Documenting Domestic Economies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands through Obsidian Exchange

Summary

This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Households composed the most basic unit of economic production and consumption in ancient Maya societies, and articulated directly with broader social and political processes. In addition to organizing daily tasks and agricultural production, households served as a point of engagement in the domestic economy for the acquisition of commodities needed for basic subsistence. Obsidian was an essential commodity since it provided the “cutting edge” for Maya communities, and others across Mesoamerica. This study focuses on characterizing household-level economic systems using geochemical sourcing of obsidian from Cahal Pech and Lower Dover, located in west-central Belize, from the Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods (~1000 BC–AD 900). Technological and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyses of obsidian artifacts indicate the presence of decentralized domestic exchange systems based on differential consumption of obsidian source material between households through time. This contrasts with traditional arguments that attribute the emergence of socioeconomic complexity to elite institutions that controlled local distribution systems of exotic items like obsidian. Our data suggest, instead, that household consumption and exchange were essential links for local Maya communities to larger regional socioeconomic systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35729.0