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.     

The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation

The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation. Arthur A. Demarest, Prudence M. Rice, and Don S. Rice, eds. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2004. 676 pp.     

The Organization and Role Of an Amateur Archeological Society

Abstract

The roles and functions of amateur archeologists and archeological societies are critically assayed in constructive terms.

A lot of ink has been spilled recently about “amateurs”, “pothunters”, “professionals”, “nonprofessionals”, and the like, on the pages of American Antiquity, the Plains Anthropologist and other publications. There is no question whatsoever that many professional archeologists have had unpleasant experiences with nonprofessionals, but my opinion is that the current published comments are doing little to help the situation. I object, not from the standpoint of a nonprofessional archeologist, which I am--one whose feelings have been hurt--but from the standpoint of one who is seriously interested in improving the situation.     

Intertooth patterns of hypoplasia expression: Implications for childhood health in the Classic Maya collapse

Enamel hypoplasias, which record interacting stresses of nutrition and illness during the period of tooth formation, are a key tool in the study of childhood health in prehistory. But interpretation of the age of peak morbidity is complicated by differences in susceptibility to stress both between tooth positions and within a single tooth. Here, hypoplasias are used to evaluate the prevailing ecological model for the collapse of Classic Period Lowland Maya civilization, circa AD 900. Hypoplasias were recorded in the full dentition of 160 adult skeletons from six archaeological sites in the Pasión River region of Guatemala. Instead of constructing a composite scale of stress experience, teeth are considered separately by position in the analysis. No statistical differences are found in the proportion of teeth affected by hypoplasia between “Early,” Late Classic, and Terminal Classic Periods for anterior teeth considered to be most susceptible to stress, indicating stability in the overall stress loads affecting children of the three chronological periods. However, hypoplasia trends in posterior teeth may imply a change in the ontogenetic timing of more severe stress episodes during the final occupation and perhaps herald a shift in child-care practices. These results provide little support for the ecological model of collapse but do call to attention the potential of posterior teeth to reveal subtle changes in childhood morbidity when considered individually. Am J Phys Anthropol 102:233–247, 1997 © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

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].

     

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]