Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:20:55.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Complexities of collapse: the evidence of Maya obsidian as revealed by social network graphical analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Mark Golitko ,
James Meierhoff ,
Gary M. Feinman  and
Patrick Ryan Williams
Mark Golitko
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA (Author for correspondence, email: [email protected]
James Meierhoff
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 West Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Gary M. Feinman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA (Author for correspondence, email: [email protected]
Patrick Ryan Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA (Author for correspondence, email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition. The quantity of obsidian received from different sources was calculated for 121 sites and the network analysis showed how the relative abundance of material from different sources shifted over time. A shift from inland to coastal supply routes appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres. The methods employed clearly have a high potential to reveal changing economic networks in cases of major societal transitions elsewhere in the world.

Keywords

MesoamericaMayaClassicPostclassicthird–fifteenth century ADobsidiansocial network graphical analysisurbanismsystems collapse
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 332 , June 2012 , pp. 507 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, R.E.W. & Culbert, T. P.. 1977. The origins of civilization in the Maya Lowlands, in Adams, R.E.W. (ed.) The origins of Maya civilization: 3–24. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Aimers, J. J. 2007. What Maya collapse? Terminal Classic variation in the Maya Lowlands. Journal of Archaeological Research 15: 329–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, A. P., Asaro, F., Michel, H. V., Stross, F. H. & Rivero, P. Cervera. 1989. Obsidian trade at Isla Cerritos, Yucatán, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 16: 355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Feinman, G. M., Kowalewski, S. A. & Peregrine, P. N.. 1996. A dual-processual theory for the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization. Current Anthropology 37(1): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. M. & Finsten, L. M.. 1993. Ancient Mesomerica: a comparison of change in three regions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Borgatti, S. P. 2002. Netdraw graph visualization software. Harvard (MA): Analytic Technologies.Google Scholar
Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G. & Freeman, L. C.. 2002. Ucinet 6 for Windows: software for social network analysis. Harvard (MA): Analytic Technologies.Google Scholar
Borgatti, S. P., Mehra, A., Brass, D. J. & Labianca, G.. 2009. Network analysis in the social sciences. Science 323: 892–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braswell, G. E. 2003. Obsidian exchange spheres, in Smith, M. E. & Berdan, F. F. (ed.) The Postclassic Mesoamerican world: 131–58. Salt Lake City (UT): The University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Braswell, G. E. 2010. The rise and fall of market exchange: a dynamic approach to ancient Maya economy, in Garraty, C. & Stark, B. L. (ed.) Archaeological approaches to market exchange in ancient societies: 127–40. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Braswell, G. E. 2011. The ancient Maya of Mexico: reinterpreting the past of the northern Maya Lowlands, in Braswell, G.E. (ed.) The ancient Maya of Mexico: reinterpreting the past of the northern Maya Lowlands: 1–42. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Braswell, G. E., Clark, J. E., Aoyama, K., McKillop, H.I. & Glascock, M. D.. 2000. Determining the geological provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Maya region: a test of the efficacy of visual sourcing. Latin American Antiquity 11(3): 269–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase, D. Z. & Chase, A. F.. 2006. Framing the Maya collapse: continuity, method, and practice in the Classic to Postclassic Southern Maya Lowlands, in Schwartz, G. M. & Nichols, J. J. (ed.) After collapse: the regeneration of complex societies: 168–87. Tucson (AZ): The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Cochrane, E. E. & Lipo, C. P.. 2010. Phylogenetic analyses of Lapita decoration do not support branching evolution or regional population structure during colonization of Remote Oceania. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365: 3889–3902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowgill, G. L. 1990. Why Pearson's r is not a good similarity coefficient for comparing collections. American Antiquity 55: 512–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culbert, T. P. 1988. The collapse of Classic Maya civilization, in Yoffee, N. & Cowgill, G. L. (ed.) The collapse of ancient states and civilizations: 69–101. Tucson (AZ): The University of Arizona Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dejordy, R., Borgatti, S. P., Roussin, C. & Halgin, D.S.. 2007. Visualizing proximity data. Field Methods 19: 239–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demarest, A. A. 2004. Ancient Maya: the rise and fall of a rainforest civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Demarest, A. A., Rice, P. M. & Rice, D. S.. 2004. The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: assessing collapses, terminations, and transformations, in Demarest, A. A., Rice, P. M. & Rice, D. S. (ed.) The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: collapse, transition, and transformation: 545–72. Boulder (CO): University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. 