Regional Integration during the Late Preclassic in Ucí, Yucatán

Summary

Regional integration as materialized by the connections created through sacbeob can widely transform political, economic and social institutions in the participant communities. Perceiving the process through dichotomies such as center-periphery or paramount-subordinate clouds the agency of the multiple stakeholders involved in the matter. Active manipulation of social systems by intermediate elites and the commoner population seems to have had a great influence on the general process of integration. During the complex negotiations between the various sectors involved it seems likely that the activities carried out through the sacbeob (e.g., processions, exchange of products) would have greatly mitigated the frictions which would have been created. Studies at the communities connected by the Ucí-Cansahcab sacbeob, in the NW plains of the Yucatan, are geared towards exploring these negotiations by considering multiple social sectors. Looking more closely at Ucí as the proposed center for the micro-region during the Late Preclassic, we can assess the benefits and hindrances of regional integration. By using the concept of "disjuncture" we are able to contemplate the nature of the connections which linked the communities and how they varied within the region.

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): 20099