The Sociopolitical Impacts of Agricultural Intensification and Water Management in Classic Maya Society

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Past, Present, and Future of Water Supplies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A central issue for our understanding of Classic Maya society is how it managed to flourish despite scarce water resources, and limited access to agriculturally productive soils. More recent investigations confirmed that the adaptation strategies, which the pre-Hispanic Maya developed to overcome these obstructions, were less defined by cultural traditions than by the requirements of the local environment. Consequently, the agricultural and hydraulic features of the Maya Lowlands are remarkably well adjusted to the different geographic regions. These highly customized and carefully constructed installations indicate large amounts of labor input and high levels of experience, which suggest and a long-standing tradition in the development of these features. The presentation shall provide an overview of the landscape history and the different geological and climatic areas of the Maya Lowlands and explain the development and functionality of the adaptation strategies and their interaction with the local settlement landscape. Since the sociopolitical effects of these landscape transformations remain poorly understood, this lecture will explore how and to which extent (intensified) agriculture and water management influenced a process of social stratification and demonstrate the economic and sociopolitical relevance of pre-Hispanic adaptation strategies during the formation, florescence and collapse of Classic Maya society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Past, Present, and Future of Water Supplies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38342.0