Navigating Social Memories and Reshaping Built Environments: An Analysis of Postclassic Reoccupation in the Yucatan Peninsula

Author(s): Sarah Kurnick

Year: 2017

Summary

Societal regenerations are common events in world history. Be they in ancient times, the recent past, or the present, such regenerations are instructive and encourage reflection on several critical issues. How, for example, do those exercising political authority negotiate traumatic social memories? And how, if at all, are preexisting built environments modified? To addresses these and other questions, I examine the regeneration of communities and the reestablishment of political authority in the northern Maya lowlands during the Postclassic period. In this presentation, I analyze the built environments at a series of coastal and inland sites in the eastern Yucatan Peninsula, and suggest patterns in Postclassic reoccupation and Postclassic treatment of the Classic period past. In doing so, I emphasize the importance of place, the past, and the built environment to the operation of political authority, as well as the usefulness of archaeology in understanding ancient, historical, and contemporary events.

Cite this Record

Navigating Social Memories and Reshaping Built Environments: An Analysis of Postclassic Reoccupation in the Yucatan Peninsula. Sarah Kurnick. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 430545)

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Spatial Coverage

min long: -107.271; min lat: 12.383 ; max long: -86.353; max lat: 23.08 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15364