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Entombment, Authority, and Descent at Altar de Sacrificios, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William A. Haviland
William A. Haviland*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont
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Abstract

At the lowland Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios, two burials have been interpreted in such a way as to suggest: (1) that matrilineal principles of social organization may have been operative in some segments of Classic Maya society; and (2) that Maya political units may have been tied together by marriage alliances. These two hypotheses are examined here in the light of anthropological kinship theory. It is concluded that such marriage alliances are in the realm of possibility, but that matrilineality is unlikely.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 102 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1971

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