Pub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.1017/s0956536124000099
Prudence M. Rice, Don S. Rice, Timothy W. Pugh
Late Postclassic lowland Maya civic-ceremonial masonry architecture appears in two main configurations—temple assemblages and basic ceremonial groups—first identified at Mayapan. Around the Peten lakes, these two architectural complexes have been tied to northern immigrant Kowojs and Itzas, respectively, and their distributions map the varying control over the lakes by these two ethnopolities. Temple assemblages exhibit considerable variation in their structural components and arrangements throughout the lowlands, but they have not been studied comparatively. Here, we examine 14 temple assemblages at 12 lowland sites. We consider one of the two assemblages at Zacpeten (Sak Peten), Group A, to have been built by Kowojs, who asserted their identity and earlier (Late/Terminal Classic) ties to the site by reusing carved monuments. “Blended” assemblage Group C is more difficult to parse, but reflects cosmo-calendrical principles of statecraft and the builders’ and users’ broader ties to Mayapan and Topoxte.
后古典晚期低地玛雅人的公民-礼仪砖石建筑主要有两种形式--寺庙群和基本礼仪群，这两种形式最早是在玛雅潘发现的。在佩滕湖周围，这两种建筑群分别与北部移民科沃杰人和伊特萨斯人有关，它们的分布反映了这两个民族对湖泊的不同控制。在整个低地地区，寺庙建筑群在结构组成和布局上表现出相当大的差异，但还没有对它们进行过比较研究。在此，我们研究了 12 个低地遗址中的 14 个庙宇组合。我们认为扎克佩滕（萨克佩滕）的两个庙宇组合中的一个，即 A 组，是由科沃杰人建造的，他们通过重复使用雕刻石碑来表明自己的身份以及与该遗址的早期（晚期/末期古典时期）联系。C 组的 "混合 "组合更难解析，但反映了国家统治的宇宙-历法原则，以及建造者和使用者与玛雅潘和托波克斯特的更广泛联系。
{"title":"Late Postclassic Lowland Maya politico-ritual architecture: Temple assemblages and Zacpeten","authors":"Prudence M. Rice, Don S. Rice, Timothy W. Pugh","doi":"10.1017/s0956536124000099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536124000099","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Late Postclassic lowland Maya civic-ceremonial masonry architecture appears in two main configurations—temple assemblages and basic ceremonial groups—first identified at Mayapan. Around the Peten lakes, these two architectural complexes have been tied to northern immigrant Kowojs and Itzas, respectively, and their distributions map the varying control over the lakes by these two ethnopolities. Temple assemblages exhibit considerable variation in their structural components and arrangements throughout the lowlands, but they have not been studied comparatively. Here, we examine 14 temple assemblages at 12 lowland sites. We consider one of the two assemblages at Zacpeten (Sak Peten), Group A, to have been built by Kowojs, who asserted their identity and earlier (Late/Terminal Classic) ties to the site by reusing carved monuments. “Blended” assemblage Group C is more difficult to parse, but reflects cosmo-calendrical principles of statecraft and the builders’ and users’ broader ties to Mayapan and Topoxte.</p>","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142193672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-13DOI: 10.1017/s0956536124000075
Charles D. Cheek
The Maya used dress to help them structure social interaction. Taking a behavioral chain and practice approach, I define dress elements of male courtiers and how they were combined into outfits during the daily practices of dressing and attending court. I identify two groups of headgear, Standard and Special, among courtiers on vases showing historical interaction among humans. Each vase is considered commemorative and must communicate to an audience. I identified six Standard hat types that were widespread in the Maya Lowlands. The distribution implies a basic set of recognizable roles that provided the political-religious structure of the typical Maya court, perhaps as early as the Late Preclassic period. Four of the hat types are connected to glyphic titles. Each titleholder's position in the vase's visual space implies a hierarchy of roles. The results support my hypothesis that dress does identify social roles in the Maya court.
