Community crafting and crafting community : the lithic artifacts of Zacpeten, Guatemala
Matthew Patrick Yacubic (Author)
Zacpetén is a Lowland Maya site in the Central Petén Lakes Basin of Guatemala that was an important center for the Kowoj, a Maya ethnic group with strong ties to Mayapán. The purpose of this study is to examine how Zacpetén functioned to meet its economic needs while creating and sustaining a communal identity between the Postclassic (A.D. 1250 to 1540) and Early Colonial (A.D. 1541 to 1697) periods. At this time, a complex political economy existed across the Maya Lowlands. However, social and economic connections across the Central Petén varied according to the degree of regional political integration. When communities were united under a single polity, economic and political power was vested in regional institutions, and the identity of individual communities was strongly influenced by outside forces. In periods of socio-economic autonomy, the relations of production were retained by individual communities, facilitating the formation of a localized identity
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2014
University of California, Riverside, [Riverside, California], 2014