Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:12:46.294Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biological Perspectives on the Collapse of the Pasión Maya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Lori E. Wright
Lori E. Wright
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352, USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper reviews bioarchaeological research that aimed to test the biological correlates of ecological explanations for the Maya collapse using human skeletal remains from five sites in the Pasión region. Stable isotope ratios of bone collagen and alkaline earth ratios in bone minerals do not support the expectation of increased reliance on maize and declining meat consumption during the final years of Pasión occupation. Moreover, skeletal pathology does not illustrate any increment in anemia, infectious disease, or dental growth disruption that is predicted to have been a consequence of high population density and deteriorating nutrition. Instead, changes in the social distribution of foods during the Terminal Classic supports the mounting evidence that the Pasión collapse was fueled more by sociopolitical transformations than environmental ones.

Type
Special Section: The Vanderbilt Petexbatun Archaeological Project, 1989–1994
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Fall 1997 , pp. 267 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

References

REFERENCES

Abrams, Elliott M., and Rue, David J. 1988 The Causes and Consequences of Deforestation Among the Prehistoric Maya. Human Ecology 16: 377–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, Richard E.W. 1983 Ancient Land Use and Culture History in the Pasión River Region. In Prehistoric Settlement Patterns, edited by Vogt, Evon Z. and Leventhal, Richard M., pp. 319–335. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Ambrose, Stanley H. 1993 Isotopic Analysis of Paleodiets: Methodological and Interpretive Considerations. In Investigations of Ancient Human Tissue: Chemical Analyses in Anthropology, edited by Sandford, M.K., pp. 59–130. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Burton, James H., and Wright, Lori E. 1995 Nonlinearity in the Relationship Between Bone Sr/Ca and Diet: Paleodietary Implications. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 96: 273–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, J.M.L., Vale, K.C., and Franca, F. 1990 Cura espontanea da leishmaiose causada por Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis em lesoes cutaneas. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicine Tropical 23: 205–208. (Abstracted in Tropical Diseases Bulletin 89[2]146, 1992.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culbert, T. Patrick 1988 The Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization. In The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations, edited by Yoffee, Norman and Cowgill, George L., pp. 69–101. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demarest, Arthur A. 1996 War, Peace, and the Collapse of a Native American Civilization. In A Natural History of Peace, edited by Gregor, Thomas, pp. 215–248. Vanderbilt University Press, London.Google Scholar
Demarest, Arthur A., Escobedo, Hector, Valdés, Juan Antonio, Houston, Stephen, Wright, Lori E., and Emery, Katherine F. 1991 Arqueología, epigrafía y el descubrimiento de una tumba real en el centro ceremonial de Dos Pilas, Petén, Guatemala. U tz'ib 1(1):14–28.Google Scholar
Dow, Thomas E. 1977 Breastfeeding and Abstinence Among the Yoruba. Studies in Family Planning 8: 208–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, Alan H., and Rose, Jerome C. 1990 Assessment of Systemic Physiological Perturbations from Dental Enamel Hypoplasias and Associated Histological Structures. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 33: 59–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackett, C.J. 1976 Diagnostic Criteria of Syphilis, Yaws and Treponarid (Treponematoses) and of Some Other Diseases in Dry Bones. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Peter D. 1977 The Rise of the Bajos and the Fall of the Maya. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory: Studies in Memory of Sir Eric Thompson, edited by Hammond, Norman, pp. 469–508. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Haviland, William A. 1967 Stature at Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Classic Maya Demography and Social Organization. American Antiquity 32: 316–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooton, Earnest A. 1940 Skeletons from the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itzá. In The Maya and Their Neighbors, edited by Hay, C.L., pp. 272–280. D. Appleton-Century, New York.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 1995 Archaeological Investigations at the Fortified Center of Aguateca, El Peten, Guatemala: Implications for the Study of the Classic Maya Collapse. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Johnston, Kevin 1994 The “Invisible” Maya: Late Classic Minimally-Platformed Residential Settlement at Itzán, Petén, Guatemala. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Lowe, John W.G. 1985 Dynamics of Apocalypse: A Systems Simulation of the Classic Maya Collapse. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Mathews, Peter, and Willey, Gordon R. 1991 Prehistoric Polities of the Pasión Region: Hieroglyphic Texts and Their Archaeological Settings. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 30–71. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Palka, Joel W. 1995 Classic Maya Social Inequality and the Collapse at Dos Pilas, Peten, Guatemala. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.Google Scholar
Pérez-Escamilla, Rafael 1993 Breast-Feeding Patterns in Nine Latin American and Caribbean Countries. Bulletin of the Pan American Health Organization 27: 32–42.Google ScholarPubMed
