Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:05:27.468Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Sociopolitical Economy of an Ancient Maya Village: Cerén and its Sacbe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Payson Sheets ,
Christine Dixon ,
David Lentz ,
Rachel Egan ,
Alexandria Halmbacher ,
Venicia Slotten ,
Rocío Herrera  and
Celine Lamb
Payson Sheets
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0233, (payson.sheets@colorado.edu)
Christine Dixon
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Green River Community College, Auburn WA 98092-3622
David Lentz
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221
Rachel Egan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0233
Alexandria Halmbacher
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0233
Venicia Slotten
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221
Rocío Herrera
Affiliation:
Departamento de Arqueología, Museo Nacional de Antropología Dr. David J. Guzmán, Patrimonio Cultural, Secretaría de Cultura de la Presidencia, San Salvador, El Salvador
Celine Lamb
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 40506
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The intellectual, artistic, and architectural accomplishments of Maya elites during the Classic period were extraordinary, and evidence of elite activities has preserved well in the archaeological record. A centuries-long research focus on elites has understandably fostered the view that they controlled the economy, politics, and religion of Maya civilization. While there has been significant progress in household archaeology, unfortunately the activities, decisions, and interactions of commoners generally preserve poorly in the archaeological record. Therefore, it has been challenging to understand the sociopolitical economy of commoners, and how it related—or did not relate—to elite authority. The exceptional volcanic preservation of the site of Cerén, El Salvador, provides a unique opportunity to explore the degree to which elites controlled or influenced commoner life. Was society organized in a top-down hierarchy in which elites controlled everything? Or did commoners have autonomy, and thus the authority to decide quotidian, seasonal, and annual issues within the village? Or was there a mixture of different loci of authority within the village and the region? Research at Cerén is beginning to shed some light on the sociopolitical economy within the community and in relation to elites in the Zapotitan valley. A domain in which there was considerable commoner-elite interaction in the Cerén area was the marketplace. Elites and their attached specialists provided products, and commoners decided which marketplace they would attend to exchange their items. Evidence from Cerén also suggests that there were numerous other domains of authority within the community that had no detectable control or influence from outside. For instance, people in the village decided what crafts or specialized agricultural products to produce as surplus to be exchanged within the community for different products from other households. Cerén community members acted independently as individuals, as households, or in other domains within the community. Understanding the multiple layers of authority at Cerén sheds light on the sociopolitical organization in one non-elite Classic period Maya community.

Resumen

Resumen

Los logros intelectuales, artísticos y arquitectónicos de la élite maya durante el periodo clásico fueron extraordinarios y se han conservado bien en el registro arqueológico en México, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador. Por siglos, el enfoque de las investigaciones ha generado la opinión comprensible que las élites controlaron la economía, la politica y la religion de su civilización. Desafortunadamente, las actividades, las decisiones y las interacciones de la gente común generalmente no se conservan bien en el registro arqueológico. Debido a esto, siempre ha sido un desafío comprender la economía sociopolítica de este grupo social, así como su relación y referenda con la autoridad que la controlaba. Afortunadamente, la buena preservación debido a la erupción volcánica en el sitio Joya de Cerén en El Salvador, ofrece una oportunidad para explorar el grado de influencia de la élite sobre la gente común. ¿Fue esta antigua sociedad una jerarquiía de mando y dominio de arriba hacia abajo, donde las elites controlaban todo? ¿O es que los aldeanos tenían autonomía para decidir cuestiones cotidianas, estacionales y anuales en el pueblo? ¿0 había mezcla de diferentes niveles de autoridad dentro de la aldea y la región? Las investigaciones en el sitio arqueológico Joya de Cerén han empezado a arrojar luz sobre la economía sociopolítica dentro de la aldea y cómo funcionó el pueblo en relación a las élites del valle de Zapotitán. Uno de los ejemplos donde existia dominio de las élites sobre la gente común era en el mercado, donde habia una considerable interaccion entre ambos grupos y la élite hacía accesibles sus productos elaborados por especialistas. A pesar de esto, la gente comun podia escoger el mercado para comerciar sus bienes. Los otros cinco dominios de autoridad identificados en la aldea de Joy a de Cerén no tenian control o influencia exterior. Más bien, los residentes de Joya de Ceren actuaron como agentes independientes, ya sea como individuos, hogares o en otros dominios dentro delfuncionamiento de la comunidad. Por ejemplo, los aldeanos decidian sobre la produce ion en exceso de artesanías y bienes agrícolas en cantidades mayores de lo que consumían localmente, de esta forma podían intercambiarlos dentro de la comunidad o comerciarlos en un mercado.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 341 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adams, Richard E.W., and Jones, Richard C. 1981 Spatial Patterns and Regional Growth among Classic Maya Cities. American Antiquity 46:301–322.Google Scholar
