Reconstructing Diachronic Changes in Subsistence, Wealth, and Economic and Ritual Practices through Animal Use at the Classic Maya Polity of Lower Dover, Belize

Summary

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

Maya archaeologists have traditionally used faunal analyses to examine questions about subsistence and ritual practices. We chart diachronic changes in patterns of faunal usage pertaining to four sociocultural dimensions: consumption, economic productions, wealth, and ritual at three districts surrounding the Late Classic (AD 600–900) Maya political center of Lower Dover, Belize. These categories provide heuristic categories that allow us to examine statistical trends in animal use over time. In this study, we draw diachronic comparisons between early autonomous villages during the Middle Preclassic (900–300 BC), their growth in the Late Preclassic through the Early Classic Periods (300 BC–AD 600), and their incorporation as districts in the Lower Dover polity during the Late Classic. Results indicate disparities in access to specific animals based on wealth and status, variability in subsistence between different districts, and the ritualized use of animals in elite-hosted ceremonies in the construction of specific district-scale social identities. The analyses reveal that as the Lower Dover polity emerged, animal resources were one of the many sociopolitical tools which intermediate elites used to express status and bolster district-scale cohesion.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33187