Ancient Maya Embedded Economies

Rachel A. Horowitz, Bernadette Cap

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781646428601
• eBook ISBN:
  9781646428618
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Ancient Maya Embedded Economies provides an in-depth discussion of the relationships between economic activities and other aspects of the daily lives of the ancient Maya. Through a series of casestudies spanning the Preclassic through the Late Classic periods, this volume addresses the entangled relationship of ancient Maya economies within social, political, and religious practices.

Contributors use cutting-edge data from a variety of sources to address the interrelatedness between economy and other aspects of Maya life and point to the complexity of interactions among ancient Maya peoples of all socioeconomic statuses—interactions guided by not only economies but also political-religious frameworks. Ancient Maya Embedded Economies provides a unique viewpoint into how economies functioned in the past and advances scholarly understandings of Maya economies and the ways in which archaeological data can examine such systems, as well as contribute to broader understandings of pre-modern economic organization on a global level.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• 1. Ancient Maya Embedded Economies: An Introduction
• 2. Economic and Sociopolitical Change During the Classic and Terminal Classic Periods at Caracol, Belize
• 3. Stone Goods and the Organization of Late Classic Period Regional Economies of the Middle Usumacinta River Region
• 4. Middle Preclassic Marine Shell Production and Ritual Deposition at the Sites of Blackman Eddy and Las Ruinas de Arenal, Belize
• 5. Integrated Economies and Textile Production in the Jovel Valley, Chiapas, Mexico
• 6. Chocolate, Maize, and Manioc in Motul de San José’s Embedded Economy: Evidence from the Peripheral Sites of Kante’t’u’ul and Chachaklu’um
• 7. Pre-Columbian Maya Greenstone Mosaic Masks (300–800 CE): An Economic Approach Based on Their Historical Implications, Sociocultural Meaning, and Contextual and Technological Studies
• 8. Whose Lime Is It Anyway? Embedded Economies in the Puuc Region
• 9. Embedding Ancient Maya Economies: Breaking Binaries in a Post-Polanyian World
• Index
• About the Authors