Date Available

6-29-2015

Year of Publication

2015

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Anthropology

First Advisor

Dr. Christopher A. Pool

Abstract

This project examines household exchange systems in the ancient Maya polity of Kiuic, located in the Puuc Hills of northwestern Yucatán, México. Comparisons of variation in domestic artifact assemblages are used to evaluate household participation in exchange networks organized around three kinds of distribution: (1) non-market horizontal exchange among social equals; (2) vertical exchange across socioeconomic ranks; and (3) market exchange, in which price rather than rank structures access to goods. Intensive analyses of ceramic morphology, mineralogy, and chemical composition will document attribute variation within household artifact assemblages, and comparisons of the degrees to which households share overlapping ranges of variation will be used to indicate participation in exchange networks. By considering the socioeconomic rank of the households involved in exchange, horizontal, vertical, and market exchanges can be differentiated. The analyses will consider ceramic assemblages dating to the Late and Terminal Classic periods (600-1000 A.D.) of Kiuic’s occupation. During this time, this polity, like others in the Puuc region, experienced a dramatic florescence and eventual decline. The role of economic systems, and any manipulation of these systems for political economic processes, has not been addressed in previous studies of the Puuc florescence.

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