Ritual responses to drought: An examination of ritual expressions in Classic Maya written sources

Planting and rain-beckoning rituals are an extremely common way in which past and present human communities have confronted the risk of drought across a range of environments worldwide. In tropical environments, such ceremonies are particularly salient despite widespread assumptions that water supplies are unproblematic in such regions. We demonstrate for the first time that two common but previously under-appreciated Maya rituals are likely planting and rain-beckoning rituals preferentially performed at certain times of the year in close step with the rainy season and the Maya agricultural cycle. We also argue for considerable historical continuity between these Classic Maya ceremonies and later Maya community rituals still performed in times of uncertain weather conditions up to the present day across Guatemala, Belize, and eastern Mexico. During the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-900), the changing role played by ancient Maya drought-related rituals fits into a wider rhetorical shift observed in Maya texts away from the more characteristic focus on royal births, enthronements, marriages, and wars towards greater emphasis on the correct perpetuation of key ceremonies, and we argue that such changes are consistent with palaeoclimatic evidence for a period of diminished precipitation and recurrent drought.     

Assessing the impact of ancient Maya animal use

Tropical forest animals are at high risk worldwide as a result of over-exploitation and forest clearing. Zooarchaeological studies of animal use by the ancient Maya of the southern lowland regions of Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico provide long-term historical information on animal populations under conditions of human population growth and climatic change that is valuable to both archaeology and conservation biology. In this paper, zooarchaeological data from 35 chronologically defined faunal sub-samples recovered from 25 ancient Maya archaeological sites are used to assess the effects of ancient hunting on animal populations of the Maya region between the Preclassic and Colonial periods (2000 BC–AD 1697). The variations in species abundance are used as a proxy for describing changes in ancient Maya hunting practices and hunted animal populations, interpreted on the basis of hunting efficiency models from foraging ecology. A significant reduction in the proportion of large mammals, particularly Odocoileus virginianus, in zooarchaeological assemblages between the Late Classic (AD 600–850) and Terminal Classic/Postclassic periods (AD 850–1519) suggest that over-hunting during the Late Classic may have led to a reduction in availability of these animals to the ancient Maya hunters in the later periods. This finding is discussed in relation to important social and environmental variations to evaluate the impact of hunting and other factors such as forest clearance and climate on ancient animal populations in the Maya region.     

Population structure of the Classic period Maya

This study examines the population structure of Classic period (A.D. 250-900) Maya populations through analysis of odontometric variation of 827 skeletons from 12 archaeological sites in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. The hypothesis that isolation by distance characterized Classic period Maya population structure is tested using Relethford and Blangero's (Hum Biol 62 (1990) 5-25) approach to R matrix analysis for quantitative traits. These results provide important biological data for understanding ancient Maya population history, particularly the effects of the competing Tikal and Calakmul hegemonies on patterns of lowland Maya site interaction. An overall F(ST) of 0.018 is found for the Maya area, indicating little among-group variation for the Classic Maya sites tested. Principal coordinates plots derived from the R matrix analysis show little regional patterning in the data, though the geographic outliers of Kaminaljuyu and a pooled Pacific Coast sample did not cluster with the lowland Maya sites. Mantel tests comparing the biological distance matrix to a geographic distance matrix found no association between genetic and geographic distance. In the Relethford-Blangero analysis, most sites possess negative or near-zero residuals, indicating minimal extraregional gene flow. The exceptions were Barton Ramie, Kaminaljuyu, and Seibal. A scaled R matrix analysis clarifies that genetic drift is a consideration for understanding Classic Maya population structure. All results indicate that isolation by distance does not describe Classic period Maya population structure.     

