Classic Maya Household Inequality in Southern Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Inequality is present in all forms of human societies, but the degree of inequality within a single city or region varies. Recently in archaeological contexts, inequality has been quantitatively evaluated based on house size using the Gini coefficient and Lorenz Curve, thus enabling the comparison of wealth measures and inequality between ancient cities of varying sociopolitical complexity and spatiotemporal regions. We use Gini coefficients and household size (area and volume) to assess inequality in southern Belize at nine Classic Maya (250-800 CE) cities. Inequality varies greatly within southern Belize. Variations in inequality are based on differential access to goods and the intergenerational transmission of wealth as some households are occupied longer than others. Understanding how inequality develops and the variations in inequality between communities are processes applicable to ancient and modern cities alike.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32526