{"title":"Hats and titles: Maya courtier dress and hierarchy in the late Classic Maya court","authors":"Charles D. Cheek","doi":"10.1017/s0956536124000075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536124000075","url":null,"abstract":"The Maya used dress to help them structure social interaction. Taking a behavioral chain and practice approach, I define dress elements of male courtiers and how they were combined into outfits during the daily practices of dressing and attending court. I identify two groups of headgear, Standard and Special, among courtiers on vases showing historical interaction among humans. Each vase is considered commemorative and must communicate to an audience. I identified six Standard hat types that were widespread in the Maya Lowlands. The distribution implies a basic set of recognizable roles that provided the political-religious structure of the typical Maya court, perhaps as early as the Late Preclassic period. Four of the hat types are connected to glyphic titles. Each titleholder's position in the vase's visual space implies a hierarchy of roles. The results support my hypothesis that dress does identify social roles in the Maya court.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140939430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-09DOI: 10.1017/s0956536124000026
Michael W. Swanton
This article examines the word histories of 12 nouns (eight zoonyms, two other lifeform names, and two toponyms) in Mixtec, a shallow or emergent language family of Mesoamerica. It argues that these nouns—now morphologically opaque—are fused compounds that arose from the Mixtec vocabulary of the mantic count of 260 days, a temporal organization that was part of the common cultural heritage of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican peoples. With the European colonization and persecution of Mesoamerican religious practices, the use of the mantic count was abandoned. It was at this time that the compounds would have been demotivated; that is, the internal morphological structure would have become inaccessible to speakers who could no longer relate it to the mantic cycle. This then enriched the lexicon, creating etymological pairs for the same, or similar, referents. It is suggested that the survival of the eight zoonyms may have to do with their use in the context of omens.
{"title":"Mesoamerican mantic names as an etymological source of Mixtec vocabulary","authors":"Michael W. Swanton","doi":"10.1017/s0956536124000026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536124000026","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the word histories of 12 nouns (eight zoonyms, two other lifeform names, and two toponyms) in Mixtec, a shallow or emergent language family of Mesoamerica. It argues that these nouns—now morphologically opaque—are fused compounds that arose from the Mixtec vocabulary of the mantic count of 260 days, a temporal organization that was part of the common cultural heritage of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican peoples. With the European colonization and persecution of Mesoamerican religious practices, the use of the mantic count was abandoned. It was at this time that the compounds would have been demotivated; that is, the internal morphological structure would have become inaccessible to speakers who could no longer relate it to the mantic cycle. This then enriched the lexicon, creating etymological pairs for the same, or similar, referents. It is suggested that the survival of the eight zoonyms may have to do with their use in the context of omens.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140939435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-09DOI: 10.1017/s0956536124000063
Morgan Clark
This article revisits ear ornament data from Tikal—both material and visual—to better understand the varied roles of ear ornamentation in ancient Maya society over time. The author discusses relevant terms and terminology, then emphasizes the social aspects of ear piercing and stretching as well as the place of ear ornaments in economic exchange. Ear ornamentation was a critical aspect of socialization for ancestral Mayas, but the extent of this practice was classed. Whereas the styles of nonelite ear ornaments were more resistant to change over time, the jade earflares of elites became more standardized in form while growing in complexity. With this standardization, jade earflares achieved a status close to currency, not just to be coveted or collected but also to be displayed on the body to the fullest extent possible. However, like many currencies, jade earflares were more complex than simple tokens of exchange. The symbolic dimensions that gave these objects meaning and economic value were integral to their power.
{"title":"The stuff of currency: Changing styles and uses of ear ornaments at Tikal","authors":"Morgan Clark","doi":"10.1017/s0956536124000063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536124000063","url":null,"abstract":"This article revisits ear ornament data from Tikal—both material and visual—to better understand the varied roles of ear ornamentation in ancient Maya society over time. The author discusses relevant terms and terminology, then emphasizes the social aspects of ear piercing and stretching as well as the place of ear ornaments in economic exchange. Ear ornamentation was a critical aspect of socialization for ancestral Mayas, but the extent of this practice was classed. Whereas the styles of nonelite ear ornaments were more resistant to change over time, the jade earflares of elites became more standardized in form while growing in complexity. With this standardization, jade earflares achieved a status close to currency, not just to be coveted or collected but also to be displayed on the body to the fullest extent possible. However, like many currencies, jade earflares were more complex than simple tokens of exchange. The symbolic dimensions that gave these objects meaning and economic value were integral to their power.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140939352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-28DOI: 10.1017/s0956536123000056
Damien B. Marken
Located at the western edge of the Classic Maya heartland, El Peru-Waka' was one of the most densely aggregated urban cores in the Lowlands. With households packed next to each other, it can be difficult to define where one ends and another begins. Nevertheless, survey and excavation data suggest that differences in household provisioning and generational cycling created considerable variation in household wealth across the city. This paper employs household area (m2) and volume (m3) to calculate Gini coefficients for the El Peru-Waka' urban core and immediate hinterlands to quantify household differentiation across the urban landscape. Comparison of the coefficients for the total study area with those for individual urban zones (core, periurban, hinterland) demonstrate that while El Perú-Waka' exhibits high overall household differentiation, this differentiation is considerably muted within a given urban zone. This demonstrates the impact of settlement location on differences in household size and architectural investment.