Beaubien, Harriet, and Beaudry-Corbett, Marilyn 2002 The Conservation Program at Cerén. In Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central America, edited by Payson Sheets, pp. 169–177. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Black, Kevin 1983 The Zapotitan Valley Archaeological Survey. In Archeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador, edited by Payson Sheets, pp. 62–97. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bolles, David, and Folan, William 2001 An Analysis of Roads Listed in Colonial Dictionaries and Their Relevance to Pre-Hispanic Linear Features in the Yucatan Peninsula. Ancient Mesoamerica 12(2):299–314.Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen, and Chase, Diane 1996 More Kin than King: Centralized Political Organization among the Late Classic Maya. Cultural Anthropology 37(5):803–810.Google Scholar
Crumley, Carole 1995 Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies. In Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies, Robert Ehrenreich, Carole Crumley, and Janet Levy (eds.) Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 6, pp.1–6.Google Scholar
Dixon, Christine 2011 Documenting Manioc Agriculture at Ceren. In Maya Agriculture South of the Ceren Site, El Salvador, 2011, edited by Payson Sheets and Christine Dixon, pp. 41–61. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/THEREPORT2011_001.pdf, accessed September 12, 2013.Google Scholar
Dixon, Christine 2013 Farming and Power: Classic Period Maya Manioc and Maize Cultivation at Cerén, El Salvador. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Dixon, Christine, and Sheets, Payson 2013 Cerén Sacbe. In The Sacbe and Agricultural Fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador: Report of the 2013 Research, edited by Payson Sheets and Christine Dixon. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2013CerenResearchReport.pdf, accessed October 28, 2013.Google Scholar
Dull, Robert, Southon, John, and Sheets, Payson 2001 Volcanism, Ecology and Culture: A Reassessment of the Volcanllopango TBJ Eruption in the Southern Maya Realm. Latin American Antiquity 12(l):25–44.Google Scholar
Folan, William 1977 El Sacbé Coba-Ixil, Un Camino Maya del Pasado. Nueva Antropología. Revista de Ciencias Sociales 2(6):30–42.Google Scholar
Gerstle, Andrea 2002 The Civic Complex. In Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central America, edited by Payson Sheets, pp. 83–103. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Gonlin, Nancy 1994 Rural Household Diversity in Late Classic Copán, Honduras. In Archaeological Views from the Countryside, edited by Glenn Schwartz and Steven Falconer, pp. 177–197. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Gunn, Joel (editor) 2000 The Years without Summer: Tracing AD. 536 and Its Aftermath. BAR International Series 872, Archaeopress, Oxford, UK. Google Scholar
Henderson, John S. 1997 The World of the Ancient Maya. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 2013 Economic Consumption and Domestic Economy in Cholula's Rural Hinterland, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 24(2):123–148.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Inomata, Takeshi 2009 The Classic Maya. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hutson, Stephen, Magnoni, Aline, and Stanton, Travis 2012 “All That Is Solid…” Sacbes, Settlement, and Semiotics at Tzacauil, Yucatan. Ancient Mesoamerica 23(2):297–311.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur 2000 The Founding of Monte Albán: Sacred Propositions and Social Practices. In Agency in Archaeology, edited by Marcia-Anne Dobres and John Robb, pp. 71–91. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur 2004 Sacred Space and Social Relations in the Valley of Oaxaca. In Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice, edited by Julia Hendon and Rosemary Joyce, pp. 192–216. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lamb, Celine 2012 Les Espaces Végétaux Domestiques de Cerén, El Salvador: Une Approche Ethnoarchéologique. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris.Google Scholar
Lamb, Céline, and Heindel, Theresa 2011 Classic Period Maize Agriculture South of the Cerén Site. In Maya Agriculture South of the Cerén Site, El Salvador, 2011, edited by Payson Sheets and Christine Dixon, pp. 13–33. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/THEREPORT2011_001.pdf, accessed September 12, 2013.Google Scholar
Lentz, David, and Slotten, Venicia 2013 Paleoethnobotanical Studies, 2013 Season, Joya de Cerén. In The Sacbe and Agricultural Fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador: Report of the 2013 Research, edited by Payson Sheets and Christine Dixon. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2013CerenResearchReport.pdf, accessed October 28, 2013.Google Scholar
Lentz, David, Beaudry-Corbett, Marilyn, Reyna de Aguilar, Maria Luisa, and Kaplan, Lawrence 1996 Foodstuffs, Forests, Fields, and Shelter: A Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of Vessel Contents from the Ceren Site, El Salvador. Latin American Antiquity 7:247–262.Google Scholar
