Late Classic Maya Water Management and Community Organization at Copan, Honduras Export

@article{citeulike:2434934, abstract = {[English] Recent research on prehispanic water management throughout the Americas has made significant contributions to our understanding of the diversity of adaptive systems employed in regions where water is seasonally scarce, such as the Maya Lowlands. Since much of this workfocuses on large-scale technologies, the political and economic consequences of these systems for smaller social units remain poorly understood. Social dynamics associated with less-intensive forms of water use and control are investigated at Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) Cop\'{a}n, in a water-rich setting of western Honduras. Ethnographic, iconographic, and archaeological datasets suggest that lagoons located in Cop\'{a}n's urban residential sectors may have been conceptualized, utilized, and maintained as communal property with ancestral ties by the inhabitants of surrounding domestic groups. By shifting the scale of analysis from the polity to the community level, these lagoons can be viewed as forms of communal property that created an economic and ideological basis for local social integration but offered limited opportunity for the centralization of power through monopolistic control. Yet, toward the end of the Late Classic, the appropriation of water-related dynastic symbolism and possibly ritual seems to have provided nonroyal elites with a means for creating local social identities, which undercut and eroded royal authority. // [Spanish] Las investigaciones recientes del manejo del agua en Mesoam\'{e}rica prehisp\'{a}nica han contribuido a nuestro entendimiento de la diversidad de sistemas adapt\'{\i}vos que se empleaban en regiones de poco agua, como las Tierras Bajas Mayas. Sin embargo, como mucho de este trabajo se enfoque en las tecnolog\'{\i}as intensivas de escala grande, se quedan poco entendidas las consecuencias pol\'{\i}ticas y econ\'{o}micas de estos sistemas para unidades sociales peque\~{n}as. Se investiga la din\'{a}mica social relacionada con formas menos intensivas del uso y control del agua durante el per\'{\i}odo cl\'{a}sico tard\'{\i}o (600-900 d.C. en el sitio maya cl\'{a}sico de Cop\'{a}n, Honduras. Al cambiar la escala del an\'{a}lisis de la ciudad a la comunidad, se sugiere que las lagunas de Cop\'{a}n, ubicadas en los sectores residenciales urbanos del sitio, puedan haber sido conceptuadas, utilizadas, y mantenidas por los habitantes de los circundantes grupos dom\'{e}sticos como recursos comunales con v\'{\i}nculos ancestrales. De esta manera, las lagunas crearon una base econ\'{o}mica e ideol\'{o}gica para la integraci\'{o}n social local. Sin embargo, hacia finales del cl\'{a}sico tard\'{\i}o, el uso del simbolismo din\'{a}stico, y posiblemente del ritual, relacionado con el agua di\'{o} a los \'{e}lites no royales una manera para aumentar su prestigio y posici\'{o}n social. As\'{\i}, el manejo del agua a la vez integr\'{o} y desuni\'{o} las comunidades urbanas de Cop\'{a}n.}, author = {Davis-Salazar, Karla L.}, citeulike-article-id = {2434934}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557560}, journal = {Latin American Antiquity}, keywords = {classic, community, copan, hydraulics, maya}, number = {3}, pages = {275--299}, posted-at = {2008-02-27 08:32:34}, priority = {2}, title = {Late Classic Maya Water Management and Community Organization at Copan, Honduras}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557560}, volume = {14}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2434934 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2434934 N2 - [English] Recent research on prehispanic water management throughout the Americas has made significant contributions to our understanding of the diversity of adaptive systems employed in regions where water is seasonally scarce, such as the Maya Lowlands. Since much of this workfocuses on large-scale technologies, the political and economic consequences of these systems for smaller social units remain poorly understood. Social dynamics associated with less-intensive forms of water use and control are investigated at Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) Copán, in a water-rich setting of western Honduras. Ethnographic, iconographic, and archaeological datasets suggest that lagoons located in Copán's urban residential sectors may have been conceptualized, utilized, and maintained as communal property with ancestral ties by the inhabitants of surrounding domestic groups. By shifting the scale of analysis from the polity to the community level, these lagoons can be viewed as forms of communal property that created an economic and ideological basis for local social integration but offered limited opportunity for the centralization of power through monopolistic control. Yet, toward the end of the Late Classic, the appropriation of water-related dynastic symbolism and possibly ritual seems to have provided nonroyal elites with a means for creating local social identities, which undercut and eroded royal authority. // [Spanish] Las investigaciones recientes del manejo del agua en Mesoamérica prehispánica han contribuido a nuestro entendimiento de la diversidad de sistemas adaptívos que se empleaban en regiones de poco agua, como las Tierras Bajas Mayas. Sin embargo, como mucho de este trabajo se enfoque en las tecnologías intensivas de escala grande, se quedan poco entendidas las consecuencias políticas y económicas de estos sistemas para unidades sociales pequeñas. Se investiga la dinámica social relacionada con formas menos intensivas del uso y control del agua durante el período clásico tardío (600-900 d.C. en el sitio maya clásico de Copán, Honduras. Al cambiar la escala del análisis de la ciudad a la comunidad, se sugiere que las lagunas de Copán, ubicadas en los sectores residenciales urbanos del sitio, puedan haber sido conceptuadas, utilizadas, y mantenidas por los habitantes de los circundantes grupos domésticos como recursos comunales con vínculos ancestrales. De esta manera, las lagunas crearon una base económica e ideológica para la integración social local. Sin embargo, hacia finales del clásico tardío, el uso del simbolismo dinástico, y posiblemente del ritual, relacionado con el agua dió a los élites no royales una manera para aumentar su prestigio y posición social. Así, el manejo del agua a la vez integró y desunió las comunidades urbanas de Copán. IS - 3 JF - Latin American Antiquity EP - 299 TI - Late Classic Maya Water Management and Community Organization at Copan, Honduras VL - 14 SP - 275 KW - classic KW - community KW - copan KW - hydraulics KW - maya AU - Davis-Salazar, Karla PY - 2003/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557560 ER -