Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T15:55:23.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Roadwork: Long-Distance Causeways at Uci, Yucatan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2021

Scott R. Hutson Open the ORCID record for Scott R. Hutson [Opens in a new window]  and
Jacob A. Welch
Scott R. Hutson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 211 Lafferty Hall, Lexington, KY40506-0025,USA
Jacob A. Welch
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, 10 Sachem St., New Haven, CT06511, USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A multiyear field project focused on long-distance causeways between Uci and Cansahcab in Yucatan, Mexico, supports their use for processions and pilgrimages, their role in the creation of multisite polities, and their involvement in the constitution of local authority. Yet details of the causeways’ construction suggest that people contested this authority. Work was central to these dynamics and comes in the form of labor as practice, investments in the maintenance of relations with other-than-human beings, and the ways that causeways produced embodied experiences that were ideal for their use in pilgrimages.

Un proyecto de múltiples años enfocado en las calzadas de larga distancia entre Uci y Cansahcab, Yucatán, México, contribuye a un entendimiento de su uso para peregrinacines y otras actividades, su papel en la creación de alianzas entre muchos sitios, su complicidad en constituir autoridad local y cómo la gente contestaron tal autoridad. Trabajo fue fundamental a estas dinámicas y toma la forma de mano de obra, inversión en el mantenimiento de relaciones con seres no-humanos, y las maneras en que calzadas produjeron experiencias sensoriales en su uso para peregrinación.

Keywords

pilgrimagelaborpracticearchaeology of the sensesMayapolitical authorityintersite integrationcausewaysPeregrinajemano de obrateoría prácticaarqueología sensorialMaya antiguoautoridad políticaintegración de asentamientocalzadas
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 310 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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

Anderson, David S. 2011 Xtobo, Yucatan, Mexico, and the Emergent Preclassic of the Northern Maya Lowlands. Ancient Mesoamerica 22:301–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astor-Aguilera, Miguel A. 2010 The Maya World of Communicating Objects: Quadripartite Crosses, Trees, and Stones. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Astor-Aguilera, Miguel A., and Jarvenpa, Robert 2008 Comparing Indigenous Pilgrimages: Devotion, Identity, and Resistance in Mesoamerica and North America. Anthropos 103:482–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Robert 1930 The Ancient Maya Causeway in Yucatan. Indian Notes 8:347–382.Google Scholar
Bolles, David, and Folan, William 2001 An Analysis of Roads Listed in Colonial Dictionaries and their Relevance to Pre-Hispanic Linear Features in the Yucatan Peninsula. Ancient Mesoamerica 12:299–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Linda A., and Emery, Kitty F. 2008 Negotiations with the Animate Forest: Hunting Shrines in the Guatemalan Highlands. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15:300–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrasco, Ramón 1993 Formación sociopolitica en el Puuc: El Sacbé Uxmal-Nohpat-Kabah. In Perspectivas antropológicas en el mundo maya, edited by Ponce de Leon, Maria Josefa Iglesias and Perramon, Josep Ligorred, pp. 199–212. Publicaciónes de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Chase, Diane Z., and Chase, Arlen F. 2014 Ancient Markets and the Economic Integration of Caracol, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 25:239–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobos, Rafael, and Winemiller, Terence L. 2001 The Late and Terminal Classic Period Causeway Systems of Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 12:283–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1965 A Model of Ancient Community Structure in the Maya Lowlands. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:97–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, Simon 2002 Do You Believe in Pilgrimage? Communitas, Contestation and Beyond. Anthropological Theory 2:355–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, Simon, and Elsner, J. 1994 The Pilgrim's Process: Art, Architecture and Ritual Movement at Sinai. World Archaeology 26:73–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Covarrubias Reyna, Miguel, Villanueva, Rafael Burgos, and Carrillo, Yoly Palomo 2012 Desarrollo costero estratégico en la región Ah Kin Chel. Los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya 20:163–174.Google Scholar
Dahlin, Bruce H. 2009 Ahead of Its Time? The Remarkable Early Classic Maya Economy of Chunchucmil. Journal of Social Archaeology 9:341–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eade, John, and Sallnow, Michael (editors) 1991 Contesting the Sacred: The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Edmonson, Munro (translator) 1982 The Ancient Future of the Itza: The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Fisher, Chelsea 2021 Walking Rural at Tzacauil. Ancient Mesoamerica, in press.Google Scholar
Folan, William J. 1991 Sacbes of the Northern Maya. In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by Trombold, Charles, pp. 222–229. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Folan, William. J., Kintz, Ellen. R., and Fletcher, Larraine A. 1983 Coba: A Classic Maya Metropolis. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel 1977 Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Sheridan, Alan. Vintage Books, New York.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A. 1981 The Political Economies of Residential Dispersion among the Lowland Maya. In Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns, edited by Ashmore, Wendy, pp. 371–382. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A., and MacLeod, Barbara 2000 Creation Redux: New Thoughts on Maya Cosmology from Epigraphy, Iconography and Archaeology. PARI Journal 1(2):1–8.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A., and Sabloff, Jeremy A. 1984 Cozumel: Late Maya Settlement Patterns. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Golden, Charles, and Scherer, Andrew 2013 Territory, Trust, Growth, and Collapse in Classic Period Maya Kingdoms. Current Anthropology 54:397–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonlin, Nancy, and Nowell, April (editors) 2018 Archaeology of the Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient World. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Graeber, David 2001 Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. Palgrave, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanks, William 1990 Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space among the Maya. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hanks, William 2010 Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Richard D. 1991 The Road to Nakbe. Natural History 5(91):8–14.Google Scholar
Hare, Timothy, and Masson, Marilyn 2021 Walking through the Urban Maze of Mayapán. In Maya Urbanism, edited by Marken, Damien and Arnauld, Charlotte, in press. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Harrison-Buck, Eleanor, Runggaldier, Astrid, and Gantos, Alex 2018 It's the Journey, Not the Destination: Maya New Year's Pilgrimage and Self-Sacrifice as Regenerative Power. Journal of Social Archaeology 18:325–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawass, Zahi 1997 Tombs of the Pyramid Builders. Archaeology 50(1):39–44.Google Scholar
Hutson, Scott R. 2010 Dwelling, Identity, and the Maya: Relational Archaeology at Chunchucmil. AltaMira, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Hutson, Scott R. 2015 Adapting LiDAR Data for Regional Variation in the Tropics: A Case Study from the Northern Maya Lowlands. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 4:252–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutson, Scott R., Kidder, Barry, Lamb, Céline, Vallejo-Cáliz, Daniel, and Welch, Jacob 2016 Small Buildings and Small Budgets: Making LiDAR Work in Northern Yucatan, Mexico. Advances in Archaeological Practice 4:268–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutson, Scott R., Magnoni, Aline, and Stanton, Travis 2012 “All That Is Solid…”: Sacbes, Settlement, and Semiotics at Tzacauil, Yucatan. Ancient Mesoamerica 23:297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutson, Scott R., and Welch, Jacob A. 2014 Sacred Landscapes and Building Practices at Uci and Kancab Yucatan, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 25:421–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutson, Scott R., Welch, Jacob, Plank, Shannon E, and Kidder, Barry 2020 Buried Alive: Buildings, Authority, and Gradients of Being in Northern Yucatan, Mexico. In Sacred Matter: Animism and Authority in the Americas, edited by Kosiba, Steven, Janusek, John W., and Cummins, Tom, pp. 299–326. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ingold, Tim 2004 Culture on the Ground: The World Perceived through the Feet. Journal of Material Culture 9:315–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingold, Tim 2010 Footprints through the Weather-World: Walking, Breathing, Knowing. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16:S121–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keller, Angela 2010a The Social Construction of Roads at Xunantunich, from Design to Abandonment. In Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Yaeger, Jason, pp. 184–208. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Keller, Angela 2010b A Road by Any Other Name: Trails, Paths, and Roads in Maya Language and Thought. In Landscapes of Movement: Trails, Paths, and Roads in Anthropological Perspective, edited by Snead, James E., Erickson, Clark L., and Darling, Andrew J., pp. 133–157. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Kurjack, Edward B., and Wyllis Andrews V, E. 1976 Early Boundary Maintenance in Northwest Yucatan, Mexico. American Antiquity 41:318–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landa, Diego de 1978 [1566] Yucatan before and after the Conquest. Translated by Gates, William. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Lehner, Mark 2019 Neighborhood to National Network: Pyramid Settlements of Giza. In Excavating Neighborhoods: A Cross-Cultural Exploration, edited by Pacifico, David and Truex, Lise, pp. 20–38. Archaeological Papers Vol. 30. American Anthropological Association, Arlington, Virginia.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2007 Classic Maya Temples, Politics, and the Voice of the People. Latin American Antiquity 18:407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maldonado Cárdenas, Rubén 1995 Los sistemas de caminos del norte de Yucatan. In Seis ensayos sobre antiguos patrones de asentamiento en el área Maya, edited by Pacheco, Ernesto Vargas, pp. 68–92. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Mathews, Jennifer P. 1998 The Ties that Bind: The Ancient Maya Interaction Spheres of the Late Preclassic and Early Classic Periods in the Northern Yucatan Peninsula. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
Millet Cámara, Luis, and Villanueva, Rafael Burgos 2006 Izamal: Una aproximación a su arquitectura. In Los Mayas de ayer y hoy: Memorias del Primer Congreso Internacional de Cultura Maya Vol. 1, edited by Rubio, Alfredo Barrera and Gubler, Ruth, pp. 132–155. Mérida, Mexico.Google Scholar
Monaghan, John 2000 Theology and History in the Study of Mesoamerican Religions. In Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 6: Ethnology, edited by Monaghan, John, pp. 24–49. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Morales-Aguilar, Carlos, Douglas Mauricio, Richard D. Hansen, , and Hernández, Enrique 2015 Los suburbios de la antigua ciudad de El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala. In XXVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, edited by Arroyo, Bárbara, Méndez Salinas, Luis Alberto, and Paiz Aragón, Lorena, pp. 497–509. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Palka, Joel 2014 Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes: Insights from Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Patel, Shankari 2005 Pilgrimage and Caves on Cozumel. In Stone Houses and Earth Lords: Maya Religion in the Cave Context, edited by Brady, James E. and Prufer, Keith M., pp. 91–112. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Pauketat, Timothy R. 2000 The Tragedy of the Commoners. In Agency in Archaeology, edited by Dobres, Marcia-Anne and Robb, John, pp. 113–129. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Peniche May, Nancy 2012 The Architecture of Power and Sociopolitical Complexity in Northwestern Yucatan during the Preclassic Period. In The Maya of Ancient Mexico, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey E., pp. 65–87. Equinox Press, London.Google Scholar
Preucel, Robert W. 2006 Archaeological Semiotics. Blackwell, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redfield, Robert, and Rojas, Alfonso Villa 1934 Chan Kom: A Maya Village. Publication No. 448. Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Reese-Taylor, Kathryn 2002 Ritual Circuits as Key Elements in Maya Civic Center Design. In Heart of Creation: The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda Schele, edited by Stone, Andrea, pp. 143–165. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Restall, Matthew 1997 The Maya World: Yucatec Culture and Society, 1550–1850. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Ringle, William M. 1999 Pre-Classic Cityscapes: Ritual Politics among the Early Lowland Maya. In Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, edited by Grove, David C. and Joyce, Rosemary A., pp. 183–223. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Robin, Cynthia 2013 Everyday Life Matters: Maya Farmers at Chan. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohrer, Patrick, and Stanton, Travis 2019 Imaging and Imagining Ancient Maya Causeways. In Chacmool at 50: The Past, Present, and Future of Archaeology, Proceedings of the 50th Annual Chacmool Archaeology Conference, edited by Pennanen, Kelsey and Goosney, Susanne, pp. 25–36. Chacmool Archaeology Association, University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Roys, Lawrence, and Shook, Edwin M. 1966 Preliminary Report on the Ruins of Aké, Yucatan. Memoirs No. 20. Society for American Archaeology, Salt Lake City, Utah.Google Scholar
Sampeck, Kathryn E. 2014 From Ancient Altepetl to Modern Municipios: Surveying as Power in Colonial Guatemala. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 18:175–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanchez, Julia L. J. 2007 Processions and Performance: Recreating Ritual Soundscapes among the Ancient Maya. World of Music 49(2):35–44.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985 Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1998 Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Shaw, Justine M. 2008 White Roads of the Yucatan: Changing Social Landscapes of the Yucatec Maya. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephen 2001 Theoretical Perspectives on Labor and Colonialism: Reconsidering the California Missions. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20:379–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, Helaine 1994 The Archaeological Identification of an Ancient Peruvian Pilgrimage Center. World Archaeology 26:1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, Helaine, and Proulx, Donald A. 2002 The Nasca. Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skousen, B. Jacob 2018 Rethinking Archaeologies of Pilgrimage. Journal of Social Archaeology 18:261–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanton, Travis W., and Freidel, David A. 2005 Placing the Centre, Centreing the Place: The Influence of Formative Sacbeob in Classic Site Design at Yaxuna, Yucatan. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16:225–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, David 2006 The Inscribed Markers of the Coba-Yaxuna Causeway and the Glyph for Sakbih. Electronic document, http://www.mesoweb.com/stuart/notes/Sacbe.pdf, accessed April 2016.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 2003 Ancient and Contemporary Maya Conceptions about Field and Forest. In The Lowland Maya Area: Three Millennia at the Human-Wildland Interface, edited by Pompa, Arturo Gómez, Allen, Michael, Fedick, Scott, and Osorio, Juan Jiménez, pp. 461–492. Food Products Press, Binghamton, New York.Google Scholar
Villa Rojas, Alfonso 1934 The Yaxuna-Cobá Causeway. Contributions to American Archaeology Vol. 2, No. 9. Publication No. 436. Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Wisdom, Charles 1940 The Chorti Indians of Guatemala. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar