Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigations of the Rural Maya Community

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Robin Mr. Santiago Juarez will conduct research for his doctoral dissertation. His project will explore the role of a peripheral farming community, Noh K'uh, in the complex economic and political landscape of the Late to Terminal Classic Maya (A.D. 700-950). The Late to Terminal Classic is commonly referred to as the period of 'collapse', due to the decline and abandonment of many powerful Maya cities. Yet, in recent decades archaeologists have demonstrated the differing effects of political and economic instability in various regions, particularly the rural periphery. Mr. Juarez is specifically interested in determining if the size, organization, and location of Noh K'uh allowed it to develop during a period in which many lowland Maya polities were declining or collapsing. Noh K'uh is situated in a part of the southern lowlands that lack a large dominant power, and represents a unique opportunity to study a peripheral community that is more than 40 kilometers from the closest urban polity. In this study, Mr. Juarez will explore the extent to which distance, small site size, and other aspects of community organization may have insulated Noh K'uh from the political turbulence that defined the Terminal Classic across much of the southern Maya lowlands; thus, greater complexity may indeed lead to greater instability. This research examines central questions in social science research: the relationship between rural and urban places and the factors that make societies stable. Since most people in complex preindustrial civilizations lived outside of cities, rural and peripheral regions offer an important means of analyzing how complex social systems worked. Research at Noh K'uh will elucidate the social, political, and economic relations of rural people who chose to live in peripheral regions. Ultimately, this research will determine if smaller and less complex communities are better placed to survive during tumultuous times than the developmentally more complex city states. This situation finds reflection in many areas of the Third World today. The project will integrate undergraduates from Northwestern during the laboratory analysis phase. The department of Anthropology regularly trains students in laboratory methods to provide relevant experience and to provide undergraduates with data sets for senior theses. To complete this analysis in a timely manner, Mr. Juarez will train undergraduates to assist in the microartifact and soil chemical analyses. This research will also be presented at conferences and published in peer-review journals both the United States and Mexico. Research results will be presented regularly at Mensabak, to students at Northwestern, the local community in Evanston, and the preparation of a web site that will be constructed in conjunction with Rebecca Deeb of University at Illinois at Chicago.