Powell, Mary L. 1991 Endemic Treponematosis and Tuberculosis in the Prehistoric Southeastern United States: Biological Costs of Chronic Endemic Disease. In Human Paleopathology: Current Syntheses and Future Options, edited by Ortner, D.J. and Aufderheide, A.C., pp. 173–180. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Pozo-Ledezma, Leo F. 1985 Enfermedades transmitidas por el agua y el colapso de la civilización maya clásica. Mesoamérica 10: 391–410.Google Scholar
Reeder, M.M., and Palmer, P.E.S. 1981 The Radiology of Tropical Diseases, with Epidemiolagical, Pathological and Clinical Correlation. Williams and Wilkins, London.Google Scholar
Sabloff, Jeremy A., and Willey, Gordon R. 1967 The Collapse of Maya Civilization in the Southern Lowlands: A Consideration of History and Process. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 23: 311–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1973 The Cultural Ecology of the Lowland Maya: A Reevaluation. In The Classic Maya Collapse, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 325–366. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1990 Demographic Archaeology in the Maya Lowlands. In Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick and Rice, Don S., pp. 325–343. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S., Killion, Thomas W., and Lycett, Mark T.. 1986 On the Maya Collapse. Journal of Anthropological Research 42: 123–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saul, Frank P. 1972 The Human Skeletal Remains of Altar de Sacrificios: An Osteobiographic Analysis. Papers of Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 63, No. 2. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Saul, Frank P. 1973 Disease in the Maya Area: The Pre-Columbian Evidence. In The Classic Maya Collapse, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 301–324. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Saul, Frank P. 1977 The Paleopathology of Anemia in Mexico and Guatemala. In Po-rotic Hyperostosis: An Enquiry, edited by Cockburn, E., pp. 10–15. Monograph No. 2. Paleopathology Association, Detroit.Google Scholar
Schoeninger, Margaret J. 1979 Diet and Status at Chalcatzingo: Some Empirical and Technical Aspects of Strontium Analysis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 51: 295–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwarcz, Henry P., and Schoeninger, Margaret J. 1991 Stable Isotope Analyses in Human Nutritional Ecology. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 34: 283–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 1977 The Maya Collapse Revisited: Internal and External Perspectives. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory, edited by Hammond, Norman, pp. 532–552. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Shimkin, Dimitri B. 1973 Models for the Downfall: Some Ecological and Culture-historical Considerations. In The Classic Maya Collapse, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 269–300. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sillen, Andrew, and Kavanagh, Maureen 1982 Strontium and Paleodietary Research: A Review. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 25: 67–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tourtellot, Gair III 1990 Excavations at Seibal, Department of Peten, Guatemala. Burials: A Cultural Analysis. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 17, No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Valdés, Juan Antonio 1997 Tamarindito: Archaeology and Regional Politics in the Petexbatun Region. Ancient Mesoamerica 8: 321–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, David, Sanders, William T., and van Rossum, Peter 1992 A Simulation of Copan Population History and Its Implications. Ancient Mesoamerica 3: 185–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willey, Gordon R. 1973 The Altar de Sacrificios Excavations: General Summary and Conclusions. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 64, No. 3. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R. 1990 Excavations at Seibal. No. 4. General Summary and Conclusions. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 17. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R., and Shimkin, Dimitri B. 1973 The Maya Collapse: A Summary View. In The Classic Maya Collapse, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 457–502. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wiseman, Frederick M. 1985 Agriculture and Vegetation Dynamics of the Maya Collapse in Central Peten, Guatemala. In Prehistoric Lowland Maya Environment and Subsistence Economy, edited by Pohl, M.D., pp. 63–71. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 77. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wright, Lori E. 1994 The Sacrifice of the Earth? Diet, Health, and Inequality in the Pasión Maya Lowlands. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
Wright, Lori E. 1997a Intertooth Patterns of Hypoplasia Expression: Implications for Childhood Health in the Classic Maya Collapse. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102: 233–247.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, Lori E. 1997b Ecology or Society? Paleodiet and the Collapse of the Pasión Maya Lowlands. In Bones of the Maya: Studies of Ancient Skeletons, edited by Whittington, S. and Reed, D., pp. 181–195. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Wright, Lori E. 1998 The Elements of Maya Diets: Alkaline Earth Baselines and Paleodietary Reconstruction in the Pasión Zone. In Reconstructing Ancient Maya Diet, edited by White, C.D.. Gordon and Breach Science Publications, Newark, NJ, in press.Google Scholar
Wright, Lori E., and Schwarcz, Henry P. 1996 Infrared and Isotopie Evidence for Diagenesis of Bone Apatite at Dos Pilas, Guatemala: Paleodietary Implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 23: 933–944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Lori E., and White, Christine D. 1996 Human Biology in the Classic Maya Collapse: Evidence from Paleopathology and Paleodiet. Journal of World Prehistory 10: 147–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar