Regimes and the Classic Maya Market Economy “Writ Large”

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The concept of regimes can be critical to the ongoing transformation of understandings of the Classic Maya economy. Currently, many scholars continue to refer to anthropomorphized mythical agents, e.g., exchange between “Tikal” and “Holmul” or between “Cancuen” and “the highlands,” as simply black boxes inhibiting economic research. With populations in the millions, the southern lowland economic networks produced, imported, processed, and distributed vast quantities of basic commodities, processed goods, and foodstuffs with some specialized centers with supervised “mass production” and non-marketplace contractual export of both commodities and exotics; in other words, a market economy “writ large.” Using tools from contemporary comparative economics, strategic management theory, and network theory, Mayanists are moving beyond “neo-traditional” models that overemphasize marketplaces, domestic production, artisans, and explicitly identified “merchants,” all of which may be specific elements of a market economy but generally at a lower level or the level of final distribution. Collaborative management research and archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence is beginning to identify full- or part-time agents, some nobles, and leaders in the regimes but with titles not related to commerce. Others carried out the many activities of a large market economy, often supported or at least sanctioned by regime economic managers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Regimes of the Ancient Maya   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37062.0