Building an Empire: Spanish Colonial Encounters with Maya Houses and Housebuilding

Summary

In the late sixteenth century, King Philip II of Spain sent out a request to the local administrators of his overseas colonies, asking that they complete a questionnaire designed to collect information about the lands he had conquered. The responses to this questionnaire, completed primarily between 1578-1586, form a set of documents now known as the Relaciones Geográficas. Question 31 asked respondents to describe the form and construction of the local houses and the materials used to build them. In this paper, I consider Question 31 of the Relaciones Geográficas and its responses, in conjunction with a survey of archaeological research, to assess the nature of Maya housebuilding in the Colonial period (particularly the sixteenth century). These data indicate an interest on the part of the Spanish Crown to understand indigenous building practices and labor in order to better control it. I argue that construction was targeted by Colonial reducción policies (i.e., the policies intended to mold indigenous communities into proper Spanish subjects); in the Colonial Maya world, Spain aimed to build its empire literally, through reformed building practices of reformed Maya communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22533