Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:08:30.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cultural Transformation at the Maya Postclassic Community of Laguna de On, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marilyn A. Masson
Marilyn A. Masson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Comparisons of Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) and Early-to-Middle Postclassic (A.D. 1000-1400) settlements at Laguna de On illuminate the transformation of Maya society at the community level in the aftermath of the Classic-period collapse. Affluent subsistence production communities such as Laguna de On reflect the emergence of the village as a focal point for social, political, and economic organization at this time, a pattern that persists in the Maya Lowlands to this day. Ties with the past are observed in comparisons of Classic-to-Postclassic domestic and public architectural efforts, burial patterns, faunal remains, lithic tool production and use, and settlement strategy at Laguna de On. Although some technological and material differences are observed in household assemblages of each period, the changes are not interpreted as material reflections of population replacement or ethnic difference. Postcollapse Belize Maya community organization and domestic patterns are analyzed as scaled-down transformations of Classic-period institutions in response to altered conditions of regional demography, ecology, and political geography.

La comparación de las ocupaciones del Clásico Tardío (600-900 d.C.) y del Postclásico Temprano y Medio (1000-1400 d.C.) en la Laguna de On permite delinear la transformación de la sociedad maya al nivel de la comunidad después del colapso del horizonte Clásico. Las transformaciones sociales, políticas y económicas detectables durante el Postclásico en este sitio mantuvieron algunos aspectos de las organizaciones del horizonte Clásico al mismo tiempo que se ajustaban a un sistema global más extenso. Las comunidades ricas en la producción de subsistencia, como la de la Laguna de On, marcan el surgimiento de la aldea como un punto focal de la organización social, política y económica, un patrón que ha persistido en las Tierras Bajas Mayas hasta hoy día. Los nexos con el pasado se pueden observar mediante la comparación de casas y arquitectura pública, patrones de enterramientos, restos de fauna, producción y uso de implementos líticos y estrategias de asentamiento en la Laguna de On. Aunque se han detectado algunas diferencias tecnológicas y materiales en los ajuares domésticos en cada una de las ocupaciones comparadas, dichos cambios no parecen ser el reflejo material de un reemplazo de la población, o de diferencias étnicas. A través del estudio de los sistemas de producción y de la organización comunitaria postclásica se abordan problemas sobre estilo, etnicidad, supervivencia y transformación de la cultura maya. Tal comparación obliga a incorporar los atributos funcionales de los conjuntos de artefactos y elementos arqueológicos en el análisis, más que los estilísticos.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 293 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ashmore, W., and Wilk, R. R. 1988 Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past. In Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past, edited by R. R. Wilk and W. Ashmore, pp. 1-28. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Ball, J. 1985 The Postclassic That Wasn’t: The Thirteenth-through-Seventeenth Century Archaeology of Central Eastern Campeche, Mexico. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by A. F. Chase and P. M. Rice, pp. 273-284. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Braudel, F. 1980 History and the Sciences: The Longue Duree. In On History, translated by S. Matthews, pp. 25-51. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bricker, V. R. 1981 The Indian Christ, the Indian King: The Historical Substrate of Maya Myth and Ritual. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Chase, A. F. 1983 A Contextual Consideration of the Tayasal-Paxcaman Zone, El Peten, Guatemala. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Chase, A. F., and Chase, D. Z. 1985 Postclassic Temporal and Spatial Frames for the Maya: A Background. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by A. Chase and P. Rice, pp. 9-23. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Chase, A. F., and Rice, P. M. (editors) 1985 The Lowland Maya Postclassic. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z. 1982 Spatial and Temporal Variability in Postclassic Northern Belize. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z. 1986 Social and Political Organization in the Land of Milk and Honey: Correlating the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Postclassic Lowland Maya. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V, pp. 347-378. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z. 1988 Caches and Censerwares: Meaning from Maya Pottery. In A Pot for All Reasons: Ceramic Ecology Revisited, edited by C. C. Kolb and L. M. Lackey, pp. 81-104. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. 