archives@tulane.edu / In anthropology, political systems have typically been investigated through state models that emphasize top-down authoritative power. Contrarily, community studies have tended to focus on bottom-up social practices without addressing how broader political systems are constituted. This dissertation develops the theoretical concept of the political community as a framework to bridge these approaches, using the investigation of community to understand how political structures are continually created and recreated. Political communities are constituted through interaction and practices of identity formation, and the exercise of relational power in these contexts creates and transforms formal power structures at different scales. Archaeologically, by examining practices of interaction and identity formation, as well as the power negotiations inherent in these practices, ancient political communities can be reconstructed.
In this dissertation, I demonstrate the potential of this framework by investigating the constitution of political community at the ancient Maya site of La Cariba in northwestern Guatemala over roughly a millennium. Interaction, identity, and power are examined through multiple lines of evidence, including historical data, ceramic artifacts, lithic artifacts, energetic data, architectural style, and mortuary practices.
During the Late Preclassic period (300 BC – AD 150), La Cariba was the center of a broad, dispersed political community in which formal political structures may have gradually begun to coalesce. In the early part of the Early Classic period (AD 150 – 420), the political community centered at La Cariba was integrated into the emergent political system centered at the site of La Corona within a heterogeneous landscape. La Cariba was later reestablished in the Late Classic (AD 600 – 830) under the commission of Yajawteʹ Kʹinich of La Corona, and La Cariba was firmly integrated into the broader La Corona political community, with no evidence for any salient interaction or identity at the local level.
The results of this study demonstrate that the political community is highly dynamic, changing in scale, locus, and practices of its constitution over time. The data from La Cariba also reflect the constitution of political systems in northwestern Guatemala over time, demonstrating the utility of a political community approach to the study of ancient complex polities. / 1 / David Chatelain
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_120476 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Contributors | Chatelain, David (author), Canuto, Marcello (Thesis advisor), School of Liberal Arts Anthropology (Degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | electronic, pages: 718 |
| Rights | No embargo, Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law. |
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