Pathways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands (Maya Studies) - Hardcover

M. Kathryn Brown (editor)|George J. Bey III (editor)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813054842 ISBN 13: 9780813054841

Publisher: University Press of Florida, 2018

Synopsis

Pathways to Complexity synthesizes a wealth of new archaeological data to illuminate the origins of Maya civilization and the rise of Classic Maya culture. In this volume, prominent Maya scholars argue that the development of social, religious, and economic complexity began during the Middle Preclassic period (1000-300 BC), hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.

p>Contributors reveal that villages were present in parts of the lowlands by 1000 BC. Combining recent discoveries from the northern lowlands--an area often neglected in other volumes--and the southern lowlands, the collection then traces the emergence of sociopolitical inequality and complexity in all parts of the Yucatán Peninsula over the course of the Middle Preclassic period. They show that communities evolved in different ways due to influences such as geographical location, ceramic exchange, shell ornament production, agricultural strategy, religious ritual, ideology, and social rankings. These varied pathways to complexity developed over half a millennium and culminated in the institution of kingship by the Late Preclassic period.

Presenting exciting work on a dynamic and poorly understood time period, Pathways to Complexity demonstrates the importance of a broad, comparative approach to understanding Preclassic Maya civilization and will serve as a foundation for future research and interpretation.

A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase Contributors: M. Kathryn Brown | George Bey III | Tara Bond-Freeman | Fernando Robles Castellanos | Tomas Gallareta Negron | E. Wyllys Andrews V | Anthony Andrews | David S. Anderson | Lauren Sullivan | Jaime J. Awe | James F. Garber | Mary Jane Acuña | William Saturno | Bobbi Hohmann | Terry Powis | Paul Healy | Richard Hansen | Donald W. Forsyth | David Freidel | Barbara Arroyo | Richard E. W. Adams

About this title

About the Author

M. Kathryn Brown, Lutcher Brown Endowed Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, is coeditor of Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare.

George J. Bey III, Chisholm Foundation Chair of Arts and Sciences at Millsaps College, is coeditor of Pottery Economics in Mesoamerica.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813054842
• ISBN 13: 9780813054841
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 277