1982 Yucatec Influence in Terminal Classic Northern Belize. American Antiquity 47:596-614.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z., and Chase, A. F. 1988 A Postclassic Perspective: Excavations at the Maya Site of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize. Monograph No. 4. Precolumbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D. 1965 A Model of Ancient Community Structure in the Maya Lowlands. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:97-114.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D. 1973 The Maya Scribe and His World. Grolier Club, New York.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G. L. 1963 Postclassic Period Culture in the Vicinity of Flores, Peten, Guatemala. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Eaton, J. D. 1991 Tools of Ancient Maya Builders. In Maya Stone Tools: Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, edited by T. R. Hester and H. J. Shafer, pp. 219-228. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 1. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Farriss, N. 1984 Maya Society under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Fash, W. L. 1991 Scribes, Warriors, and Kings: The City of Copan and the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V., and Winter, M. 1976 Analyzing Household Activities. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp. 34-44. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fox, J. W. 1978 Quiche Conquest: Centralism and Regionalism in Highland Guatemala State Development. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. 1981 Continuity and Disjunction: Late Postclassic Settlement Patterns in Northern Yucatan. In Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns, edited by W. Ashmore, pp. 311-332. School of American Research. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. 1985 New Light on a Dark Age: A Summary of Major Themes. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by A. Chase and P. Rice, pp. 285-310. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. A., Scheie, L., and Parker, J. 1993 The Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Gann, T. 1927 Maya Cities: A Record of Exploration and Adventure in Middle America. Self-published. London.Google Scholar
Graham, E. A. 1985 Facets of Terminal to Postclassic Activity in the Stann Creek District, Belize. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by A. Chase and P. Rice, pp. 215-230. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Graham, E. A. 1987 Terminal Classic to Early Historic Period Vessel Forms from Belize. In Maya Ceramics, edited by P. Rice and R. Sharer, pp. 73-98. BAR International Series 345. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Graham, E. A., Pendergast, D. M., and Jones, G. D. 1989 On the Fringes of Conquest: Maya-Spanish Contact in Colonial Belize. Science 246:1254-1259.Google Scholar
Hendon, J. A. 1987 The Uses of Maya Structures: An Ethnographic Search and an Archaeological Application. American Anthropologist 85:630-643.Google Scholar
Hester, T. R. (editor) 1982 The Maya Lithic Sequence in Northern Belize. In Archaeology at Colhá, Belize: The 1981 Interim Report, edited by J. D. Eaton, T. R. Hester, and H. J. Shafer, pp. 39-59. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio, and Centro Studi e Ricerche Ligabue, Venezia.Google Scholar
Hester, T. R. (editor) 1985 Late Classic-Early Postclassic Transitions: Archaeological Investigations at Colha, Belize. Final Performance Report to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Grants R0 20534–83 and RO 20755. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas at San Antonio. On file at Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Hester, T. R., and Shafer, H. J. 1991 Lithics of the Early Postclassic at Colhá, Belize. In Maya Stone Tools: Selected Papers from the Second Maya Lithic Conference, edited by T. R. Hester and H. J. Shafer, pp. 155-162. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 1. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. 1993 Ground Stone from Laguna de On Shore and Island. Illustrations on file, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Jones, G. D. 1989 Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule: Time and History on a Colonial Frontier. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Jorrin, M. 1974 Stone Monuments. In The Oaxaca Coast Project Reports: Part I, by D. Brockington, M. Jorrin, and J. R. Long, pp. 23-81. Publications in Anthropology No. 8. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.Google Scholar
Kelly, T. C. 1980 The Colhá Regional Survey. In The Colhá Project, Second Season, 1980 Interim Report, edited by T. R. Hester, J. D. Eaton, and H. J. Shafer, pp. 51-69. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio, and Centro Studi e Ricerche Ligabue, Venezia.Google Scholar
Lewenstein, S. 1987 Stone Tool Use at Cerros: The Ethnoarchaeological and Use-Wear Evidence. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Love, B. 1986 Yucatec Maya Ritual: A Diachronic Perspective. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Masson, M. A. 1993 Changes in Maya Community Organization from the Classic to Postclassic Periods: A View from Laguna de On, Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Masson, M. A. 1995a Understanding the Stratigraphic Context of the Maya Postclassic in Belize. Geoarchaeology 10(5):389-404.Google Scholar
