Ritual, Politics, and the Structure of Community Networks in Classic Maya Society

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Applications of Network Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ritual and performance play important integrative functions in the creation, maintenance, and negotiation of social ties that bind communities together. The shared experience of these public displays establishes strong bonds between individuals, defining their membership in certain social groups while reinforcing cultural norms and values. Rituals, however, are not timeless traditions nor do they simply restore social equilibrium. Rather, such periodic gatherings engage diverse participants in interactive and ongoing political processes that unite and divide across multiple social categories. As emergent and fluid social institutions, communities can be defined by the sense of shared identity fostered by these spatially-embedded ritual interactions. This paper examines the degree to which shared ritual traditions structure the formation of interregional community networks in Classic Maya society using inscribed records of these events from dated and provenienced monuments catalogued in the Maya Hieroglyphic Database. Community detection methods identify clusters of sites based on ritual similarity while multivariate analyses examine the diversity of rituals practiced by these groups to explore the underlying differences between them. Results of this study shed new light on the nature of governance and different political strategies employed by dynastic rulers during the Classic period (ca. 250–950 CE).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeological Applications of Network Analysis   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38382.0