable agriculture, a market economy, city planning that included a road system, the impact of warfare on the site's inhabitants, the sociopolitical status of women, the role that archaeology can play in refining written history, and the significance of commemorating the cyclical passage of time to the ancient Maya. This article

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Section: Maya Urbanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Chase

2016

J Archaeol Res

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“…Smith 1962, 268). William Coe (1957) astutely observed that Postclassic civilization could not have been less complex than the literate and regionally interdependent Contact period society that followed, with its sophisticated commercial system that impressed Spanish eyewitnesses (1957,331).…”

Section: "Other" (Late Pre-columbian) Mayamentioning

confidence: 99%

8 The “Othering” of Maya Political Economies

Masson

2021

Archaeological Papers of the American

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In the twentieth century, an emphasis on generating big models to explain cross‐cultural similarities and differences, particularly with respect to environmental factors, culminated in some essentialist views that negatively characterized the complexity and stability of Maya area civilization and economic foundations. These assumptions about Maya “Others”—as those who are doomed to fail and as weak contrasts to central Mexican contemporaries—still prevail in recent literature. They are dismissive of historical accounts as well as decades of concerted archaeological research. It is time to consider these new data that attest to the stability, resiliency, and commercial sophistication of Maya places and peoples through time. Local historical contingencies gave rise to considerable variation in economic strategies for production and exchange and webs of interdependency provided safeguards for linked cities, towns, and rural places.

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“…27 Sin embargo, tres años más tarde William Coe cuestionó este planteamiento al sugerir que la agricultura de roza y quema era mucho más productiva de lo que la mayor parte de los investigadores creían. 28 No obstante, aún en 1962, William T. Sanders sostuvo que la agricultura de roza -desmonte y quema-, utilizada por los mayas, produjo su colapso porque afectó drásticamente su ecosistema. 29 Y, aunque algunos autores como Dumond y Cowgill (1961) argumentaron que este sistema agrícola era altamente adaptativo y eficiente en determinadas áreas de la selva tropical, no cuestionaron que este fuese el principal sistema de producción agrícola de los mayas.…”

Section: Mapa 2 Petén Y Tierras Bajas Mayas Centralesunclassified

La Amazonía y el Petén: ¿dos lugares improbables para el desarrollo de las civilizaciones?

Fonseca¹

2018

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Durante casi todo el siglo XX los investigadores dieron por sentado que la región del Amazonas en Brasil, el Petén en Guatemala, Belice y sur de Yucatán eran territorios cuyo tipo de suelos, vegetación y clima no eran aptos para sustentar una agricultura productiva, sostenible a largo plazo y capaz de sustentar grandes concentraciones de población, ni sociedades complejas en la época precolombina. No fue sino hasta finales de la centuria pasada que gracias a las investigaciones arqueológicas y etnohistóricas de las últimas décadas se modificó tal visión. La información reciente viene a probar que tanto en la Amazonía como el Petén sus pobladores fueron capaces de implementar técnicas de producción agrícola adaptadas a la ecología de la región, capaces de generar excedentes suficientes para un gran crecimiento poblacional. Esto posibilitaría la aparición de sociedades no solo de gran densidad demográfica sino también de gran complejidad social.

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Environmental Limitation on Maya Culture: A Re‐Examination

Cited by 19 publications

References 8 publications

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

8 The “Othering” of Maya Political Economies

La Amazonía y el Petén: ¿dos lugares improbables para el desarrollo de las civilizaciones?

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