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Exchange Systems among the Ancient Maya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gair Tourtellot  and
Jeremy A. Sabloff
Gair Tourtellot
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut
Jeremy A. Sabloff
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
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Abstract

Most studies of trade in the Maya area of Mesoamerica have been descriptive examinations of exchanged objects and have relied heavily on ethnohistoric sources. This paper, on the other hand, relies mainly on archaeological data and offers several hypotheses about the socio-political significance of intra- and inter-community exchange systems.

It is proposed that in the relatively uniform environment of the Maya Lowlands, subsistence arti-facts and goods were generally exchanged within communities while prestige artifacts were exchanged between communities. This hypothesized situation is contrasted with the environmentally differentiated Mexican Highlands where subsistence items were traded widely. Following the theoretical leads of M. Coe, Webb, and Fried, we offer the hypothesis that prior to the introduction of foreign influences, the lack of differential access to basic resources among the ranked social groups of the Maya Lowlands did not stimulate the development of the state in this area.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 1972 , pp. 126 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1972

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