Classic Maya Social Inequality, Networks, and Collapse at Dos Pilas, Peten, Guatemala

Joel W. Palka is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He is the author of Unconquered Lacandon Maya: Ethnohistory and Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change and Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes: Insights from Archaeology, History, and Ethnography.

CONTENTS List of Figures List of Tables 1. Maya Social Inequality, Political Networks, and the Dos Pilas Collapse 2. Structure Hierarchy and Excavation Strategy at Dos Pilas 3. Excavations in Small Residential Groups of Low-Status Commoners 4.Intermediate Residential Groups of Level 5 5. The Socio-Economic Middle Status: Level 6 Maya Residential Groups 6. Elite Maya Residences, Palaces, and Artifact Assemblages 7. Artifacts, Architecture, and Chronology at Dos Pilas 8. Conclusions: Maya Socio-Economic Inequality and the Dos Pilas Collapse References Index

"Palka effectively demonstrates the utility of household archaeology for elucidating the complexity of Late Classic Maya socioeconomics, social networks, and political collapse at Dos Pilas. His abundant data presentation bolsters interpretations and allows readers to draw their own conclusions regarding the demise of this polity."--Nancy Gonlin, Bellevue College "Detailing extensive household excavations at the Maya city of Dos Pilas, Palka sheds new light on how different ranks encountered and felt the upheavals of the Classic Maya collapse, and how they responded to these challenges through shifting social networks. The author illuminates the intricacies and complexities of social stratification at Dos Pilas, as low-status and high-status commoners were fractured by their distinct social networks with regional and interregional elites, leading to variable trajectories through the Classic Maya collapse. By tearing apart the 'black-box' of Classic Maya stratification, Palka disengages status from social network. Following divergent social networks from low-status commoners on the regional and interregional levels, high-status commoners become the central actors of the Classic Maya collapse, and not the secondary elites of previous studies."--Antonia E. Foias, author of Ancient Maya Political Dynamics and Ceramics, Production and Exchange in the Petexbatun Region: The Economic Parameters of the Classic Maya Collapse