In this study, we offer a relational approach to theorizing boundaries for the Maya, adapting Mills’ (2018) concept of “boundary objects” as a means of understanding how people and things bridge or cross boundaries and were critical for developing and maintaining allied relations. We trace a network of sites on both sides of the Guatemala–Belize border dating to the Terminal Classic and Postclassic, which are generally characterized as times of increased conflict, movement and migration of people, and disruption in dynastic succession with an emphasis on shared governance. We examine the introduction of northern-style traits in the eastern Maya lowlands during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods, including circular and colonnaded buildings and distinctive portable goods such as molded-carved ceramics, phallic and turtle effigies, and other material forms. We suggest that during fractious periods in Maya history, northern traits were implicated in boundary crossing negotiations and entangled relations, which included marriage alliances with “foreigners” as a means of elite legitimation.

Societies vary in how they approach the challenges of increased population, inequality, and occupational specialization. The city of Nixtun-Ch'ich’ and its satellite, T'up, in Peten, Guatemala exhibit orthogonal urban grids—a trait absent from all other known Maya cities. Such grids require extensive planning and the ability to mobilize the population. The present data suggests that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ was substantially larger than any of the surrounding settlements and was, therefore, a primate center during the Middle Preclassic period. The extensive urban planning of the site, as well as that of T'up suggests centralized planning. Yet, we have not encountered evidence of a central ruler propagated as a unifying symbol of the polity. The gridded public streets and lack of a rulership cult suggest that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ had a more collaborative social system.

This paper addresses activities carried out in a late-sixteenth or seventeenth century Maya council house (popol nah) just before its abandonment. Structure 719 at the site of Zacpeten in the central Peten lakes district is considered a noble residence remodeled into a council house with an adjacent temple. Excavations revealed quantities of de facto refuse inside the structure's two rooms and around the exterior; recent studies focused on ceramics, lithics, faunal remains, and net sinkers. The back room held abundant lithics and diverse fauna, with evidence of grinding red pigment and snapping obsidian prismatic blades into segments for fashioning arrow points. Pottery and faunal remains indicate feasting, as well as possible use of animal parts in ritual and in making ceremonial objects. The Group 719 complex served as a center of production of various goods and community ritual until its abrupt abandonment, likely in the first decade or so of the eighteenth century.

In this article, we consider how the Postclassic Kowoj Maya of the central Peten lakes region of El Petén, Guatemala utilized mana in conjunction with their ritual objects and spolia to mediate between the natural and supernatural worlds. In many cultures worldwide and throughout time, mana (magical or spiritual powers that provide people and objects with a living force) transforms the ordinary into the spiritually powerful. The Kowojs imbued incense burners and buildings with mana, thus facilitating a connection with their ancestors. We examine the manufacturing recipe of a group of incense burners and the civic-ceremonial buildings at Zacpeten to argue that the Kowoj used these objects to mediate among the living, the dead, and the supernatural realms. Ultimately, by empowering these objects with mana, the Kowoj constructed a universe where they regularly communicated with their ancestors and built structures that ensouled their historical consciousness.

The Spaniards established several congregaciones or missions in central Petén, Guatemala, shortly after the 1697 conquest of the region to help control local indigenous populations. Recent investigations at the church and community of Mission San Bernabé revealed details about the entangled relations of Mayas and Spaniards. Foucault's four technologies of domination help explicate these power relations as they were played out in the small settlement and the church at its center. Material culture differed in many ways from that of the pre-conquest Itzas, but was clearly predominantly “Maya.” Spanish-style goods and burial patterns were found as were hybrid ceramic wares, the Spanish-style artifacts most common in an elite residence, reflecting that Maya elite acted as brokers with the Spaniards. The occupants also incorporated Spanish domesticates into their diets. Some changes likely resulted from various ethnic groups residing in the same settlement, but others were the product of indigenous adaptations to the situation of contact. Nevertheless, it is clear that the mission anchored a number of strategies of domination that subdued the occupants of San Bernabé.

The ceremonial architecture of Late Postclassic Mayapán (A.D. 1268–1441) in Yucatán, Mexico, included repetitive arrangements of buildings known as temple assemblages. Archaeological investigations conducted by the Proyecto Maya Colonial in Petén, Guatemala, revealed a pocket of temple assemblages in a zone occupied by the seventeenth century Kowoj Maya. The Kowoj claimed to have migrated from Mayapán sometime after the city’s collapse in A.D. 1441. Indigenous documents also describe Kowoj in Mayapán and linguistic data indicate migrations between Yucatán and Petén as well. A specific variant of temple assemblage defines the location of the Kowoj in both Mayapán and Petén. I argue that these assemblages were the exemplary centers or microcosms of the Kowoj social and physical universe and they were transplanted as the Kowoj re-centered themselves in new or, perhaps, reclaimed lands. The temple assemblages also communicated a prestigious connection with Mayapán and differentiated the Kowoj from their neighbors in Petén.

Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, was the most prominent Maya ceremonial center from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth century. The city was a religious center for surrounding Maya populations. Its construction was linked through cyclical reasoning to a chain of antecedent centers, the ultimate link of which lay in creation. In the heart of Mayapan lay its exemplary center, an architectural model of cosmogony composed of five temple assemblages. The central building of each assemblage was a temple decorated with serpent imagery. These five serpent temples were depicted on a mural in Structure Q-80 at Mayapan, with additional symbolism suggesting that each building was tied to a specific elite official, likely the Ajaw B'atab'ob, Jalach Winik, and AjK'in as described in ethnohistoric documents. The serpent temples also depict the primordial flood crocodilian, who was both the world and the world destroyer—hence, a symbol of both order and chaos.