Fortifications: Beyond Modernist Dualisms

Summary

This is an abstract from the "For Conquest or Defense? the Fortresses and Fortified Centers of Mesoamerica" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fortifications are a linchpin for contemporary understandings of ancient Maya lifeways. Archaeologists, through the study of martial architecture, have revealed that the Classic Mayas were not so peaceful after all and today lidar surveys are shedding light on regional networks of fortifications. Despite the large growth in datasets over the last half century, the study of fortifications continues to be stifled by dualist conceptual frameworks. War is typically framed within modernist dualisms, such as materialism versus symbolism—or, objects versus subjects. To escape the modern dualist trap, a more recent trend in the archaeology of warfare is to highlight that war in general and fortifications, in particular, are dynamic. Consequently, a wall or tower can have martial and symbolic aspects. In line with this trend, I employ the Hach Winik (aka Lacandon Maya) conceptual framework of K’ax to understand how past Mayas made war. K’ax dissolves the binary categories of Western Modernity (i.e., subject/object, symbolism/materialism) to reveal a relational world full of vitality, in which a diversity of actors could and often did participate in Maya war-making. Mountains, trees, and water are not merely modified by human activity, they actively take part in war-making and constituting the human experience.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• For Conquest or Defense? the Fortresses and Fortified Centers of Mesoamerica

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51445