Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, and a Cautionary Tale of Corporate Commerce

Summary

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

Teotihuacan exhibits a broad trend of shared wealth, exhibited by numerous luxurious apartment compounds whose residents accessed considerable quantities of valuables, as reflected by portraiture of richly clad mid-elites and the mass production of costume elements. Chichen Itza similarly eschewed royal portraiture in favor of works portraying group assemblies of opulently adorned mid-elites. These characteristics inspire analyses focusing on whether these political capitals had individual rulers or corporate systems of governance, sparking comparisons of political structure across Mesoamerica. Less discussed are the potential costs of burgeoning members of society entitled to the trappings of wealth and status. This paper explores the economic implications of the mass consumption of exotic goods at Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza, including the vast trade networks, resource extraction, and labor necessary to create and move high value goods. Comparisons will be made to the seventeenth-century Dutch, a society with a proliferating middle class whose consumption was supported by global networks of extraction. While recognizing the evidence for increased access to wealth, this discussion will also explore the economic costs of the impulse to consume luxury goods, tempering the celebration of these societies as altruistic forms of governance.

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): 37857.0