"Rich" Men: Caciques in Trade and Exchange in the Polyglottal Southern Central American World (16th Century)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Coastal Connections: Pacific Coastal Links from Mexico to Ecuador" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper will explore the relationship between "rich" men and trade and exchange, particularly in polyglottal Costa Rica and Panama in the sixteenth century. It will focus on these caciques's social organizations, their representatives, their political responsibilities, their power exertions, and their rivalries and conflicts. I will also underline how their status and power was nurtured by the possession of particular material objects and non-material knowledge. In sum, this paper will explain the dynamics between "rich" caciques, social organization, and political displays within trade and exchange networks in the polyglottal, sixteenth century, southern Central America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Coastal Connections: Pacific Coastal Links from Mexico to Ecuador

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22829