5 - Chiefdom rivalries, control, and external contacts in lower Central America

Summary

A number of years ago I presented an argument, based on ethnohistorical materials and cross-cultural ethnographic comparisons, concerning the general “type” of chiefdom organization evidenced by the several dozen polities of the Panamanian isthmus at the time of European contact. I concluded that these polities were characterized by a high level of status competition and rivalry among high-ranking men of influence, who sought to bolster or legitimate whatever inherited claims to high office they held by high-visibility public activities that would evidence their personal capabilities as dynamic men of action (Helms 1979:3, 22–3).

Panamanian society was basically divided between ordinary people and elite persons of higher rank with named statuses. Among the elite, those termed quevís held the highest offices – we can consider them to be high chiefs. Those termed sacos are described as principal personages who had vassals but were inferior in rank to quevís; they could be brothers of quevís or lords subordinated to quevís by defeat in warfare. The lowest level of elite status was held by honored warriors of commoner status who achieved a rank, called cabra, by virtue of outstanding bravery in battle (Oviedo in Helms 1979:12, 13). Oviedo also notes a territorial referent for the various grades of elites in which the provinces, rivers, valleys, and places where members of the elite lived were given the names of the particular quevís, sacos and cabras concerned. This practice may indicate that cabras and sacos held overlapping stewardship over the various territorial villages and districts that, in sum, composed the total domain or province of a queví (p. 13).