Lohse, Jon, and Valdez, Fred Jr. (editors) 2004 Ancient Maya Commoners. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A. 2010 Ancestral Maya Economies in Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McKee, Brian 2007 Volcanism, Household Archaeology, and Formation Processes in the Zapotitan Valley, El Salvador. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1993 Ancient Maya Political Organization. In Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century AD: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, edited by Jeremy Sabloff and John Henderson, pp. 111–183. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Masson, Marilyn, and Freidel, David 2002 Ancient Maya Political Economies. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Netting, Robert, Wilk, Richard, and Arnould, Eric (editors) 1984 Households: Comparative and Historical Studies of the Domestic Group. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Rehm, Sigmund, and Espig, Gustav 1991 The Cultivated Plants of the Tropics and Subtropics. Verlag Josef Margraf, Berlin.Google Scholar
Reid, Dawn 1995 Inter- and Intra-site Sacbeob of the Naranjal Area. In The View from Yalahau: 1993 Archaeological Investigations in Northern Quintana Roo, Mexico, edited by Scott Fedick and Karl Taube, pp. 121–128. University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
Reina, Ruben 1966 The Law of the Saints: A Pokomam Pueblo and its Community Culture. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence 1987 Economic Change in the Lowland Maya Late Classic Period. In Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies, edited by Elizabeth Brumfiel and Timothy Earle, pp. 76–85. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Robin, Cynthia (editor) 2012 Chan: An Ancient Maya Farming Community. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Scarborough, Vernon, Valdez, Fred, and Dunning, Nicholas P. 2003 Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya: The Three Rivers Region of the East-central Yucatan Peninsula. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Shaw, Justine 2001 Maya Sacbeob. Ancient Mesoamerica 12(2):261–272.Google Scholar
Shaw, Justine 2008 White Roads of the Yucatan: Changing Social Landscapes of the Yucatec Maya. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson 2000 Provisioning the Ceren Household: The Vertical economy, Village Economy, and Household Economy in the Southeastern Maya Periphery. Ancient Mesoamerica ll(2):217–230.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson 2002 Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central America. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson 2006 The Cerén Site: An Ancient Village Buried by Volcanic Ash in Central America. 2nd ed. Thomson Wads worth, Belmont, California.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson 2009 Who Were Those Classic Period Immigrants into the Zapotitán Valley, El Salvador? In The Ch'orti’ Maya Area: Past and Present, edited by Brent Metz, Cameron McNeil, and Kerry Hull, pp. 61–77. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson (editor) 2009 Report of the 2009 Maya Agriculture Project, South of Joy a de Cerén, El Salvador. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2009ReportJoyadeCeren.pdf, accessed January 24, 2014.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson, and Dixon, Christine (editors) 2011 Maya Agriculture South of the Cerén Site, El Salvador, 2011. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/THEREPORT2011_001.pdf, accessed October 3, 2013.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson, and Dixon, Christine (editors) 2013 The Sacbe and Agricultural Fields atJoya de Cerén, El Salvador: Report of the 2013 Research. Electronic document, http://anthropology.colorado.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2013CerenResearchReport.pdf, accessed October 28, 2013.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson, Lentz, David, Piperno, Dolores, Jones, John, Dixon, Christine, Maloof, George, and Hood, Angela 2012 Ancient Manioc Agriculture South of the Ceren Village, EI Salvador. Latin American Antiquity 23(3):259–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheets, Payson, and Woodward, Michelle 2002 Cultivating Biodiversity: Milpas, Gardens, and the Classic Period Landscape. In Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central America, edited by Payson Sheets, pp. 184–191. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Webster, David 2002 The Fall of the Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of the Maya Collapse. Thames & Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Wilk, Richard, and Ashmore, Wendy (editors) 1988 Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wilk, Richard, and Rathje, William 1982 Household Archaeology. American Behavioral Scientist 25(6):617–639.Google Scholar
Yaeger, Jason 2000 Changing Patterns of Social Organization: The Late and Terminal Classic Communities at San Lorenzo, Cayo District, Belize. Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Yaeger, Jason, and Robin, Cynthia 2004 Heterogeneous Hinterlands: The Social and Political Organization of Commoner Settlements Near Xunantunich, Belize. In Ancient Maya Commoners, edited by Jon Lohse and Fred Valdez Jr., pp. 147–173. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Zier, Christian J. 1983 The Ceren Site: A Classic Period Maya Residence and Agricultural Field in the Zapotitàn Valley. In Archaeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitán Valley of El Salvador, edited by Payson Sheets, pp. 119–143. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Sheets et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Sheets et al. Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 618.5 KB