Classic Maya State, Urbanism, and Exchange: Chipped Stone Evidence of the Copán Valley and Its Hinterland

In this article I use quantitative data from 91,916 pieces of chipped stone artifacts from the Copán Valley and its hinterland in Honduras to understand better the nature and role of exchange in the development of a Classic Maya state-level society. The results of this study suggest that intraregional exchange was more crucial for state development than was longdistance exchange. The management of procurement and exchange of utilitarian commodities, such as Ixtepeque obsidian blade cores, along with other factors, played a significant role in the development of the Copán state. In contrast to other major Maya lowland states, the Copán state directly obtained obsidian blade cores from nearby sources, distributed them to local leaders at Copán, and exported them to local rulers in neighboring regions. In this sense, the Classic Copán state maintained a centralized and integrated political and economic organization based on far more than kinship, ideology, and ritual, [exchange, complex society, urbanism, Classic Maya state]     

Kingship in the Late Preclassic Maya Lowlands: The Instruments and Places of Ritual Power

The Maya of Central America constitute the only truly literate pre-Columbian civilization. Analysis of ancient Maya hieroglyphic texts and accompanying images dating from the Classic period (A.D. 200–900) documents the presence of a central and pervasive institution of governance: ahaw. The material symbol systems of the Lowland Maya of the protoliterate Late Preclassic period (350 B.C.-A.D. 100), as evinced in monumental decorated buildings and in portable art, suggest that these Maya innovated ahaw, the institution of kingship. The authority of ahaw rested upon direct descent and spiritual communion with the ancestors of all Maya, the Ancestral Heroes. Along with noble lineage, ahaw claimed charismatic power through the performance of shamanistic ritual. The Late Preclassic antecedents of the shamanistic parameters of ahaw are discussed in light of Classic and Postclassic ritual expressions.     

The Collapse of the Classic Maya: A Case for the Role of Water Control

This article focuses on the role of water control in the emergence and demise of Classic Maya political power (c. C.E. 250-950), one that scholars have long underestimated. The scale of water control correlates with the degree of political power, reflected in three levels of Maya civic-ceremonial centers—regional, secondary, and minor. Such power derives from a complex relationship among center location, seasonal water supply, amount of agricultural land, and settlement density. Maya kings monopolized artificial reservoirs and other water sources during annual drought, providing the means to exact tribute from subjects. Climate change undermined the institution of rulership when existing ceremonies and technology failed to provide sufficient water. The collapse of rulers' power at regional centers in the Terminal Classic (c. C.E. 850-950) had differing impacts on smaller centers. Secondary and minor centers not heavily dependent on water control survived the drought and the collapse of regional centers. [Keywords: political power, water control, Classic Maya collapse]     

Cloth, Gender, Continuity, and Change: Fabricating Unity in Anthropology

In this article, I compare backstrap-loom weaving in three cultural contexts: the ancient Maya, the ancient Aztecs, and 20th-century Mesoamerica. Although continuities are present, important differences exist in the ways that weaving was situated historically. Among the Classic Maya, weaving defined class; in Aztec Mexico, weaving defined gender; and in 20th-century Mesoamerica, weaving defined ethnicity. A comparison of these cases suggests that historical study is a useful tool for both archaeologists and ethnographers. It promotes recognition of the diversity of practice and belief in ancient societies. It helps to define the scope of contemporary ethnographic study. It combats cultural essentialism and injects agency into our accounts. It enables us to acknowledge both the rich heritage of indigenous peoples and the fact of culture change. Comparative historical study provides a strong rationale for the continued association of archaeology and cultural anthropology as parts of a wider anthropological whole.     

Like Water for Chocolate: Feasting and Political Ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize

Subtle differences in the context of feasting and manners of food consumption can point to underlying levels of civil and social competition in state-level societies. Haute cuisine and high styles of dining are characteristic of societies with fully developed civil and social hierarchies such as Renaissance Europe and the Postclassic Aztec. Competitive yet socially circumscribed political and social organizations such as the Classic lowland Maya may have prepared elaborate diacritical meals that marked status, but the nature of feasting remained essentially patriarchal. Ancient Maya feasting is recognizable through archaeologically discernible pottery vessel forms that were used to serve festival fare such as tamales and chocolate. Comparison of ceramic assemblages across civic and household contexts at the site of Xunantunich, Belize, demonstrates that drinking chocolate, more so than eating tamales, served as a symbolic cue that established the political significance of events among the Classic Maya. [ feasting, ancient Maya, pottery analysis, chocolate ]     

