Pathways to Power for Classic Maya Sub-royal Elites

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

John Pohl’s research is groundbreaking in its analysis of the supporting characters in Mesoamerican royal courts. Secondary elites (including the nobles, priests, merchants, and artisans of the court) vied for power using innovative tactics that worked outside the traditional systems of inherited authority. Pohl’s work follows the creative political, social, and ritual strategies employed by those sub-royal elites to compete for power in Postclassic Mexico, but his findings are applicable to royal courts across Mesoamerica. This paper examines cases of Classic Maya secondary elites who sought power via similar unconventional pathways, and how their tactics appear in the archaeological record. At the site of El Zotz, in Guatemala, excavation data is combined with iconographic and material analyses to identify the political maneuvers of a possible merchant lineage group.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39731.0