Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Maya Community Production and Consumption Practices

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

The central goal of this project is to gain understanding of how local small-scale communities are incorporated into global economic and social systems. This issue is of relevance in the world today since in many regions, including Middle America where this research is situated, lack of successful integration is a cause of social unrest. Archaeology has the potential to show how the integration process may unfold over time. Under the guidance of Dr. Barbara Voss, Guido Pezzarossi will analyze ceramic artifacts and plant pollen remains recovered during 2011 excavations at San Pedro Aguacatepeque, a Late Classic to Late Colonial period (900-1800 AD) Kaqchikel Maya site located in the Pacific piedmont region of Guatemala. The community of Aguacatepeque was adjacent to an important commercial route that connected highland and coastal markets, as well as being located within microclimate favorable for the cultivation of cacao and sugar cane. These two prized cash crops became a focal point for Aguacatepeque's agricultural production in the colonial period. Mr. Pezzarossi will analyze plant pollen remains and ceramic artifacts from Aguacatepeque in order to identify changes in the community's labor and consumption practices. The goal of this research is to identify the impacts of Spanish colonization and the developing capitalist world economy as felt by Maya communities. This work contributes to a better understanding of the effects of participation in the global economy on the daily life and traditions of indigenous populations in the past and present. The central role that Spanish colonial projects and the global capitalist economy played in the development of modern Latin America and in the lives of its still sizable indigenous populations (such as the Maya) is without question. However, little archaeological research has been conducted on Colonial period Maya sites with the intention of understanding exactly how daily life changed for Maya people in the wake of colonization and integration into the global economy. This archaeological research tracks specific changes in daily life, labor, consumption and economic practice prior to, during and after colonization, providing key insight into how precolonial contexts influenced the form and outcomes of colonization. This study also traces the role of indigenous populations within global economic networks and the effects of colonization and global economic entanglement on established ways of life. This project analyzes plant pollen recovered from pre-colonial and colonial occupation periods at Aguacatepeque, in order to identify changes in agricultural labor, subsistence and environment, and cash crop cultivation. In addition, ceramic artifacts will be analyzed using instrumental neutron activation analysis and ceramic petrography. This will determine which ceramics were produced locally, and which were acquired through market exchange. The shifting ratio of local to non-local ceramics will track changes in market dependence and consumption practices. This broader impacts of this project include support of graduate student training as well as specialized training in technical material science analyses that will allow Mr. Pezzarossi to complete his doctoral dissertation. This project also fosters collaboration between Guatemalan and US-based researchers and students, as well as between Mr. Pezzarossi and various US-based universities and laboratories. The results of this project will be disseminated through US and Guatemalan conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications and through the project websites. All raw data will be housed and made publically available through the Stanford Digital Repository. Finally, the project is working with a local non-profit in Antigua, Guatemala to develop a community outreach archaeology workshop and curriculum for rural Maya communities.