Household Inequality, Community Formation, and Land Tenure in Classic Period Lowland Maya Society

Thompson, Amy E.; Prufer, Keith M.

doi:10.1007/s10816-020-09505-3

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 80 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is likely partially due to topography with extended kin groups residing on long ridges. However, at Uxbenká it was noted that several hilltops lacked archaeological remains, resulting in a buffer zone of no settlement, suggesting that settlement decision-making and neighborhood formation was an active part of settlement selection [ 40 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this study, we use the ANN as a snapshot of a single time period, specifically when the center reached its apogee, typically during the Late/Terminal Classic (see above and Table 1 ). For example, at Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il, more than 30% of the documented residential groups were dated using multi-proxy approaches (ceramic typologies and radiocarbon dating, see [ 40 ]). Of the dated residential groups, more than 95% were occupied during the Late Classic [ 180 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neighborhoods might be evident through specific shared physical or social characteristics that are archaeologically visible. The clusters in which we are specifically interested are generally smaller than districts, which contain administrative or civic ceremonial functions in addition to residences [ 3 , 39 , 40 ]. Neighborhood level units may arise from a range of social behaviors, including kinship, religion, administrative needs, economic cooperation, and defense, among other reasons [ 1 , 41 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, even within the neighborhood scale, power differentials have been documented in the archaeological record. For example, at Copan, Tikal, Aguateca, Lower Dover, Uxbenká, and Ix Kuku’il, Classic Maya neighborhoods were composed of houses of varying sizes, often with a larger household (the neighborhood seat or high-status commoner [hsc] household) surrounded by smaller households [ 40 Table 1, 72 – 76 , see also 77 ]. We interpret neighborhood seats as local centers of power, acting as patrons to their surrounding community and mediators to higher-level authorities such as district seats and above [ 78 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Elsewhere, the terms district [ 3 ] and ward [ 2 ] have been applied to such units. Bullard [ 20 ] noted that zones were frequently focused around minor centers, which housed district seats of local administration [see 40 : Table 1]. Frequently, the division between these two concepts rests upon whether such entities are “top-down” administrative entities or “bottom-up” social groupings, or social districts, although social districts and wards/administrative districts may coincide [ 2 – 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Ancient Lowland Maya neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor analysis and kernel density models, environments, and urban scale

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups—to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quantifiable data on the clustering of ancient households, which can be linked to environmental zones and urban scale. We found that centers in river valleys exhibited greater household clustering compared to centers in upland and escarpment environments. Settlement patterns on flat plains were more dispersed, with little discrete spatial clustering of households. Furthermore, we categorized the ancient Maya centers into discrete urban scales, finding that larger centers had greater variation in household spacing compared to medium-sized and smaller centers. Many larger political centers possess heterogeneity in household clustering between their civic-ceremonial cores, immediate hinterlands, and far peripheries. Smaller centers exhibit greater household clustering compared to larger ones. This paper quantitatively assesses household clustering among nearly two dozen centers across the Maya Lowlands, linking environment and urban scale to settlement patterns. The findings are applicable to ancient societies and modern cities alike; understanding how humans form multi-scalar social groupings, such as neighborhoods, is fundamental to human experience and social organization.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Ancient Lowland Maya neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor analysis and kernel density models, environments, and urban scale

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 2): Landesque Capital and Long-term Resource Management Strategies

Fedick

Morell-Hart

2023

J Archaeol Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pre-Columbian food production in the Maya Lowlands was long characterized as reliant on extensive, slash-and-burn agriculture as the sole cultivation system possible in the region, given environmental limitations, with maize as the dominant crop. While aspects of this “swidden thesis” of Maya agriculture have been chipped away in recent years, there has been an underappreciation of the many forms of long-term capital investments in agriculture made by ancient Maya people. Here, we review the last three decades of research that has overturned the swidden thesis, focusing on long-term strategies. We demonstrate long-lasting agricultural investments by Maya people, in social capital including multigenerational land tenure, in cultivated capital including long-lived trees, and in landesque capital including soil amendments and landscape engineering projects, such as terracing and wetland modification.

show abstract

Niche Construction and Long-Term Trajectories of Food Production

Quintus

Allen

2023

J Archaeol Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Niche construction theory has played a prominent role in archaeology during the last decade. However, the potential of niche construction in relation to agricultural development has received less attention. To this end, we bring together literature on the forms and sources of agronomic variability and use a series of examples to highlight the importance of reciprocal causation and ecological inheritance in trajectories of agricultural change. We demonstrate how niche construction theory can inform on emergent mutualisms in both inceptive and established agronomic contexts, the recursive relationships between humans and their agronomic environments, and bridges between the past and present.

show abstract

Household Inequality, Community Formation, and Land Tenure in Classic Period Lowland Maya Society

Cited by 15 publications

References 80 publications

Ancient Lowland Maya neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor analysis and kernel density models, environments, and urban scale

Ancient Lowland Maya neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor analysis and kernel density models, environments, and urban scale

Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 2): Landesque Capital and Long-term Resource Management Strategies

Niche Construction and Long-Term Trajectories of Food Production

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About