THE YALAHAU REGION: A STUDY OF ANCIENT MAYA SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey B. Glover
Keyword(s):  
Historical Background ◽  
Quintana Roo ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Regional Settlement ◽  
Yalahau Region

AbstractThe Yalahau Regional Settlement Pattern Survey (YRSPS) addresses the complex negotiations that constituted ancient Maya society through an investigation of the distribution of settlement across the Yalahau region of northern Quintana Roo, Mexico. This paper begins with a brief culture-historical background of the Yalahau region where occupation ranges from the Middle Preclassic period (700–200b.c.) to the Postclassic period (a.d.1100–1521). The region had its peak occupation during the Terminal Preclassic period (75b.c./a.d.100–a.d.400), and this paper explores how monumental architecture, through its size and the rituals conducted in and around it, materialized an enduring sense of community identity during this time period. In so doing, this paper examines the tensions within and between communities as sociopolitical strategies are negotiated and contested in the continually messy process of constituting society.

ANCIENT MAYA SETTLEMENT, INTERACTION SPHERES, AND GEOPOLITICS IN SOUTH-CENTRAL QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-461
Author(s):  
Laura P. Villamil ◽  
R. Jason Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Quintana Roo ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
South Central ◽  
Interaction Spheres ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper presents the results of investigations at the ancient Maya site of Margarita in south-central Quintana Roo, Mexico, and relates them to documented patterns at neighboring centers. Following initial settlement of the region in the Middle Preclassic, settlement hierarchies topped by large centers with monumental architecture, carved monuments, and associations with sites to the south emerged in the Late Preclassic to Early Classic periods. In the Late Classic, several primary centers declined and there was a proliferation of affluent urban populations—evidenced by construction of elaborate residential groups—at smaller centers like Margarita. Long-distance cultural affiliations shifted as well, with ceramic and architectural links to western and northern Yucatán becoming pronounced. Many settlements were abandoned in the Terminal Classic, but there is also evidence of the formation of “post-collapse” communities at Margarita and other neighboring sites during the same period.

The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
The Subject

A timely synthesis of the latest research and perspectives on ancient Maya economics, this volume illuminates the sophistication and intricacy of economic systems in the Preclassic period, Classic period, and Postclassic period. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines move beyond paradigms of elite control and centralized exchange to focus on individual agency, highlighting production and exchange that took place at all levels of society. Case studies draw on new archaeological evidence from rural households and urban marketplaces to reconstruct the trade networks for tools, ceramics, obsidian, salt, and agricultural goods throughout the empire. They also describe the ways household production integrated with community, regional, and interregional markets. Redirecting the field of ancient Maya economic studies away from simplistic characterizations of the past by fully representing the range of current views on the subject, this volume delves deeply into multiple facets of a complex, interdependent material world.

XTOBO, YUCATAN, MEXICO, AND THE EMERGENT PRECLASSIC OF THE NORTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Stratified Sample

AbstractTraditionally, research on the Preclassic Maya has focused on settlements found in the Southern Maya Lowlands. Apart from work at a few well-known archaeological sites in the Northern Lowlands, such as Komchen, Dzibilchaltun, and Yaxuna, the Preclassic Northern Maya had received relatively little attention from scholars. In recent years, however, many previously unreported archaeological sites with Preclassic materials have come to light. In northwest Yucatan, Mexico, a survey carried out by Proyecto Costa Maya encountered 140 sites with Preclassic components, including the site of Xtobo. Xtobo stood out from its neighboring Preclassic sites due to its extent and the size and complexity of its architecture. In addition, initial surveys of the site suggested that it was never reoccupied after the Preclassic period, thereby making it a valuable site for studying the Preclassic period in the Northern Maya Lowlands. After three seasons of fieldwork, the Proyecto Arqueologico de Xtobo was able to build substantially on the initial findings of the Proyecto Costa Maya, mapping 67 ha of settlement, including 387 structures, and carrying out a stratified sample of test pit excavations throughout the site. The project documented a dense and well-organized settlement, which included complex architectural features, such as pyramids, triadic groups, elite residences, and a ballcourt. The settlement at Xtobo shows many signs of a complex sociopolitical organization and interaction with other areas of the Maya region and Mesoamerica. The results of the Proyecto Arqueologico de Xtobo indicate that the Northern Maya Lowlands were an important and integral part of Preclassic Mesoamerica and should be considered in larger cultural reconstructions of the time period.

Monumental Landscapes, Changing Ideologies, and Political Histories in the Mopan Valley

2020 ◽  
pp. 290-312
Author(s):  
M. Kathryn Brown ◽  
Jason Yaeger
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
Divine Kingship

In Chapter 14, Brown and Yaeger discuss the sociopolitical organization of several key sites in the Mopan Valley from the early Middle Preclassic through the end of the Late Classic period. Through an examination of monumental architecture, public art, and ritual practices, the authors describe the political development over this 1,600-year period beginning with Early Xunantunich, the first major political center beginning in the early Middle Preclassic, to the latest, Classic Xunantunich, which was abandoned in the 9th century. The centers of Actuncan and Buenavista del Cayo filled a vacuum in the valley in the intervening centuries, playing major roles on the political landscape during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, respectively. The authors trace how political authority and ideology became more centralized and the institutions of divine kingship developed as each center succeeded one another. It is clear from the data presented in this chapter that monumental constructions are at the forefront of our understanding of the development of the political landscape in the Mopan Valley, a landscape where ritual and religion played key roles in the rise of complexity.

