Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Challenging "Commoner": An Examination of Status and Identity at the Maya Village of Chan, Belize

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

With guidance from Dr. Wendy Ashmore, Chelsea Blackmore will investigate how social identity and status varied among commoners at the Maya site of Chan. Chan is an ancient agrarian village located in the Upper Belize River Valley, 4km southeast of the minor polity-center of Xunantunich. Excavations will focus on the Northeast Group, one of several "neighborhoods" characterized by its spatial coherence and relative separation from other groups at the site. Research at the Northeast Group will examine how the organization of space within and between households, (comprising residences, domestic outbuildings, open spaces, and ritual facilities), and access and control over particular goods and activities may have fostered more complex social stratification than previously considered. Archaeologically, correlates of social status and identity are equated primarily with elite goods, activities, and materials. Because these items are rarely recovered from non-elite sites, commoners are characterized as a largely egalitarian society of farmers. What this fails to consider is how commoners are, in fact, socially and economically diverse. Measures of status differentiation at the Northeast Group will rely on: (1) architectural construction and elaboration (e.g., investment of materials and labor), (2) evidence of localizing feasting, bloodletting and other ritual practices (e.g., faunal remains, obsidian or chert lances, burned surfaces, censers), (3) differences in pottery (e.g., plain, decorated, locally produced or imported), (4) diversity, quantity and quality of other possessions (e.g., obsidian, chert, greenstone, grinding stones). Excavations will also focus on the collection of micro-artifacts, plant and pollen remains, and soil chemistry in order to identify activity areas (open spaces) otherwise invisible on the ground surface. The distribution of these materials and the organization of space will be examined in relation to a ritual shrine, posited as the locus of ritual and social interaction in the neighborhood. Although researchers have examined the integration of commoner populations, few studies have examined how commoner communities are internally heterogeneous and diverse. If commoners consciously manipulated their status and identity, then mechanisms of social differentiation may be as important as indicators of social cohesion. By challenging what archaeologists mean by "commoner", one can begin to unpack concepts about status and cultural identity, equally applicable to current social issues as to interpretations of the past. From an archaeological standpoint, research at Chan's Northeast Group is a crucial testing ground for neighborhood-level inquiry, which has remained surprisingly underdeveloped. Beyond interest to social scientists, this project will promote public outreach to individuals living in Belize and the Untied States. These activities will include oral presentation and discussion of findings, and sharing of annual reports from the field seasons with communities located near the site, as well as others elsewhere in Belize. Dissemination of data to the scientific community will include publication in refereed journals, annual reports, and presentation of papers at professional conferences. In the process, Blackmore and prospective undergraduate assistants will receive training in the methods of fieldwork and analysis mentioned above.