Masson, M. A. 1995b Community Feasting Rituals and Postclassic Maya Village Political Structure: Evidence from Archaeological Remains. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis, Minnesota.Google Scholar
Masson, M. A., and Rosenswig, R. M. 1997 The Belize Postclassic Project: Laguna de On Island Excavations 1996. Occasional Publication No. 1. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Masson, M. A., and Valdez, F. Jr. 1992 Estrategias en el uso del medio ambiente por las poblaciones del Clásico y el Postclásico en Laguna de On (Honey Camp) Belize. Procedencias del Segundo Congreso Internacional de Mayistas, Merida, Mexico.Google Scholar
McAnany, P. A. 1986 Lithic Technology and Exchange among Wetland Farmers of the Eastern Maya Lowlands. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
McKillop, H. 1989 Wild Cane Cay: An Insular Classic Period to Postclassic Period Maya Trading Station. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Michaels, G. 1985 The Early Postclassic at Colhá, Belize: A Summary Overview and Directions for Future Research. In Final Performance Report to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Grants R0 20534-83 and RO 20755, edited by T. R. Hester, pp. 196-211. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio. On file at Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Michaels, G. 1987 A Description of Early Postclassic Lithic Technology at Colhá, Belize. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Mock, S. B. 1994 Yucatecan Presence in Northern Belize as Seen in the Postclassic Ceramics at Colhá. In Continuing Archaeology at Colhá, Belize, edited by T. R. Hester, H. J. Shafer, and J. D. Eaton, pp. 233-244. Studies in Archaeology No. 15. Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Nash, M. A. 1980 An Analysis of a Debitage Collection from Colhá, Belize. In The Colhá Project: Second Season, 1980 Interim Report, edited by T. R. Hester, J. D. Eaton, and H. J. Shafer, pp. 333-352. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio, and Centro Studi e Ricerche Ligabue, Venezia.Google Scholar
Nash, M. A. 1986 A Functional Analysis of Two Lithic Tool Cowllections from Colhá, Belize. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Pendergast, D. A. 1981 Lamanai, Belize: Summary of Excavation Results, 1974-1980. Journal of Field Archaeology 8:29-53.Google Scholar
Nash, M. A. 1985 Lamanai, Belize: An Updated View. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by A. Chase and P. Rice, pp. 91-103. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Nash, M. A. 1986 Stability through Change: Lamanai, Belize, from the Ninth to the Seventeenth Century. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V, pp. 223-250. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Potter, D. R. 1991 The Emergence of Colhá as a Preclassic Center. Paper presented at the 47th International Congress of Americanists, New Orleans, July 8.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, T. 1962 The Artifacts of Mayapan. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, by H. E. D. Pollock, R. Roys, T. Proskouriakoff, and A. Ledyard Smith, pp. 321-442. Publication No. 619. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Rice, D. 1974 The Archaeology of British Honduras: A Review and Synthesis. Katunob Occasional Publications in Mesoamerican Archaeology No. 6. Museum of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley.Google Scholar
Rice, D. 1986 The Peten Postclassic: A Settlement Perspective. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V, pp. 301-346. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Rice, D. 1988 Classic to Postclassic Maya Household Transitions in the Central Peten, Guatemala. In Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past, edited by R. R. Wilk and W. Ashmore, pp. 227-248. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Rice, P. 1986 The Peten Postclassic: Perspectives from the Central Peten Lakes. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V, pp. 251-299. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Rice, P. 1987 Economic Change in the Lowland Maya Late Classic Period. In Specialization, Exchange, and Social Complexity, edited by E. M. Brumfiel and T. K. Earle, pp. 76-85. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Roemer, E. Ill 1984 A Late Classic Maya Lithic Workshop at Colhá, Belize. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A., and Andrews V, E. W. (editors) 1986 Late Lowland Maya Civilization. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A., and Rathje, W. 1975 The Rise of a Maya Merchant Class. Scientific American 233:72-82.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. 1981 Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities: Structure in the Early History of the Sandwich Islands Kingdom. Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Special Publications No. 1. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. 1985 Islands of History. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Schele, L., and Freidel, D. A. 1990 A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Scholes, F., and Roys, R. 1948 The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Scott, R. F. IV 1980 Further Comments on Faunal Analysis and Ancient Subsistence Activities at Colhá. In The Colhá Project, Second Season, 1980 Interim Report, edited by T. R. Hester, J. D. Eaton, and H. J. Shafer, pp. 281-288. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio, and Centra Studi e Ricerche Ligabue, Venezia.Google Scholar
