Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T23:39:44.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Architectural Labor Investment and Social Stratification at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kelli Carmean
Kelli Carmean*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines household architectural variability within the residential area of Sayil, Yucatán, Mexico. Labor-investment figures for residential architecture are used as a means of categorizing variability. A rank ordering of vault area and per-capita labor investment is achieved and an architectural wealth hierarchy is presented for the residential area of Sayil. This hierarchy is placed in the context of Maya land-tenure systems. It is argued that large, wealthy households may have been “first-founder” families in the Sayil valley and thus were in a position to effectively control and monopolize land and other productive resources, including human labor, for their own economic advantage.

Este trabajo examina la variabilidad existente en la arquitectura de las plataformas residenciales en el sitio de Sayil, Yucatán, México. Las plataformas contienen arquitectura doméstica, principalmente estructuras abovedadas hechas en su totalidad de piedra tallada. También hay estructuras menos elaboradas; con bajos muros de piedra, mientras que la parte superior de los muros y los techos, estaban hechos de madera o paja. Las plataformas también contienen cisternas para agua de lluvia (chultunes) y otras estructuras pequeñas. La inversión de trabajo, expresado en días de trabajo por persona, y medido por los muros, techos, y pisos de las estructuras, es el foco de este estudio. Las cifras que corresponden a la inversión de trabajo se emplean como una forma de entender y clasificar la variación económica en el sitio de Sayil. La muestra de plataformas en este estudio (57) representa solamente el estado medio de la communidad—las élites ricas que habitaban los palacios, como también las clases bajas de Sayil, no están en esta muestra. Se estableció un orden jerárquico de las plataformas basado en el área abovedada y correlacionada con la inversión de trabajo promedio. Este estudio fue desarrollado dentro del contexto de la tenencia de la tierra entre los mayas. Aunque los documentos etnohistóricos no enfatizan la importancia de tenencia privada de la tierra, es posible que otros datos aparte de la posesión de tierra podrían haber resultado en las mismas relaciones sociales entre personas de diferentes niveles económicos. El planteamiento del problema es que posiblemente las grandes familias aristocráticas fueron las primeras en llegar al valle de Sayil: controlaron y monopolizaron la tierra y otros recursos productivos, incluyendo la mano de obra, para su propia ventaja. El patrón de asentamiento resultante es lo que se puede ver actualmente en el sitio de Sayil.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 151 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1991

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

Abrams, E. 1987 Economic Specialization and Construction Personnel in Classic Period Copan, Honduras. American Antiquity 52:485–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrams, E. 1989 Architecture and Energy: An Evolutionary Approach. In Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 1, edited by M. B. Schiffer, pp. 47–87. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Andrews, E. W. V 1977 Some Comments on Puuc Architecture of the Northern Yucatan Peninsula. In The Puuc: New Perspectives, edited by L. Mills, pp. 1–17. Central College, Pella, Iowa.Google Scholar
Andrews, E. W. IV, and Rovner, I. 1973 Archaeological Evidence on Social Stratification and Commerce in the Northern Maya Lowlands: Two Mason’s Tool Kits from Muna and Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan. In Middle American Research Institute Publication No. 31, pp. 81–102. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Arnold, J., and Ford, A. 1980 A Statistical Examination of Settlement Patterns at Tikal, Guatemala. American Antiquity 45:713–726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmean, K. 1990 The Ancient Households of Sayil: A Study of Wealth in Terminal Classic Maya Society. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Drennan, R. 1988 Household Location and Compact Versus Dispersed Settlement in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. In House hold and Community in the Mesoamerican Past, edited by R. Wilk and W. Ashmore, pp. 273–293. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Dunning, N. 1989 Archaeological Investigations at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: Intersite Reconnaissance and Soil Studies During the 1987 Field Season. Anthropological Papers No. 2. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Dunning, N. 1990 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico, vols. I–III. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Erasmus, C. 1965 Monument Building: Some Field Experiments. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:277–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farriss, N. 1984 Maya Society Under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freidel, D., and Sabloff, J. 1984 Cozumel: Late Maya Settlement Patterns. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hirth, K. 1989 Domestic Architecture and Social Rank in a Mesoamerican Urban Center. In Households and Communities, edited by S. MacEachern, D. Archer, and R. Garvin, pp. 441–449. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Chacmool Conference. University of Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Jaeger, S. 1987 The Conchita Causeway and Associated Settlement. In Investigations at the Classic Maya City of Caracol, Belize: 1985–1987, edited by A. Chase and D. Chase, Appendix 2. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Kurjack, E. 1974 Prehistoric Lowland Maya Community and Social Organization: A Case Study at Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan, Mexico. Publication No. 38. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Ringle, W., and Andrews V, E. W. 1988 Formative Residences at Komchen, Yucatan, Mexico. In Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past, edited by R. Wilk and W. Ashmore, pp. 171–198. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Roys, R. 1957 The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya. Publication No. 613. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Roys, R. 1972 The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Smith, T. 1959 The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan. Stanford University Press, California.Google Scholar
Smyth, M. 1988 Storage Behavior in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico: An Ethnoarchaeological Investigation. Un published Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G. 1989 Measures of Household Differentiation at Seibal. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J., and Carmean, K. 1989 Progress Report on the 1987 and 1988 Field Seasons at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico. Mexicon XI: 12–15.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J., and Carmean, K. 1991 Will the Real Elites Please Stand Up?: An Archaeological Assessment of Maya Elite Behavior in the Terminal Classic Period. In Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, edited by A. Chase and D. Chase. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, in press.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J., and Smyth, M. 1990 Room Counts and Population Estimation for Terminal Classic Sayil in the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico. In Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands, edited by T. P. Gilbert and D. Rice, pp. 245–261. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J., Smyth, M., Whitley, V., Walling, S., Gallareta N., T., Perez A., C., Andrews, G., and Dunning, N. 1988 Mapping Community Patterns at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: The 1985 Season. Journal of New World Archaeology 7(2/3): 1–24.Google Scholar
Wilk, R., and Ashmore, W. 1988 Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar