Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studying Human Social Dynamics: A Case Study from Southern Belize
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
From 2008-2011 the NSF-HSD funded project (Development and Resilience of Complex Socioeconomic Systems: A Theoretical Model and Case Study from the Maya Lowlands) employed interdisciplinary approaches to explore the intersections human and ecological dynamics in the development and disintegration of a complex polity during the Maya Classic Period. The goal of this project was to model human behavior in the context of climatic and environmental change over a 2000 year period, drawing on archaeological, paleoclimate, and paleoenvironmental proxies as well as longitudinal ethnographic studies of human decision making in a small agrarian community. Our data suggest multiple scales of interaction between socioeconomic complexity, population growth, and development of anthropogenic landscapes. Papers in this session will present data on land-use, settlement patterns, climate and landscape histories, and polity development and decline, as well as strategies for engaging in cultural and environmental heritage educational programs in descendant communities.
Other Keywords
Maya •
Climate •
traditional ecological knowledge •
Resilience •
settlement •
Geoarchaeology •
Ceramics •
Environmental Change •
Cultural Change •
Agricultural Production
Geographic Keywords
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
Mesoamerica •
United Mexican States (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Republic of Honduras (Country) •
Jamaica (Country) •
Republic of Nicaragua (Country) •
Republic of Panama (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
Comparison of a Community-Scale Classic Maya Political Adaptive Cycle with a Bimonthly-Resolved Paleoclimate Record from Uxbenká, Belize (2017)
The Development and Resilience of Complex Polity in the Southern Maya Lowlands: A Decade of Research at Uxbenká, Toledo, Belize (2017)
Identifying the drivers of Central American rainfall shifts: implications for past, present, and future human behaviour (2017)