Scott, R. F. IV 1982 Notes on Continuing Faunal Analysis for the Site of Colhá, Belize: Data from the Early Postclassic. In Archaeology at Colhá, Belize: The 1981 Interim Report, edited by T. R. Hester, H. J. Shafer, and J. D. Eaton, pp. 203-207. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas, San Antonio, and Centra Studi e Ricerche Ligabue, Venezia.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. 1983 The Lithic Artifacts of the Pulltrouser Area: Settlements and Fields. In Pulltrouser Swamp: Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize, edited by B. L. Turner II and P. D. Harrison, pp. 212-245. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. 1985 A Technological Study of Two Maya Lithic Workshops at Colhá, Belize. In Stone Tool Analysis: Essays in Honor of Don E. Crahtree, edited by M. G. Plew, J. C. Woods, and M. G. Pavesic, pp. 277-315. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J., and Hester, T. R. 1983 Ancient Maya Chert Workshops in Northern Belize, Central America. American Antiquity 48:519-543.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J., and Hester, T. R. 1988 Appendix III: Preliminary Analysis of Postclassic Lithics from Santa Rita Corozal, Belize. In A Postclassic Perspective: Excavations at the Maya Site of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize, edited by D. Chase and A. Chase, pp. 111-117. Monograph No. 4. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J., and Hester, T. R. 1990 The Puleston Axe: A Late Preclassic Maya Hafted Tool from Northern Belize. In Ancient Maya Wetland Agriculture: Excavations at Albion Island, Northern Belize, edited by M. Pohl, pp. 279-294. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Shaw, L., and Mangan, P. 1994 Faunal Analysis of an Early Postclassic Midden, Operation 2032, Colhá, Belize. In Continuing Archaeology at Colhá, Belize, edited by T. R. Hester, H. J. Shafer, and J. D. Eaton, pp. 69-78. Studies in Archaeology No. 15. Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Sidrys, R. V. 1983 Archaeological Excavations in Northern Belize, Central America. Monograph No. 17. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Taube, K. A. 1988 The Ancient Yucatec New Year Festival: The Liminal Period in Maya Ritual and Cosmology. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Taube, K. A. 1992 The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology No. 32. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. 1957 Deities Portrayed on Censers at Mayapan. Current Report No. 40. Department of Archaeology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. 1970 Maya History and Religion. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. 1977 A Proposal for Constituting a Maya Subgroup, Cultural and Linguistic, in the Peten and Adjacent Regions. In Anthropology and History in Yucatan, edited by G. Jones, pp. 3–42. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Valdez, F. Jr. 1987 The Ceramics of Colhá, Northern Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Valdez, F. Jr. 1993 Appendix X. Obsidian Artifacts from Laguna de On Island. In Changes in Maya Community Organization from the Classic to Postclassic Periods: A View from Laguna de On, Belize, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by M. Masson. Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Valdez, F., and Masson, M. A. 1994 Classic to Postclassic Settlement and Architecture at Laguna de On, Belize. Manuscript submitted for publication. On file the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Valdez, F. Jr., Masson, M. A., and Santone, L. 1992 Honey Camp-El Cacao Project: Summary of Investigations, 1991. Report submitted to the Department of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Vogt, E. Z. 1976 Tortillas for the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Webster, D., and Gonlin, N. 1988 Household Remains of the Humblest Maya. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:169–190.Google Scholar
Walker, D. S. 1990 Cerros Revisited: Ceramic Indicators of Terminal Classic and Postclassic Settlement and Pilgrimage in Northern Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.Google Scholar
Watanabe, J. M. 1992 Maya Saints and Souls in a Changing World. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Willey, G. R. 1973 Certain Aspects of the Late Classic to Postclassic Periods in the Belize Valley. In The Classic Maya Collapse, edited by T. P. Culbert, pp. 93–106. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar