Polity (Other Keyword)
1-2 (2 Records)
This is an abstract from the "States, Confederacies, and Nations: Reenvisioning Early Large-Scale Collectives." session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Theories surrounding the rise of complex polities have long hinged upon large urban centers, fixed infrastructure, and the centrality of agricultural economies, leaving any societies without these as incapable of creating stable large-scales collectives that one could call a state. Taking the case of the...
Territorial Boundaries and the Northwestern Peten: the View from Jaguar Hill (2015)
What actually constitutes Classic Maya political units? One way to address this question would be to examine ancient Maya conceptions of territory. Certainly, many major Maya sites had emblem glyphs, and these did provide—for those who could read—the sense of a geographic place controlled by a ‘holy lord.’ The real issue for understanding territory, however, is not an emblem glyph but what a Maya kingdom was to the people within it: how territorial boundaries were perceived by different...