The materiality of practice in ancestral Maya economies -- Situating Maya societies in space and time -- Feeding a hungry landscape -- Gendered labor and socially constructed space -- Ritual works : monumental architecture and generative schemes of power -- Naturalized authority of the royal court -- Social identity and daily practice of artisan production -- Places, practices, and people of commerce -- Flowery speech of Maya tributary arrangements -- Skeining the threads.
Summary:
"The first comprehensive treatment of ancestral Maya economies, this book brings an array of evidence - archaeological, epigraphic, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic - to bear on the question of economic integration. In the process, McAnany demonstrates interconnectivity between ritual practice and indigenous ecologies, gendered labor, and the construction of colossal architecture. Examining Maya royaltyas a kind of social speciation, the author shows the fundamentality of social difference in ancestral Maya societies. The pervasiveness of artisan production is understood in terms of identity - both personal and community-wide. Her analysis of royal iconography and hieroglyphic texts provides evidence of a politicnl economy dominated by tribute extraction, thus lifting the veil of opacity over the financing of palace economies. This book interprets Maya economies in reference to contemporary theories of social practice, gender, actor networks, inalienable goods, materiality, hierarchy, indigenous ecologies, and strategies of state finance."--BOOK JACKET.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.