Dynastic Genealogies from Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Descent and Political Organization

1977 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Important Data ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Popular View ◽  
Patrilineal Descent

Building upon the work of several other people, Clemency Coggins has recently presented a tentative reconstruction of Tikal dynastic history, complete with a proposed genealogy of the rulers themselves. These are important data for any attempt to reconstruct the social and political organization of Tikal, and this paper explores their implications. The data are consistent with models of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization in which patrilineal descent, stratification, and strong central political authority were important. At Tikal, this seems to have been the case from the first century A.D. until Terminal Classic times. A currently popular view that, in Early Classic times, positions of prestige, power, and authority were open to anyone who had the necessary talent, wealth, and support is probably untenable, at least for Tikal.

ANCIENT MAYA ROYAL STRATEGIES: Creating power and identity through art

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia L. J. Sanchez
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Access Patterns

Ancient Maya monumental art was designed to enact the physical, social, and ritual hierarchy. Physically, sculpture created barriers and access patterns that altered movement through sites. Monumental architecture separated ritual participants in buildings from audiences in the plazas below. Access to monuments and portrayals on monuments in part defined social and power hierarchies. Motifs were altered to communicate various forms of power appropriate to each context and audience. Complex supernatural themes and ritual roles demonstrated hierarchical differences among the ruler and other nobles, while more simplistic representations of a powerful ruler demonstrated the separation of the ruler from commoners.

Social Differentiation and Leadership Development in Early Pithouse Villages in the Mogollon Region of the American Southwest

1982 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent G. Lightfoot ◽  
Gary M. Feinman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Mogollon Region ◽  
Regional Settlement

This paper examines the development of social differentiation and simple decision-making organizations in the Mogollan region of the prehistoric American Southwest. We suggest that intensifying managerial problems associated with the transition to sedentism may have selected for suprahousehold sociopolitical organizations. Based on cross-cultural data, a set of theoretical expectations concerning social differentiation and leadership development is formulated which focuses on regularities in the regional settlement pattern and intrasettlement distribution of architectural features and material goods. These expectations are then used to generate a set of propositions which are evaluated archaeologically using data from early pithouse villages. On the basis of a test of these propositions it appears that simple suprahousehold decision-making organizations were present in the American Southwest by A.D. 600. The implications of this interpretation for understanding subsequent developments in Southwestern prehistoric sociopolitical organization are then discussed.

At the Foot of the Hills

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Gallareta Negrón
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic

This contribution is about Xocnaceh, an early Yucatecan site with monumental architecture located on the edge of the Puuc escarpment. A program of excavations at the Acropolis, a trapezoidal basal platform whose surviving volume exceeds 100,000 m3, has identified building episodes and artifacts dating from the Middle Preclassic Period (800-300 B.C.) This chapter focuses on the evidence for identifying the construction stages and the associated artifacts useful for dating these contexts and for inferring commercial contacts outside the region. Instead of pyramidal temples or funerary monuments, these early structures were designed to accomodate large numbers of people, at least on special occasions. These great complexes with large open spaces suggest that social differences had not yet hardened suffiently for restricting social interaction.

E Groups and the Rise of Complexity in the Southeastern Maya Lowlands

Maya E Groups ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlen F. Chase ◽  
Diane Z. Chase
Keyword(s):  
Political Organization ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
The West ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The North ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Size And Structure

How the ancient Maya used E Groups needs to be derived from the archaeological record. Research undertaken in the southeast Petén of Guatemala has revealed a concentration of over 150 E Groups in the area defined by Ceibal on the west, Caracol on the east, Esquipulas on the south, and the Central Petén lakes on the north. Excavated E Groups from Cenote, Uaxactún, Caracol, and Ixtonton can be used to help organize and understand these archaeological data and to show that the E Group structural assemblage is generally early within this region, dating primarily to the Late Preclassic Period (350 BCE-0 CE) and constituting the founding architecture for an unusual number of small communities in the southeast Petén. The size and structure of the eastern platform in these E Groups also appears to serve as a proxy for broader socio-political organization. Data from Caracol also suggests the importance of these architectural assemblages for temporal ritual associated with the 8th and 9th baktun cycles. Tenth cycle ritual use of these assemblages can also be seen at sites such as Ucanal, Seibal, and possibly Yaxha. Thus, E Groups can be linked to both the rise and denouement of Maya civilization.

Complex Project Management: Historical Background, Problems and Approaches

10.12737/6665 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
���������� ◽  
Maria Kharitonova
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Scientific Development ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Management Area ◽  
Analysis Of Results ◽  
Structured Information ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Complex Project

The project management becomes more and more popular nowadays and is widely used around the world. As the science is only formed, it is obvious that its some areas are well developed, and some other ones lack for attention, contain contradictions, problems, weak places. At the moment a great deal of interesting researches is published in scientific magazines. However, despite it, today there is no structured information on the science�s status and development directions. This work purpose is to allocate the main tendencies of project management�s scientific development. An analysis related to results of researches concerning a question of project management�s scientific development vectors definition covering a time period from 1960 to 2003 has been presented in this paper, as well as a comparative analysis of results with tendencies received from conclusions based on research of scientific publications in the project management area�s leading magazine � ´International Journal of Project Management´ for 2013. Forecasts related to future tendencies of project management�s scientific development had been formulated based on the results of research.

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