Pathways to Complexity

A View from the Maya Lowlands

M. Kathryn Brown, George J. Bey III

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780813068503, 9780813054841
• eBook ISBN: 9780813072135
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

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 B.C.), hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.

Contributors reveal that villages were present in parts of the lowlands by 1000 B.C., challenging the prevailing models estimating when civilization took root in the area. 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 Yucatan 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.

Contributors: M. Kathryn Brown | Dr. 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

A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Paleo-American and Archaic Periods in Yucatan
• 3. The Cunil Complex: Early Villages in Belize
• 4. The Earliest Ceramics of the Northern Maya Lowlands
• 5. The Role of Ideology, Religion, and Ritual in the Foundation of Social Complexity in the Belize River Valley
• 6. Middle Preclassic Maya Shell Ornament Production: Implications for the Development of Complexity at Pacbitun, Belize
• 7. Developmental Dynamics, Energetics, and Complex Economic Interactions of the Early Maya of the Mirador-Calakmul Basin, Guatemala, and Campeche, Mexico
• 8. The Preclassic Settlement of Northwest Yucatan: Recharting the Pathway to Complexity
• 9. The Genesis of Maya Complexity in the Northwestern Region of the Yucatan Peninsula
• 10. The Preclassic Period: A View of Complexity in the Residential Settlement of Ek Balam
• 11. At the Foot of the Hills: Early Monumentality at Xocnaceh, Yucatan, Mexico
• 12. El Achiotal: An Interior Frontier Center in Northwestern Peten, Guatemala
• 13. Changing Stages: Royal Legitimacy and the Architectural Development of the Pinturas Complex at San Bartolo, Guatemala
• 14. Naranjo, Guatemala, a Middle Preclassic Site in the Central Highlands of Guatemala
• 15. Maya and the Idea of Empire
• 16. Conclusion: Charting the Pathways to Complexity in the Maya Lowlands
• References
• List of Contributors
• Index
• About the Author