Settlement Density, Household Inequality, and Social Interaction in the Western Maya Lowlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "To Have and Have Not: A Progress Report on the Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Decades of settlement pattern research in the Maya lowlands has produced unparalleled datasets for studying processes of urbanization in tropical landscapes. Recent comparative studies support a view of ancient Maya cities as low-density urban systems, which may have created different opportunities for social interaction and economic mobility in contrast to other urban systems. This paper examines the relationship between settlement density, household inequality, and social interaction at multiple spatial scales to reconsider past experiences of energized crowding and its consequences for ancient Maya society. Altar de Sacrificios is an ancient Maya city located at the confluence of the Pasión and Salinas Rivers along the modern Guatemala-Mexico border. Recent UAS survey of this 50 km2 region has documented a dispersed, low-density settlement comprised of many residential groups aligned with relic river channels. Settlement pattern data collected by the Proyecto Arqueológico Altar de Sacrificios (PAALS) are used to generate comparative measures of household wealth to assess whether access to specific infrastructural and agricultural resources is economically advantageous for Late Classic period (ca. 600–800 CE) inhabitants. Results of this work directly contribute to the goals of the collaborative GINI Project and provide important insights about urbanization processes in tropical environments.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• To Have and Have Not: A Progress Report on the Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35610.0