Routes of Resilience and Dependency in the Lake Atitlan Basin of Highland Guatemala

Summary

Combining archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic data with an analysis of least cost routes, the current paper examines the network connections and craft industries that fueled Lake Atitlan’s prehispanic economy and connected it to the wider Mesoamerican World. The documentary evidence, which I synthesize here, indicates that the lake’s principle exports were perishable goods such as textiles, mats, rope products and foodstuffs. While insufficient to produce significant wealth, I argue that the diversity of products available in the lake area enabled its communities to weather broad scale political and economic fluctuations and to retain strong collective identities even during times of political integration. Correspondences between historically documented trade routes and ceramic imports indicate that the essential infrastructure for these industries was in existence by the Early Classic Period.

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): 21194