Re-visioning Classic Maya Polities

Feinman, Gary M.

doi:10.25222/larr.114

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…External trade was fundamental for financing Maya rulers [ 103 ] who highly valued their participation in the prestige economy [ 104 , 105 ] and where networked principals [ 106 ] used high-status items to symbolize their power and authority. From the top-down, the monopolization and control of exchange routes and networks were fundamental to power relations [ 9 , 14 , 107 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, polities in which principals relied on the external resources, such as the monopolization of trade networks, were characterized by higher degrees of inequality than polities in which fiscal financing was based on internal resources. In the Maya region, highly crafted prestige goods and valued raw materials were distributed through exchange networks [ 109 – 111 ] that linked the powerful polities in the western Maya area, including the Central Petén [ 10 ] and along the Usumacinta River [ 103 , 107 , 112 ]. Although glyphic texts provide few direct indications that Maya polities in the east participated in these principal alliance and exchange networks [ 113 ], evidence for long distance political connections nonetheless exists for some eastern Maya polities including those in southern Belize [ 56 , 59 , 106 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Classic Maya multi-scalar household inequality in southern Belize

2021

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Inequality is present to varying degrees in all human societies, pre-modern and contemporary. For archaeological contexts, variation in house size reflects differences in labor investments and serves as a robust means to assess wealth across populations small and large. The Gini coefficient, which measures the degree of concentration in the distribution of units within a population, has been employed as a standardized metric to evaluate the extent of inequality. Here, we employ Gini coefficients to assess wealth inequality at four nested socio-spatial scales–the micro-region, the polity, the district, and the neighborhood–at two medium size, peripheral Classic Maya polities located in southern Belize. We then compare our findings to Gini coefficients for other Classic Maya polities in the Maya heartland and to contemporaneous polities across Mesoamerica. We see the patterning of wealth inequality across the polities as a consequence of variable access to networks of exchange. Different forms of governance played a role in the degree of wealth inequality in Mesoamerica. More autocratic Classic Maya polities, where principals exercised degrees of control over exclusionary exchange networks, maintained high degrees of wealth inequality compared to most other Mesoamerican states, which generally are characterized by more collective forms of governance. We examine how household wealth inequality was reproduced at peripheral Classic Maya polities, and illustrate that economic inequity trickled down to local socio-spatial units in this prehispanic context.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Classic Maya multi-scalar household inequality in southern Belize

2021

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“…Where we have in-depth prehispanic written accounts, for the Classic Maya and the Postclassic Mixtec kingdoms (also less collectively organized), we have ample evidence that legitimation, rulership, and the political process was indeed highly transactional, revolving around the personal and kin networks of powerful leaders, their courtly dependents, and elite allies and rivals (e.g., Feinman 2017;Jackson 2013;Marcus 1992;Spores 1967). We lack such personalized historical accounts for the seemingly most collectively organized centers (Feinman and Carballo 2018), which in itself may be telling, but clearly more in-depth investigation of these axes of variation is needed (Smith et al 2016a).…”

Section: Political/bureaucratic Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Governance and Leadership of Prehispanic Mesoamerican Polities: New Perspectives and Comparative Implications

Feinman¹

2018

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The principal conceptual axes for explaining variation in prehispanic Mesoamerican political organization (states and empires) have shifted over time. Current perspectives build on and extend beyond the important dimensions of scale and hierarchical complexity and have begun to probe variation in the nature of leadership and governance, drawing on collective action theory and incorporating recent findings that challenge long-held statist vantages on preindustrial economies. Recent results from and archaeological correlates for the application of this approach are outlined, offering opportunities for more comparative analyses of variation and change in the practice of governance within the prehispanic Mesoamerican world and more globally. Consideration of this variability is critical for understanding change and the sustainability of different governmental formations.

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“…29 For this essay, the crucial queries then become, if Maya rulers did not directly control economic production, how did Maya governing institutions secure funding, and how did these economic foundations change late in the Preclassic period, enabling the exclusionary consolidation of power and wealth by select lords? 30 During the Classic period, the Maya cities along the Usumacinta, the central Petén, and adjacent areas erected the most stela, had some of the most elaborate royal courts and lavish burial contexts, and were central to the most far-ranging networks of elite economic and political interactions. 31 These areas were the epicenter where Late Preclassic and Classic Maya exclusionary power was materialized to the greatest degrees.…”

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confidence: 99%

Maya Archaeology: Looking Forward

Feinman

2023

Lat. Am. res. rev.

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This essay reviews the following works: Maya Gods of War. By Karen Bassie-Sweet. Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2021. Pp. viii + 324. $66.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-64642-131-2. Maya Ruins Revisited: In the Footsteps of Teobert Maler. By William Frej. Santa Fe, NM: Peyton Wright Gallery Press, 2020. Pp. 291. $55.17 hardcover. ISBN: 978-0-578-63921-5. Archaeology and Identity on the Pacific Coast and Southern Highlands of Meso-America. Edited by Claudia García-Des Lauriers and Michael W. Love. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016. Pp. ix + 226. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-60781-504-4. Life and Politics at the Royal Court of Aguateca: Artifacts, Analytical Data, and Synthesis. Edited by Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014. Pp. vii + 356. $30.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-60781-318-7. Miscellaneous Investigations in Central Tikal: Structures in and around the Lost World Plaza. By H. Stanley Loten. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2018. Pp. xvii + 36. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-934536-97-1. Miscellaneous Investigations in Central Tikal: Great Temples III, IV, V, and VI. By H. Stanley Loten. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2017. Pp. xix + 61. $59.95 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-934536-93-3. The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies: From Farmers’ Fields to Rulers’ Realms. Edited by Marilyn A. Masson, David A. Freidel, and Arthur A. Demarest. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2020. Pp. xvii + 631. $125.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-0813066-29-5. The Origins of Maya States. Edited by Loa P. Traxler and Robert J. Sharer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2016. Pp. ix + 681. $69.95 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-934536-86-5.

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Re-visioning Classic Maya Polities

Cited by 7 publications

References 11 publications

Assessing Classic Maya multi-scalar household inequality in southern Belize

Assessing Classic Maya multi-scalar household inequality in southern Belize

The Governance and Leadership of Prehispanic Mesoamerican Polities: New Perspectives and Comparative Implications

Maya Archaeology: Looking Forward

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