El Peru-Waka'位于古典玛雅中心地带的西部边缘，是低地最密集的城市核心之一。由于各家各户毗邻而居，很难界定哪里是终点，哪里是起点。不过，调查和发掘数据表明，家庭供养和世代循环的不同造成了整个城市家庭财富的巨大差异。本文采用家庭面积（平方米）和体积（立方米）来计算埃尔秘鲁瓦卡城市核心和邻近腹地的基尼系数，以量化整个城市景观中的家庭差异。将整个研究区域的基尼系数与单个城市区域（核心区、近郊区、腹地）的基尼系数进行比较后发现，虽然秘鲁瓦卡的总体家庭分化程度较高，但在特定的城市区域内，这种分化程度却大大减弱。这表明了居住区位置对家庭规模和建筑投资差异的影响。
{"title":"Residential size and volume differentiation across urban zones at El Perú-Waka', Peten, Guatemala","authors":"Damien B. Marken","doi":"10.1017/s0956536123000056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536123000056","url":null,"abstract":"Located at the western edge of the Classic Maya heartland, El Peru-Waka' was one of the most densely aggregated urban cores in the Lowlands. With households packed next to each other, it can be difficult to define where one ends and another begins. Nevertheless, survey and excavation data suggest that differences in household provisioning and generational cycling created considerable variation in household wealth across the city. This paper employs household area (m<jats:sup>2</jats:sup>) and volume (m<jats:sup>3</jats:sup>) to calculate Gini coefficients for the El Peru-Waka' urban core and immediate hinterlands to quantify household differentiation across the urban landscape. Comparison of the coefficients for the total study area with those for individual urban zones (core, periurban, hinterland) demonstrate that while El Perú-Waka' exhibits high overall household differentiation, this differentiation is considerably muted within a given urban zone. This demonstrates the impact of settlement location on differences in household size and architectural investment.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"92 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140578609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-28DOI: 10.1017/s0956536123000111
Marcello A. Canuto, Luke Auld-Thomas, Hiroaki Yagi, Tomás Barrientos Q.
Measurements of inequality, like many other analytical phenomena, are affected by the definition of analytical units (for example, buildings or residential groups) and the spatial unit within which those units are aggregated (for example, sites or polities). We begin by considering the impact of secondary or seasonal residences on the calculation of Gini scores when dealing with regional-scale settlement data, which is a common consideration in regional-scale population estimates. We then use LiDAR-derived settlement data from northwestern Guatemala to calculate Gini coefficients for two ancient Maya sites: Late Classic La Corona and Late Preclassic Achiotal. We investigate how the scale of the spatial unit of aggregation affects our interpretations of inequality using various architecture-based indices. Finally, we provide some preliminary interpretations for the differences calculated between these two centers.
与许多其他分析现象一样，不平等的测量方法也会受到分析单位（如建筑物或居住群体）和这些单位聚合的空间单位（如地点或政体）定义的影响。在处理区域尺度聚落数据时，我们首先考虑次级或季节性居住地对基尼系数计算的影响，这也是区域尺度人口估计中的一个常见考虑因素。然后，我们使用来自危地马拉西北部的激光雷达聚落数据计算了两个古玛雅遗址的基尼系数：晚期古典时期的 La Corona 和晚期前古典时期的 Achiotal。我们利用各种基于建筑的指数，研究了空间聚合单位的规模如何影响我们对不平等现象的解释。最后，我们对计算出的这两个中心之间的差异进行了一些初步解释。
{"title":"Gini coefficient at La Corona: The impacts of variation in analytical unit and aggregation scale","authors":"Marcello A. Canuto, Luke Auld-Thomas, Hiroaki Yagi, Tomás Barrientos Q.","doi":"10.1017/s0956536123000111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536123000111","url":null,"abstract":"Measurements of inequality, like many other analytical phenomena, are affected by the definition of analytical units (for example, buildings or residential groups) and the spatial unit within which those units are aggregated (for example, sites or polities). We begin by considering the impact of secondary or seasonal residences on the calculation of Gini scores when dealing with regional-scale settlement data, which is a common consideration in regional-scale population estimates. We then use LiDAR-derived settlement data from northwestern Guatemala to calculate Gini coefficients for two ancient Maya sites: Late Classic La Corona and Late Preclassic Achiotal. We investigate how the scale of the spatial unit of aggregation affects our interpretations of inequality using various architecture-based indices. Finally, we provide some preliminary interpretations for the differences calculated between these two centers.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140578607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-28DOI: 10.1017/s0956536123000202
Kyle Shaw-Müller, John P. Walden
Being a form of labor investment, house size is frequently analyzed as an index of socioeconomic inequality. However, datasets that lack wide-ranging residential stratigraphic information are not reliable sources of labor investment estimates. This is the case for Late Classic domestic architecture data from three polities in the Rosario Valley (modern-day Chiapas) on the southwest Maya frontier: Rosario, Ojo de Agua, and Los Encuentros. Although the sample's house size inequality generally cannot index period-specific labor investment, it may signify prestige differentiation. For each polity we generated Lorenz curves and calculated Gini coefficients for five variables representing house size (area and volume). Results resemble inequality data from lowland Classic Maya centers. We also demonstrate that the smallest, shortest-lived polity had more equal house size values, likely due to the modesty of its apical elite architecture. In contrast, the two larger, older polities were more unequal because they had substantial palaces.
{"title":"Inequality on the southwest Maya frontier: House size variations in three polities of the Rosario Valley, Chiapas","authors":"Kyle Shaw-Müller, John P. Walden","doi":"10.1017/s0956536123000202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536123000202","url":null,"abstract":"Being a form of labor investment, house size is frequently analyzed as an index of socioeconomic inequality. However, datasets that lack wide-ranging residential stratigraphic information are not reliable sources of labor investment estimates. This is the case for Late Classic domestic architecture data from three polities in the Rosario Valley (modern-day Chiapas) on the southwest Maya frontier: Rosario, Ojo de Agua, and Los Encuentros. Although the sample's house size inequality generally cannot index period-specific labor investment, it may signify prestige differentiation. For each polity we generated Lorenz curves and calculated Gini coefficients for five variables representing house size (area and volume). Results resemble inequality data from lowland Classic Maya centers. We also demonstrate that the smallest, shortest-lived polity had more equal house size values, likely due to the modesty of its apical elite architecture. In contrast, the two larger, older polities were more unequal because they had substantial palaces.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140578718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-28DOI: 10.1017/s095653612300007x
John P. Walden, Julie A. Hoggarth, Claire E. Ebert, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Weiyu Ran, Yijia Qiu, Olivia P. Ellis, Brett Meyer, Michael Biggie, Tia B. Watkins, Rafael A. Guerra, Jaime J. Awe
The Classic Maya polities of Baking Pot and Lower Dover developed along two dramatically different trajectories. At Baking Pot, the capital and associated apical elite regime grew concomitantly with surrounding populations over a thousand-year period. The smaller polity of Lower Dover, in contrast, formed when a Late Classic political center was established by an emergent apical elite regime amidst several long-established intermediate elite-headed districts. The different trajectories through which these polities formed should have clear implications for residential size variability. We employ the Gini coefficient to measure variability in household volume to compare patterns of residential size differentiation between the two polities. The Gini coefficients, while similar, suggest greater differentiation in residential size at Baking Pot than at Lower Dover, likely related to the centralized control of labor by the ruling elite at Baking Pot. While the Gini coefficient is synonymous with measuring wealth inequalities, we suggest that in the Classic period Belize River Valley, residential size was more reflective of labor control.
{"title":"Patterns of residential differentiation and labor control at Baking Pot and Lower Dover in the Belize River Valley","authors":"John P. Walden, Julie A. Hoggarth, Claire E. Ebert, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Weiyu Ran, Yijia Qiu, Olivia P. Ellis, Brett Meyer, Michael Biggie, Tia B. Watkins, Rafael A. Guerra, Jaime J. Awe","doi":"10.1017/s095653612300007x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s095653612300007x","url":null,"abstract":"The Classic Maya polities of Baking Pot and Lower Dover developed along two dramatically different trajectories. At Baking Pot, the capital and associated apical elite regime grew concomitantly with surrounding populations over a thousand-year period. The smaller polity of Lower Dover, in contrast, formed when a Late Classic political center was established by an emergent apical elite regime amidst several long-established intermediate elite-headed districts. The different trajectories through which these polities formed should have clear implications for residential size variability. We employ the Gini coefficient to measure variability in household volume to compare patterns of residential size differentiation between the two polities. The Gini coefficients, while similar, suggest greater differentiation in residential size at Baking Pot than at Lower Dover, likely related to the centralized control of labor by the ruling elite at Baking Pot. While the Gini coefficient is synonymous with measuring wealth inequalities, we suggest that in the Classic period Belize River Valley, residential size was more reflective of labor control.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140578664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-28DOI: 10.1017/s0956536123000135
Amy E. Thompson, Adrian S.Z. Chase, Gary M. Feinman
To variable degrees, inequality is present in all human societies, but how archaeologists measure inequality varies greatly. In recent research, we used the same unit of analysis, house size, to evaluate residential wealth inequality among the Classic (a.d. 250/300–800) Maya of southern Belize. Using a Gini coefficient, we found that even in this peripheral region, high degrees of inequality were present. However, nuances in inequality metrics vary based on the analytical parameters or units of measurement (area versus volume) and the unit of analysis (individual residential structures, all structures within a household group, or the entire household group, including the built environment). Generally, Gini coefficients calculated from volume are greater than those from area, and the unit of analysis affects the Gini coefficient and, thus, our interpretations of the degree of inequality present. We discuss the impact of the unit of analysis for house sizes, and how it affects our interpretations of residential wealth inequality in the past in conjunction with previous archaeological research. The findings are instrumental for comparative analyses of wealth inequality through the study of house size variation in ancient and modern societies, highlighting the value of clear definitions of the unit of analysis.
{"title":"Measuring inequality: The effect of units of analysis on the Gini coefficient","authors":"Amy E. Thompson, Adrian S.Z. Chase, Gary M. Feinman","doi":"10.1017/s0956536123000135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536123000135","url":null,"abstract":"To variable degrees, inequality is present in all human societies, but how archaeologists measure inequality varies greatly. In recent research, we used the same unit of analysis, house size, to evaluate residential wealth inequality among the Classic (<jats:sc>a.d.</jats:sc> 250/300–800) Maya of southern Belize. Using a Gini coefficient, we found that even in this peripheral region, high degrees of inequality were present. However, nuances in inequality metrics vary based on the <jats:italic>analytical parameters</jats:italic> or units of measurement (area versus volume) and the <jats:italic>unit of analysis</jats:italic> (individual residential structures, all structures within a household group, or the entire household group, including the built environment). Generally, Gini coefficients calculated from volume are greater than those from area, and the unit of analysis affects the Gini coefficient and, thus, our interpretations of the degree of inequality present. We discuss the impact of the unit of analysis for house sizes, and how it affects our interpretations of residential wealth inequality in the past in conjunction with previous archaeological research. The findings are instrumental for comparative analyses of wealth inequality through the study of house size variation in ancient and modern societies, highlighting the value of clear definitions of the unit of analysis.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140578800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-28DOI: 10.1017/s095653612300024x
Adrian S.Z. Chase, Amy E. Thompson, John P. Walden, Gary M. Feinman
Inequality is present in all human societies, but building a robust understanding of how that inequality developed and persisted for centuries requires historical and archaeological data. Identifying the degree of inequality (or disparity) in ancient communities can be addressed through a variety of methods. One method becoming standard practice in archaeology evaluates inequality through quantitative analysis of robust settlement data. In this Compact Special Section, we assess household size as a potential reflection of wealth inequality among Classic period (a.d. 250–900) Maya settlements. First, we generate house-size data from both pedestrian and remotely sensed LiDAR surveys. Then we use those data to calculate Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves, which provide measures of variation. Gini coefficients range from 0 to 1, where 0 reflects perfect equality and 1 indicates perfect inequality, regardless of the actual values in the distribution. Both area (m2) and volume (m3) provide different, complementary metrics to investigate residential size as a metric for wealth inequality among Classic Maya Lowland settlements. Proposed mechanisms that generate inequality include the intergenerational transmission of wealth and differential access to resources; however, addressing these and other pathways for how inequality develops and persists, and how it was maintained in the past provides insight into similar processes of systemic inequality worldwide.
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