Bioarchaeological investigation of ancient Maya violence and warfare in inland northwest Yucatan,Mexico

This study investigates evidence of changes and continuities in ancient Maya violence and warfare in inland northwest Yucatan, Mexico from the Middle Preclassic (600–300 BC) to the Postclassic (AD 1050–1542) through bioarchaeological analysis of cranial and projectile trauma. It is hypothesized that the frequency of violence increases before the Classic Maya collapse and remains high during the Postclassic period. It is also hypothesized that the flat, open terrain was conducive to warfare and resulted in higher trauma frequencies than in other parts of the Maya area. Results show that the frequency of cranial trauma decreases before the Classic collapse and increases in the Postclassic, partially matching the expected chronological trends. The frequency of cranial trauma does not differ significantly from other Maya regions but the pattern does: for all periods, males have more healed injuries than females and they are concentrated on the left side of the anterior of the skull. Some injuries appear to be from small points hafted in wooden clubs. In addition, projectile trauma is evident in a scapula with an embedded arrowhead tip, the first such case reported in a Maya skeleton. Overall, these results suggest greater reliance on open combat and less on raids in this region compared with other parts of the Maya area, possibly due to the flat, open terrain, though the identification of perimortem trauma in both women and men indicates surprise raids on settlements were also practiced. Am J Phys Anthropol 154:140–151, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The causes and consequences of deforestation among the prehistoric Maya

The collapse of the Classic Maya state is investigated from an ecological perspective. Settlement and palynological data from the Maya center of Copan, Honduras, are presented which indicate that substantial clearing of the upland pine forest had occurred prior to and during the abandonment of that urban center. A comparative use- rate analysis suggests that the increased clearing of pine was primarily caused by demands for domestic fuel wood by an expanding urban population. This forest mismanagement is directly linked to accelerated erosion rates which are considered primary elements in the collapse of the Maya state.     

Classic Maya Bloodletting and the Cultural Evolution of Religious Rituals: Quantifying Patterns of Variation in Hieroglyphic Texts

Religious rituals that are painful or highly stressful are hypothesized to be costly signs of commitment essential for the evolution of complex society. Yet few studies have investigated how such extreme ritual practices were culturally transmitted in past societies. Here, we report the first study to analyze temporal and spatial variation in bloodletting rituals recorded in Classic Maya (ca. 250–900 CE) hieroglyphic texts. We also identify the sociopolitical contexts most closely associated with these ancient recorded rituals. Sampling an extensive record of 2,480 hieroglyphic texts, this study identifies every recorded instance of the logographic sign for the word ch’ahb’ that is associated with ritual bloodletting. We show that documented rituals exhibit low frequency whose occurrence cannot be predicted by spatial location. Conversely, network ties better capture the distribution of bloodletting rituals across the southern Maya region. Our results indicate that bloodletting rituals by Maya nobles were not uniformly recorded, but were typically documented in association with antagonistic statements and may have signaled royal commitments among connected polities.

No longer can evolutionists dismiss such works [of ritual sacrifice] as scholarly, but irrelevant, esoterica–explorations of the bizarre but insignificant elements of Precolumbian culture…we must address this ideological data base with the same interest that we would give to studies of settlement patterns, subsistence systems, or political institutions [1].

     

Porotic Hyperostosis and Paleoepidemiology: A Forensic Perspective on Anemia among the Ancient Maya

Porotic lesions caused by childhood anemia are commonly found on ancient Maya crania and have been cited as evidence for extremely poor nutrition during the Classic Period. We reconsider this characterization in the light of recent data on childhood anemia in rural Guatemala and the prevalence of porotic hyperostosis in crania of forensic skeletal remains of rural highland Maya from Plan de Sanchez, Baja Verapaz, which date to 1982. The abundance of porotic hyperostosis in adults from Plan de Sanchez fits well with the number of modern rural children suffering from anemia, but the lesions are very rare compared to archaeological series. Although some minor change in diet and infection may contribute to differences in porotic hyperostosis, it is likely that higher mortality leads to fewer anemic lesions in modern adult crania. We hypothesize that more anemic children survived to adulthood in the past than do today, [iron-deficiency anemia, porotic hyperostosis, Maya, nutrition, forensic anthropology, osteological paradox]     

