Inequality in the 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.

Assessing inequality using the Gini coefficient based on house size provides a standard metric for studying dynamic societal change across vast spatiotemporal contexts. Within a single geographic region, such as the Maya Lowlands, wealth inequities change over time as political systems vacillated over time between collective and autocratic forms of governance. Drawing on legacy data from pedestrian surveys, we measure house size and calculate the Gini coefficient at more than 60 Maya centers spanning from the Middle Preclassic (800–400 BCE) to the Late Postclassic (1200–1520 CE), and among subregions of the Maya Lowlands. We compare these data with previously reported Ginis from more than 30 Maya centers in a discussion of inequality through time and space as it articulates with shifting political systems and resource availability. The suite of Maya centers varies from small hamlets to large, powerful cities. Our evaluation of inequality through time in the Maya region of Mesoamerica contributes to the larger patterns of differential access to resources and inequities through time as presented in this session.

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)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35866.0