Water management from the Maya Lowlands: Implementing archaeology in mutual aid

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The capitalist world system in place today has caused resource insecurity and social vulnerability for groups all over the world, pushing people to depend on bureaucratic leaders to solve these issues. The archaeological record, as well as some responses to recent disasters, shows the benefit of mutual aid-style networks of action allowing communities to survive in spite of the hierarchical systems that push to dissolve their autonomy. Looking to the future of our communities and our planet, it is important to create sustainable infrastructure networks to meet the needs of communities without relying on governmental aid. In this presentation, I discuss the example of the so-called Maya ‘collapse,’ and how elite leaders fell while small farming communities have survived to this day. In particular, I focus on the water management networks utilized by Maya communities of different sizes, and outline the biosphere reservoir as a potential method of attaining both social and ecological sustainability. The goal of this presentation is to highlight the use that archaeology can bring to conversations of capitalism and resistance, as well as how archaeology can provide examples of potential sustainable systems for autonomous communities to put in place.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38184.0