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Opportunities for Advancement: Intra-Community Power Contests in the Midst of Political Decentralization in Terminal Classic Southeastern Mesoamerica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Patricia Urban  and
Edward Schortman
Patricia Urban
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, 43022 (urban@kenyon.edu)
Edward Schortman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, 43022 (schortma@kenyon.edu)
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Abstract

Archaeologists traditionally investigate the emergence of complex sociopolitical formations at micro- and macroscales. As fruitful as these analyses have been, they ignore insights garnered from studying how the diverse members of individual communities contested for power and material resources during periods when former political capitals were in decline. Such volatile circumstances provide ample opportunities for those seeking power to experiment with novel political forms while their would-be subordinates maneuver to undermine these overweening ambitions. Site 128 in the Naco Valley, northwestern Honduras, witnessed these struggles during the Terminal Classic. Taking advantage of the waning power of the Naco Valley’s Late Classic rulers at La Sierra, magnates in this small community competed for control over clients and their labor. The resulting political configuration pitted corporate institutions against individual aggrandizers, each using a limited suite of valuable resources to capture the loyalty and labor of supporters. The inability of one faction to vanquish the other created an unstable situation ultimately undermined by unresolved tensions. Though studies of political decline usually highlight the falls of dynasties, there is much to be gained by studying those who scrambled, with varying success, to cobble together sociopolitical structures in the shadows of former states.

Los arqueólogos han investigado el desarrollo de la jerarquía política a los niveles de la casa y de la región. Aunque estos análisis han sido fructuosos, no se toman en cuenta lo que se puede aprender estudiando como los miembros de comunidades lucharon para poder y recursos durante las épocas cuando los capitales políticos se habían caído. Tales circunstancias volátiles proporcionan las oportunidades para aquellos quienes están buscando poder, pueden experimentar con nuevas formas políticas mientras sus clientes luchan en contra de estas ambiciones. El Sitio 128 en el Valle de Naco, Honduras, atestiguó a estas luchas durante el Clásico Terminal. Aprovechándose de la disminución del poder de los lideres de La Sierra durante el Clásico Tardío, los lideres en este pueblo pelearon para controlar las personas y su labor. En la nueva configuración política, instituciones colectivas se peleaban contra individuos poderosos, ambos utilizando recursos limitados para agarar lealtad y labor. La inhabilidad que una facción tenía para vencer a las otras creó una situación inestable. Aunque las épocas de decadencia política no llaman mucha la atención a los arqueólogos, hay mucho que se ganará estudiando a los que intentaron a crear estructuras sociopolíticas en las sombras de los estados anteriores.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 251 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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