New Research into the Dynamics of human-environment relationships in the Maya region

Summary

Despite recent debates and new analytical opportunities in Maya archaeology provided by developments such as increased amounts of paleoclimatic data, the growing field of settlement archaeology and advances in Maya epigraphy, we still know very little about either short or long-term dynamics of human-environment relationships in the Maya region: for example, the choices humans make in response to extreme variability in rainfall patterns or changes in soil conditions. Does society become increasingly complex? Is collapse inevitable? Do people simply move, and if so, do their ideological and religious beliefs change, or do they remain the same? This paper responds to some of above-mentioned debates and attempts to address a continuing void in our knowledge of how the Maya responded to environmental variability. I examine changing Maya settlement through time, cultural and political trajectories through epigraphy, short-term ethnographic evidence for Maya community responses to recent environmental stress and long-term climate proxies. My presentation focuses on relationship between Maya society and the local environment over the long-term, from the Classic (c. 250 to 900 AD) to the Early Colonial (1500/1600 AD) period, while also taking into account socio-cultural agencies via information from the written record.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage