Traci Ardren
Location: Xuenkal, Yucatán, México
Supported by the National Science Foundation, Drs. Kam Manahan and Traci Ardren will lead an international team of specialists and students in the archaeological investigation of how household economic strategies adapted to increasing regional political pressures during the Late Classic (A.D. 600 – 900) to Terminal Classic (A.D. 900 – 1000) transition, a time marked by great sociopolitical transformations, at the ancient Maya center of Xuenkal, Yucatan, Mexico and environs. While the Late-Terminal Classic transition represents a period of decline in many areas, in the Northern Lowlands this time period coincides with the greatest regional influence of the large urban center of Chichén Itzá. The site of Xuenkal is significant because it contains both substantial occupations that predate the emergence of Chichén Itzá and subsequent settlement associated with the latter’s greatest regional influence. By investigating the shift in household economic strategies between the Late Classic and Terminal Classic, the project seeks to elucidate how diverse household strategies articulated within broader political economies on the levels of the household, the community, and the polity. The project will accomplish this by pursuing a program of both mapping and broad horizontal excavations of a sample of households drawn from three distinct communities in the project area.
Specifically the research poses the following questions: (1) Did household economic strategies shift between the Late Classic and Terminal Classic? (2) Were there concomitant changes seen in the regional settlement hierarchy? (3) Did the political economy of Chichén Itzá as expressed at Xuenkal and environs differ significantly in terms of organization and intensity from Late Classic norms? This research will contribute more broadly to ongoing theoretical debates about the nature of pre-industrial state economic organization from Mesoamerica and beyond.
Chichén Itzá is widely considered to have possessed a much more hierarchical and mercantile political economy in contrast to Late Classic Maya modes, but the role of the political economy in shaping household economic strategies on the regional level remains poorly understood. Moreover, the strategies employed by household members to adapt to political and economic landscapes beyond their immediate control are unknown. This research will provide the data to examine the strength of Chichén Itzá’s political economy over the broader region, the degree to which it penetrated into individual household economic decision making, and how household economic autonomy was negotiated in a rapidly evolving sociopolitical landscape.
In terms of broader impacts, this research will solidify long-term collaborations between US and Mexican institutions and foster lasting intellectual bonds with our Mexican colleagues at the Universidad Autónoma de Campeche and the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán. This project will also involve American and Mexican undergraduate and graduate students from leading US, Mexican, and Canadian institutions, providing them with training and research opportunities. Finally, the project will provide a significant amount of training and wage labor to members of the traditional Yucatec Maya community of Espita, Yucatan, which currently is experiencing strong migration pressures.
