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5 Cultivated Landscapes as Inalienable Wealth in Southeastern Mesoamerica
Author(s) -
Wells E. Christian
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
archeological papers of the american anthropological association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1551-8248
pISSN - 1551-823X
DOI - 10.1111/apaa.12016
Subject(s) - materiality (auditing) , mesoamerica , agrarian society , ideology , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , politics , maya , estate , sociology , settlement (finance) , history , geography , economy , anthropology , ethnology , archaeology , political science , aesthetics , art , economics , law , agriculture , finance , payment , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Annette Weiner's theory of inalienable possessions, while bridging important gaps between meaning and materiality in archaeological studies of labor, gives short shrift to the potential role of landed property in constituting regimes of value. This chapter responds by exploring how archaeologists can study the social, political, and economic consequences of the inheritance of cultivated landscapes from estate ancestors. Drawing on Weiner's framework for “keeping‐while‐giving” and Parker Shipton's notion of “ideologies of attachment,” the chapter examines the ways and extent to which Maya families deployed agrarian rituals to embed identity in wealth and secure its intergenerational transmission. An archaeological case from pre‐Hispanic Honduras is used to evaluate these ideas with data on settlement, land use, and ritual economy.