Cynthia Robin

New Directions in Classic Maya Household Archaeology

Over the past two decades, household studies have coalesced into a recognized subfield within archaeology. Despite this relatively short history, household archaeologists are now taking a leading role in epistemological shifts that are placing people and their practices and differences at the center of archaeological interpretations of the past, rather than subsuming these into the “noise” of passive and depersonalized depictions of ancient social systems. As Maya archaeologists have played a critical role in the development of household archaeology, examining recent trends in Maya household research provides a perspective on the directions of both Maya studies and household archaeology more generally. This article explores three interrelated trends: (1) understanding ordinary people; (2) understanding social diversity among households; (3) understanding households in articulation with the broder social universe. Through a discussion of these three trends, this review uses Classic Maya household archaeology as a case study to illustrate how household research has led to the development of theoretically rich and empirically substantive understandings of an ancient society, which repeople the past and foreground the active roles of and structural constraints on ancient people.

Outside of houses: The practices of everyday life at Chan Nòohol, Belize

This article examines the social construction and experience of everyday life in one socially salient place, the late Classic Maya farm-steads of Chan Nòohol, Belize. Men, women and children worked around the house and the ‘domestic’ and agricultural domains were neither socially or spatially segregated. Nor was everyday life a strictly inside or outside, private or public affair. These points underscore the fact that rigid Western taxonomizing is inappropriate for understanding life cross-culturally. Beyond farmers’ houses and agricultural terraces, Chan Nòohol was largely devoid of the physical surface traces that archaeologists often excavate. But this lack of architecture ended up being a blessing in disguise, because the entwined paths of people left visible traces in the porous soil surfaces. The imprints of people’s daily walking and working documents some of their diverse lifeways and experiences. By integrating an analysis of the social construction of place with an analysis of living experiences, this article seeks to move beyond the impasse of theoretical polarities that have historically divided our field.

Archaeological ethnographies Social dynamics of outdoor space

The way people organize living spaces defines and is defined by all aspects of their lives - social, political, economic and ritual. People meaningfully produce, use and experience living spaces. This calls for social and historical analyses of space as actually lived. By exploring notions of lived or living spaces we attempt to take up the idea of socializing spatial archaeology called for by Ashmore in her distinguished lecture. As a vehicle for exploring a holistic notion of lived space we, like many landscape archaeologists, advocate a greater incorporation of analyses of outdoor spaces in archaeological thought and research design, because it is important to consider the loci of all human activities (e.g. indoor/outdoor, built/unbuilt), and because outdoor spaces, significant to many aspects of life, have been traditionally overlooked by site- or structure-centric archaeologies.

Gender, farming, and long-term change: Maya historical and archaeological perspectives

A reassessment of ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological evidence documents variation in Maya agricultural technologies across time and space and change in the social relations of farming alongside other social, political, and economic changes over 1,000 years of Maya history. This contradicts a timeless narrative of manthefarmer that can be derived from contemporary Yucatec Maya sources. An examination of engendered experiences in the Late Classic farming settlement of Chan Nohol in Belize demonstrates that the use of multiple lines of evidence to embody the archaeological record can help archaeologists to move beyond the tyrannical imposition of contemporary voices on a voiceless past.A reassessment of ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological evidence documents variation in Maya agricultural technologies across time and space and change in the social relations of farming alongside other social, political, and economic changes over 1,000 years of Maya history. This contradicts a timeless narrative of manthefarmer that can be derived from contemporary Yucatec Maya sources. An examination of engendered experiences in the Late Classic farming settlement of Chan Nohol in Belize demonstrates that the use of multiple lines of evidence to embody the archaeological record can help archaeologists to move beyond the tyrannical imposition of contemporary voices on a voiceless past.

Pine, prestige and politics of the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize

Comparing the source of a commodity with the social levels of the people amongst whom it is found can reveal important aspects of social structure. This case study of a Maya community, using archaeological and ethnographic data, shows that pine and pine charcoal was procured at a distance and distributed unevenly in settlements. The researchers deduce that this commodity was not freely available in the market place, but was subject to political control.

High and Mighty: Implicit Associations between Space and Social Status.

Figurative language and our perceptuo-motor experiences frequently associate social status with physical space. In three experiments we examine the source and extent of these associations by testing whether people implicitly associate abstract social status indicators with concrete representations of spatial topography (level versus mountainous land) and relatively abstract representations of cardinal direction (south and north). Experiment 1 demonstrates speeded performance during an implicit association test (Greenwald et al., 1998) when average social status is paired with level topography and high status with mountainous topography. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrate a similar effect but with relatively abstract representations of cardinal direction (south and north), with speeded performance when average and powerful social status are paired with south and north coordinate space, respectively. Abstract concepts of social status are perceived and understood in an inherently spatial world, resulting in powerful associations between abstract social concepts and concrete and abstract notions of physical axes. These associations may prove influential in guiding daily judgments and actions.

Leaders, farmers, and crafters: The relationship between leading households and households across the chan community

Abstract Households, communities, and society exist in a mutually constituting relationship, shaping and being shaped by one another. Daily life within households can have political dimensions and affect societal organization. Research at the Maya farming community of Chan in Belize demonstrates how households shaped their lives, history, and politics for 2,000 years (800 b.c.–a.d. 1200). We examine the households of Chans leaders and the social, economic, political, and religious relationships between leading households and other households across the community to show how novel forms of political practice arose through household interaction. Community leaders and households across the community developed community-focused ritual practices and group-oriented social, economic, ideological, and political strategies that were critical in the development of their community, were distinctive from normative individual-focused political practices of the Classic Maya kings, and may have influenced the later development of more diverse political strategies in the Maya area in the Postclassic period.

NEITHER DOPES NOR DUPES: MAYA FARMERS AND IDEOLOGY

Abstract Drawing inspiration from the work and legacy of Elizabeth Brumfiel, I develop a case study about the lives and religious practices of Maya farmers at the Chan site in Belize, to demonstrate how farmers were neither the dopes, dupes, nor mystified masses of Maya state level ideologies. I use this case study to rethink anthropological theories that attempt to explain the role of state level ideologies in the production of inequality and power, particularly ideas about ideology and false consciousness that are often bundled together and referred to as the ‘dominant ideology thesis.’

Gender, Farming, and Long‐Term Change

A reassessment of ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological evidence documents variation in Maya agricultural technologies across time and space and change in the social relations of farming alongside other social, political, and economic changes over 1,000 years of Maya history. This contradicts a timeless narrative of manthefarmer that can be derived from contemporary Yucatec Maya sources. An examination of engendered experiences in the Late Classic farming settlement of Chan Nohol in Belize demonstrates that the use of multiple lines of evidence to embody the archaeological record can help archaeologists to move beyond the tyrannical imposition of contemporary voices on a voiceless past.A reassessment of ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological evidence documents variation in Maya agricultural technologies across time and space and change in the social relations of farming alongside other social, political, and economic changes over 1,000 years of Maya history. This contradicts a timeless narrative of manthefarmer that can be derived from contemporary Yucatec Maya sources. An examination of engendered experiences in the Late Classic farming settlement of Chan Nohol in Belize demonstrates that the use of multiple lines of evidence to embody the archaeological record can help archaeologists to move beyond the tyrannical imposition of contemporary voices on a voiceless past.

A Tropical Rain Forest Site in Belize

Nestled in Belize’s lush tropical rain forest, the Chan site was long known to local farmers who still farm the area around the archaeological site. The area was noted by archaeologists in 1994 who were working on a regional settlement survey. The Chan project, a collaborative, international, multidisciplinary research project, began in 2002, bringing together a team of over 120 foreign and local archaeologists, botanists, geologists, geographers, chemists, computer scientists, artists, students, workers, volunteers, and local community residents from Belize, the USA, England, Canada, and China (Robin 2012).