Viability and Resilience of Languages in Competition

We study the viability and resilience of languages, using a simple dynamical model of two languages in competition. Assuming that public action can modify the prestige of a language in order to avoid language extinction, we analyze two cases: (i) the prestige can only take two values, (ii) it can take any value but its change at each time step is bounded. In both cases, we determine the viability kernel, that is, the set of states for which there exists an action policy maintaining the coexistence of the two languages, and we define such policies. We also study the resilience of the languages and identify configurations from where the system can return to the viability kernel (finite resilience), or where one of the languages is lead to disappear (zero resilience). Within our current framework, the maintenance of a bilingual society is shown to be possible by introducing the prestige of a language as a control variable.     

Rethinking Ancient Maya Social Organization: Replacing "Lineage" with "House"

Long-standing disagreements concerning prehispanic Maya kinship and social organization have focused on the nature of their corporate groups, generally presumed to have been lineages. Specific debates center on whether the lineages were patrilineal or incorporated some kind of double-descent reckoning, how descent was combined with locality to define a group, and the status of lineage-outsiders within a group. It is argued here that Maya social organization is better approached within the contemporary critique of kinship, replacing "lineage" with Lévi-Strauss's model of the "house"—a corporate group maintaining an estate perpetuated by the recruitment of members whose relationships are expressed "in the language" of kinship and affinity and affirmed by purposeful actions. In this perspective, the operation of corporate groups is the primary concern, and relationships construed in terms of consanguinity and affinity are seen as strategies pursued to enhance and perpetuate the group, [ancestor veneration, house society, kinship, Maya, social organization]     

Sacred Giants: Depiction of Bombacoideae on Maya Ceramics in Mexico,Guatemala, and Belize

Sacred Giants: Depiction of the Malvaceae Subfamily Bombacoideae on Maya Ceramics in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize This study categorized and identified plants depicted on Maya ceramics from the Classic Period (250 a.d.–900 a.d.). We chose art objects with a predominance of iconographic images of Malvaceae subfamily Bombacoideae, which are easily identified morphologically and have culinary, medicinal, ceremonial, economic, and cosmological significance to the Maya. Among ten species of Bombacoideae native to the Southern Lowlands region of Central America (Belize, parts of Guatemala, and Mexico), the Maya utilized at least six, which also have Maya names. We observed four or five bombacoid species depicted on Maya ceramics; most images were identifiable to genus. Burial urns and incensarios (incense burners) commonly had images of trunk spines of Ceiba pentandra, the Maya “World Tree.” Flowers of Pseudobombax ellipticum, a plant used to make ceremonial beverages, were most similar to floral images portrayed on vessels, bowls, and plates, although the morphologically similar flowers of Pachira aquatica may also be depicted. Plants representing Quararibea funebris or Q. guatemalteca, which were used during preparation of cacao beverages, were discernable on drinking vessels.     

Language and cultural contacts among Yukatekan Mayans

The Yukatekan branch of the Maya language family, spread across the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, northern Guatemala, and Belize, began to diversify approximately 1,000 years ago. Today it has four branches: Mopan Maya, Itzaj Maya, Lakantun Maya and Yukatek Maya proper, which have widely varying language statuses. Lakantun and Itzaj Maya are seriously threatened, while Mopan appears to have a stable or growing population of approximately 10,000 speakers and Yukatek has a very large number of speakers, perhaps 750,000. However, even many Yukateks believe that their language is threatened and that shift to Spanish is underway. During the past millennia there has been a series of contacts involving migration, trade, warfare, and flight among the different branches, as well as with other Mayan languages and with the Spanish. This paper examines a variety of different kinds of contact, and how the different language varieties were involved and affected. One goal of the paper is to better understand how the dynamics of inter-cultural contacts affects language practices resulting in very different language statuses and ideologies.