2001. Mesoamerican political complexity: the corporate-network dimension, in Haas, J. (ed.) From leaders to rulers: 151–75. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasco, J. & Voorhies, B.. 1989. The ultimate tribute: the role of the Soconusco as an Aztec tributary, in Voorhies, B. (ed.) Ancient trade and tribute: economies of the Soconusco region of Mesoamerica: 48–94. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Hage, P. & Harary, F.. 1991. Exchange in Oceania: a graph theoretic analysis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, N. 1972. Obsidian trade routes in the Mayan area. Science 178(4065): 1092–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanneman, R. A. & Riddle, M.. 2005. Introduction to social network methods. Riverside (CA): University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
Haug, G. H., Günther, D., Peterson, L. C., Sigman, D.M., Hughen, K. A. & Aeschlimann, B.. 2003. Climate and the collapse of Maya civilization. Science 299: 1731–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Houston, S. D. & Inomata, T.. 2009. The Classic Maya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hutson, S. R., Dahlin, B. H. & Mazeau, D.. 2010. Commerce and cooperation among the Classic Maya: the Chunchucmil case, in Marshall, R. C. (ed.) Cooperation in economy and society: 81–106. Lanham (MD): Altamira Press.Google Scholar
Kepecs, S. 2004. Salt: white gold of the ancient Maya. Ethnohistory 51: 448–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kepecs, S., Feinman, G. M. & Boucher, S.. 1994. Chichén Itzá and its hinterland: a world-systems perspective. Ancient Mesoamerica 5: 141–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knappett, C., Evans, T. & Rivers, R.. 2008. Modelling maritime interaction in the Aegean Bronze Age. Antiquity 82: 1009–1024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKillop, H. 1995. The role of northern Ambergris Caye in Maya obsidian trade: evidence from visual sourcing and blade technology, in Guderjan, T. H. & Garber, J. F. (ed.) Maya maritime trade, settlement, and population on Ambergris Caye, Belize: 163–74. San Antonio (TX): Maya Research Program.Google Scholar
McKillop, H. 1996. Ancient Maya trading ports and the integration of long-distance and regional economies. Ancient Mesoamerica 7: 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKillop, H. 2004. Finds in Belize document Late Classic Maya salt making and canoe transport. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102: 5630–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mizoguchi, K. 2009. Nodes and edges: a network approach to hierarchisation and state formation in Japan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28: 14–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munson, J. L. & Macri, M. J.. 2009. Sociopolitical network interactions: a case study of the Classic Maya. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28: 424–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, F. W. 1985. Summary of the results of analysis of obsidian artifacts from the Maya Lowlands. Scanning Electron Microscopy 2: 631–49.Google Scholar
Newman, M.E.J. 2001. The structure of scientific collaboration networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98: 404–409.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, S. C. 2011. Networked glass: lithic raw material consumption and social networks in the Kuril Islands, Far Eastern Russia. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Pyburn, K. A. 2008. Pomp and circumstance before Belize: ancient Maya commerce and the New River conurbation, in Marcus, J. & Sabloff, J. A. (ed.) The ancient city: new perspectives on urbanism in the Old and New World: 247–72. Santa Fe (NM): SAR Press.Google Scholar
Rathje, W. L. 1973. Classic Maya development and denouement: a research design, in Culbert, T. P. (ed.) The Classic Maya collapse: 405–456. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Rice, P. M. 1987. Economic change in the lowland Maya Late Classic period, in Brumfiel, E. M. and Earle, T. K. (ed.) Specialization, exchange, and complex societies: new directions in archaeology: 76–85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A. 2007. It depends on how we look at things: new perspectives on the Postclassic period in the northern Maya Lowlands. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 151: 11–26.Google Scholar
Tainter, J. A. 1988. The collapse of complex societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Terrell, J. E. 2010a. Language and material culture on the Sepik coast of Papua New Guinea: using social network analysis to simulate, graph, identify, and analyze social and cultural boundaries between communities. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 5: 3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terrell, J. E. 2010b. Social network analysis of the genetic structure of Pacific Islanders. Annals of Human Genetics 74: 211–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, J. E. 1939. Excavations at San José, British Honduras. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington.Google Scholar
Webb, M. C. 1973. The Petén Maya decline viewed in the perspective of state formation, in Culbert, T. P. (ed.) The Classic Maya collapse: 391–404. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Webster, D. 2002. The fall of the ancient Maya: solving the mystery of the Maya collapse. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar