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Architectural Labor Investment and Social Stratification at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kelli Carmean
Kelli Carmean*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
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Abstract

This paper examines household architectural variability within the residential area of Sayil, Yucatán, Mexico. Labor-investment figures for residential architecture are used as a means of categorizing variability. A rank ordering of vault area and per-capita labor investment is achieved and an architectural wealth hierarchy is presented for the residential area of Sayil. This hierarchy is placed in the context of Maya land-tenure systems. It is argued that large, wealthy households may have been “first-founder” families in the Sayil valley and thus were in a position to effectively control and monopolize land and other productive resources, including human labor, for their own economic advantage.

Este trabajo examina la variabilidad existente en la arquitectura de las plataformas residenciales en el sitio de Sayil, Yucatán, México. Las plataformas contienen arquitectura doméstica, principalmente estructuras abovedadas hechas en su totalidad de piedra tallada. También hay estructuras menos elaboradas; con bajos muros de piedra, mientras que la parte superior de los muros y los techos, estaban hechos de madera o paja. Las plataformas también contienen cisternas para agua de lluvia (chultunes) y otras estructuras pequeñas. La inversión de trabajo, expresado en días de trabajo por persona, y medido por los muros, techos, y pisos de las estructuras, es el foco de este estudio. Las cifras que corresponden a la inversión de trabajo se emplean como una forma de entender y clasificar la variación económica en el sitio de Sayil. La muestra de plataformas en este estudio (57) representa solamente el estado medio de la communidad—las élites ricas que habitaban los palacios, como también las clases bajas de Sayil, no están en esta muestra. Se estableció un orden jerárquico de las plataformas basado en el área abovedada y correlacionada con la inversión de trabajo promedio. Este estudio fue desarrollado dentro del contexto de la tenencia de la tierra entre los mayas. Aunque los documentos etnohistóricos no enfatizan la importancia de tenencia privada de la tierra, es posible que otros datos aparte de la posesión de tierra podrían haber resultado en las mismas relaciones sociales entre personas de diferentes niveles económicos. El planteamiento del problema es que posiblemente las grandes familias aristocráticas fueron las primeras en llegar al valle de Sayil: controlaron y monopolizaron la tierra y otros recursos productivos, incluyendo la mano de obra, para su propia ventaja. El patrón de asentamiento resultante es lo que se puede ver actualmente en el sitio de Sayil.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 151 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1991

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