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Power without Bounds? Middle Preclassic Political Developments in the Naco Valley, Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Patricia Urban ,
Edward Schortman  and
Marne Ausec
Patricia Urban
Affiliation:
Anthropology/Sociology Department, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, 43022 urban@kenyon.edu
Edward Schortman
Affiliation:
Anthropology/Sociology Department, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, 43022 schortma@kenyon.edu
Marne Ausec
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003; mausec@anthro.umass.edu
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Abstract

Recently completed investigations in the Naco Valley, located within the Rio Chamelecon drainage of northwestern Honduras, suggest that, by 1200 B. C., emergent elites were experiencing variable success in their efforts to construct sociopolitical hierarchies. Though able to harness labor in the construction of large platforms, these scions apparently did not monopolize crucial economic processes nor could they command the exclusive allegiances of their subordinates over protracted periods. Political centralization, social heterogeneity, and boundary formation processes were, therefore, not mutually reinforcing and the polities that resulted were small and ephemeral. Comparison of Naco"s trajectory with contemporary developments in neighboring portions of southeastern Mesoamerica hint at the varied developmental paths that ultimately laid the foundation for the emergence of relatively stable, hierarchically organized polities in the subsequent Classic period (A. D. 200–900).

Las investigaciones que recientemente se concluyeron en el Valle de Naco, que se localiza en la cuenca del Río Chamelecon en el noroeste de Honduras, indican que allí había un desarrollo precoz en términos políticos. Hacia 1200 a. C. se fundan centros administrativos, cada uno al menos con una plataforma de 3 m de altura, que fungen como focos políticos para la población que habitaba en caseríos pequeños. Las élites emergentes experimentaron un éxito variable en la conformación de jerarquías sociopolíticas, y aun cuando pudieron dirigir los trabajos encaminados a la construcción de plataformas grandes, al parecer no monopolizaron procesos económicos cruciales ni fueron capaces de controlar la devoción exclusiva de sus subordinados durante periodos prolongados. En consecuencia, los procesos de centralización política, de heterogeneidad social y de formación de fronteras, no se reforzaron mutuamente y las unidades sociopolíticas que resultaron fueron pequeñas y efímeras. Al comparar la trayectoria de Naco con la de desarrollos contemporáneos en zonas próximas del sureste de Mesoamérica, se observa que existieron distintas vías de desarrollo que finalmente constituyeron la base para el surgimiento de unidades sociopolíticas relativamente estables y jerárquicamente organizadas durante el periodo Clásico (200–900 d. C.).

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 2002 , pp. 131 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2002

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