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The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies – From Farmers' Fields to Rulers' Realms - Florida Scholarship Online
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The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies: From Farmers' Fields to Rulers' Realms

Marilyn A. Masson, David A. Freidel, and Arthur A. Demarest

Abstract

A timely synthesis of the latest research and perspectives on ancient Maya economics, this volume illuminates the sophistication and intricacy of economic systems in the Preclassic period, Classic period, and Postclassic period. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines move beyond paradigms of elite control and centralized exchange to focus on individual agency, highlighting production and exchange that took place at all levels of society. Case studies draw on new archaeological evidence from rural households and urban marketplaces to reconstruct the trade networks for tools, ceramics, ob ... More

Keywords: Ancient Maya economics, Rural households, Urban marketplaces, Preclassic period, Classic period, Postclassic period

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2020 Print ISBN-13: 9780813066295
Published to Florida Scholarship Online: January 2021 DOI:10.5744/florida/9780813066295.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Marilyn A. Masson, editor
University at Albany, State University of New York

David A. Freidel, editor
Washington University

Arthur A. Demarest, editor
Vanderbilt University

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Figures

Tables

Foreword

Abbreviations

I Theoretical Approaches

1 Nuts, Bolts, and Bridges

David A. Freidel

2 Modeling Maya Markets

Eleanor M. King

3 A New Direction in the Study of Ancient Maya Economics

Arthur A. Demarest, Bart Victor, Chloé Andrieu, and Paola Torres

II Household and Community Economies and Resources

4 Similar Markets, Different Economies

Scott R. Hutson

5 Rural Economies of Agrarian Houselots before and after the Rise of Urban Mayapán

Marilyn A. Masson, Carlos Peraza Lope, Timothy S. Hare, Bradley W. Russell, Pedro Delgado Kú, Bárbara Escamilla Ojeda, and Luis Flores Cobá

6 Stone for My House

William Ringle, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, and George Bey

7 Chert Resource Availability, Production, and Economic Logic

Rachel A. Horowitz, Marcello Canuto, and Chloé Andrieu

8 The Ancient Maya Economic Landscape of Caracol, Belize

Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

9 Commerce, Redistribution, Autarky, and Barter

Keith Eppich

10 Large-Scale Production of Basic Commodities at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala

Brent K. S. Woodfill

III Agriculture, Climate, Land

11 Gardens of the Maya

Andrew R. Wyatt

12 Yucatec Land and Labor before and after Spanish Incursions

Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche, Patricia A. McAnany, and Maia Dedrick

13 Maya Cornucopia

Scott L. Fedick

14 Service Relationships within the Broader Economy of Cerén, a Young Maya Village

Payson Sheets

IV Political Elites, Wealthy Persons, and Economic Administration

15 A Discrepancy between Elite Office and Economic Status in the El Palmar Dynasty

Kenichiro Tsukamoto

16 Bundling the Sticks

Alexandre Tokovinine

17 Maya Economic Organization and Power

Daniela Triadan and Takeshi Inomata

V Economic Exchange Spheres: Routes, Facilities, and Symbolic Contexts

18 Economic Interactions and the Rise of Sociopolitical Complexity in the Maya Lowlands

Richard D. Hansen, Edgar Suyuc, Stanley P. Guenter, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Enrique Hernández, and Beatriz Balcárcel

19 Classic Maya Interaction Networks and the Production and Consumption of Cotton Fiber and Textiles

Dorie Reents-Budet and Ronald L. Bishop

20 The Political Geography of Long-Distance Exchange in the Elevated Interior Region of the Yucatán Peninsula

Beniamino Volta, Joel D. Gunn, Lynda Florey Folan, William J. Folan, and Geoffrey E. Braswell

21 An Intracoastal Waterway and Trading Port System in Prehispanic Northwest Yucatán, Mexico

Fernando Robles Castellanos, Anthony P. Andrews, and Rubén Chuc Aguilar

22 The Difference a Marketplace Makes

Bernadette Cap

23 Decentralizing the Economies of the Maya West

Charles Golden, Andrew Scherer, Whittaker Schroder, Clive Vella, and Alejandra Roche Recinos

24 A Stone Duty?

Chloé Andrieu

25 Terminal Classic Interactions between the Western Petén Lakes Chain and the Western Lowlands

Prudence M. Rice

26 Maya Economics

Norman Yoffee

27 Conclusion

Marilyn A. Masson

End Matter

Appendix

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

Maya Studies