Martha J. Macri

Development and Disintegration of Maya Political Systems in Response to Climate Change

Maya and Climate Climate has affected the vitality of many different societies in the past, as shown by numerous records across the globe and throughout human history. One of the most obvious and spectacular examples of this is from the Classic Maya civilization, whose advanced culture left highly detailed records of all aspects of their existence between 300 and 1000 C.E. Kennett et al. (p. 788; see the cover) present a detailed climate record derived from a stalagmite collected from a cave in Belize, in the midst of the Classic Maya settlement. The fine resolution and precise dating of the record allows changes in precipitation to be related to the politics, war, and population fluctuations of the Mayans. A record of rainfall from a stalagmite in southern Belize provides a context for better understanding Maya civilization. The role of climate change in the development and demise of Classic Maya civilization (300 to 1000 C.E.) remains controversial because of the absence of well-dated climate and archaeological sequences. We present a precisely dated subannual climate record for the past 2000 years from Yok Balum Cave, Belize. From comparison of this record with historical events compiled from well-dated stone monuments, we propose that anomalously high rainfall favored unprecedented population expansion and the proliferation of political centers between 440 and 660 C.E. This was followed by a drying trend between 660 and 1000 C.E. that triggered the balkanization of polities, increased warfare, and the asynchronous disintegration of polities, followed by population collapse in the context of an extended drought between 1020 and 1100 C.E.

Feast or famine? Supplemental food programs and their impacts on two American Indian communities in California

This article examines the use of supplemental food programs by two Native American populations and assesses some of the health and cultural impacts of these programs. A cross-sectional survey of 80 American Indian families, 40 families residing on the Round Valley Indian Reservation and 40 in Sacramento, California was conducted to determine access, use and appropriateness of supplemental feeding programs. Respondents at both the rural and urban geographic location showed considerable familiarity with available supplemental feeding programs. USDA Food Commodities were utilized most at Round Valley, raising the concern that provided staples which were highly processed and contained significant amounts of sodium, sucrose, and fat, could contribute to the problems of obesity and diabetes. Native Americans in Sacramento used food banks and food closets as their primary source of supplemental foods, and some expressed concern that the foods provided were highly sweetened and high in fat. While some nutrition advising was available at both geographical localities, access was inadequate. The study found that the foods provided by the supplemental food programs varied considerably in their nutritional quality and healthier foods such as fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats were either completely lacking or in short supply. In addition, culturally sensitive nutritional counseling and the development of education modules to instruct program recipients in the preparation of healthy meals and how to manage obesity and diabetes were needed and requested within the California Native American communities surveyed.

Classic Maya Bloodletting and the Cultural Evolution of Religious Rituals: Quantifying Patterns of Variation in Hieroglyphic Texts

Religious rituals that are painful or highly stressful are hypothesized to be costly signs of commitment essential for the evolution of complex society. Yet few studies have investigated how such extreme ritual practices were culturally transmitted in past societies. Here, we report the first study to analyze temporal and spatial variation in bloodletting rituals recorded in Classic Maya (ca. 250–900 CE) hieroglyphic texts. We also identify the sociopolitical contexts most closely associated with these ancient recorded rituals. Sampling an extensive record of 2,480 hieroglyphic texts, this study identifies every recorded instance of the logographic sign for the word ch’ahb’ that is associated with ritual bloodletting. We show that documented rituals exhibit low frequency whose occurrence cannot be predicted by spatial location. Conversely, network ties better capture the distribution of bloodletting rituals across the southern Maya region. Our results indicate that bloodletting rituals by Maya nobles were not uniformly recorded, but were typically documented in association with antagonistic statements and may have signaled royal commitments among connected polities.

TERMINAL LONG COUNT DATES AND THE DISINTEGRATION OF CLASSIC PERIOD MAYA POLITIES

Abstract Analyses of terminal long count dates from stone monuments in the Maya lowlands have played a central role in characterizing the rise and “collapse” of polities during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (a.d. 730–910). Previous studies propose a directional abandonment of large political centers from west-to-east. We retest the west-to-east hypothesis, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics to analyze an updated dataset of 89 terminal dates from the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (MHD). Our results do not support a directional collapse, but instead suggest a contraction of Terminal Classic polities around seven core areas in the Maya lowlands. Three regions demonstrate distinct subregional abandonments of monument carving over a period of 24 to 127 years, consistent with independent archaeological data for each region. Advances in GIS, spatial statistics, and related methods applied to an increasingly detailed and comprehensive epigraphic and archaeological database provide a foundation for examining long-term sociopolitical dynamics in the Maya lowlands.

NAHUA IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA: Evidence from Maya inscriptions

This paper examines Nahua words found in both the Maya codices and the monumental texts. These words, spelled with syllabic signs, occur for the most part in contexts associated with foreign influence: Nahuatl deity names and words for “helmet,” “tribute,” and “heart.” One word—“and then”—is a conjunction used frequently in discourse. Sound correspondences between these loan words and the Nahua sources suggest an Eastern Nahua dialect as the likely source during the Classic period. Thus, Mexican influence in the Maya area, frequently attributed directly to Teotihuacan, may in fact have come by way of Nahua-speakers settled in the Gulf region. The epigraphic evidence establishes that Nahua speakers were influential in Mesoamerica far earlier than previously believed.

NAHUA LOAN WORDS FROM THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD: Words for cacao preparation on a Río Azul ceramic vessel

The discovery of words in a Nahua language on a Maya ceramic vessel provides evidence of Nahua influence in the Maya region as early as a.d. 480, centuries earlier than previously believed. The words are spelled in syllabic Maya signs painted on a pot known to have contained chocolate (Hall et al. 1990). The words occur within the context of the primary standard sequence, a well-known Maya formula, and describe the chocolate drink that among the later Mexica (Aztec) was reserved for “rulers and esteemed noblewomen.” This new reading supports the Uto-Aztecan etymology of cacao proposed by Karin Dakin and Søren Wichmann (2000) and their assertion that an economically and militarily powerful Nahua-speaking people were responsible for the spread of the word cacao into southern Mesoamerica. More broadly, these findings have implications for the role of Uto-Aztecan speakers in the formation and spread of Mesoamerican civilization.

RITUAL DIVERSITY AND DIVERGENCE OF CLASSIC MAYA DYNASTIC TRADITIONS: A LEXICAL PERSPECTIVE ON WITHIN-GROUP CULTURAL VARIATION

To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practices that give coherence to this cultural category as a unit of analysis, as well as to critically examine the diversity and idiosyncrasy of specific cultural traits within prehispanic Maya society. Maya hieroglyphic writing, in particular the tradition of inscribing texts and images on carved stone monuments, offers evidence for widespread and mutually intelligible cultural practices that were, at the same time, neither unchanging nor uniform in their semantic content. As conduits of linguistic and cultural information, Maya hieroglyphic monuments offer detailed records of Classic Maya dynastic history that include the names, dates, and specific rituals performed by elite individuals. In this article, we analyze the distribution and diversity of these inscriptions