Becoming Maya: Identity Production through Weaning and Early Childhood Food Consumption at the Archaeological Site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

One of the critical processes in the shaping of identity in any society is the breast feeding and early childhood food consumption practices that help define stages of infancy, age, gender, regional, and cultural senses of self. An important rite of passage in childhood is weaning, a process that includes the gradual removal of the mother’s milk as well as the introduction of solid foods. In the Maya area, initial studies of weaning have suggested that this process may occur around the ages of 2-4 years old. Regional and temporal variability in the weaning process in Pre-Colonial periods, however, is lacking to better understand this important aspect of childhood in the archaeological record. This paper presents the results of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses on adult and children’s teeth from the Terminal Classic Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala, to provide information on changes in diet during early life.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53675