Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-kwt9d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T01:55:29.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Broken fingers: Classic Maya scribe capture and polity consolidation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Kevin J. Johnston
Kevin J. Johnston*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University, 244 Lord Hall, 124 West 17th Avenue, Columbus OH 43210-1364, USA.
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper addresses how the rulers of the Classic Maya sought to promote polity cohesion and to maintain power. New information is presented on scribe capture and its importance in reinforcing the power and importance of the king.

Keywords

Classic MayascribeMaya writingpolity cohesionroyal power

Information

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 288 , June 2001, pp. 373 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barrera Vasquez, A. 1980. Diccionario Maya Cordemex: Maya-Espanol. Espanol-Maya. Merida, Mexico: Ediciones Cordemex.Google Scholar
Bentley, G.C. 1986. Indigenous states of Southeast Asia, Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 275–305.Google Scholar
Chase, D.Z. & Chase, A.F.. 1996. Maya multiples: Individuals, entries, and tombs in Structure A34 of Caracol, Belize, Latin American Antiquity 7(1): 61–79.Google Scholar
Chase, D.Z. & Chase, A.F.. 1998. The architectural context of caches, burials, and other ritual activities for the Classic Period Maya (as reflected at Caracol, Belize), in Stephen, D. Houston (ed.), Function and meaning in Classic Maya architecture: 299–332. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Closs, M. 1992. I am a kahal; my parents were scribes. Washington (DC): Center for Maya Research. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 39.Google Scholar
Coe, M.D. & Kerr, J.. 1998. Art of the Maya scribe. New York (NY): Harry N. Abrams.Google Scholar
Culbert, T.P. 1991. Classic Maya Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Demarest, A.A. 1992. Ideology in ancient Maya cultural evolution, in Demarest, A.A. & Conrad, G.W. (ed.), Ideology and Pre-Columbian civilizations: 135–58. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
De Montmollin, O. 1989. The archaeology of political structure. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E. 1960. The division of labor in society. Glencoe (IL): Free Press.Google Scholar
FASH, W.L. 1991. Scribes, warriors, and kings. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Feinman, G.M. 1998. Scale and organization: perspectives on the archaic state, in Feinman, & Marcus, (ed.): 95–134.Google Scholar
Feinman, G.M. & Marcus, J. (ed.), Archaic states. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Fuente, B. De La & Staines Cicero, L.. 1998. La pintura murai prehispanica en Mexico. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.Google Scholar
Garza, M. De La (ed.). 1983. Relaciones Histórico-geográficas de la Gobernación de Yucatan: Merida, Valladolid, y Tabasco 1. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autònoma de Mexico.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1980. Negara: the theatre state in nineteenth-century Bali. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, P.D. 2000. The Lords of Tikal. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. 1994. Literacy among the pre-columbian Maya, in Boone, E.H. & Mignolo, W.D. (ed.), Writing without words: 27–49. Durham (NC): Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. 2000. In the minds of the ancients, Journal of World Prehistory 14(2): 121–201.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D., Escobedo, H. Child, M. Golden, C. Terry, R. & Webster, D.. 2000. In the land of the turtle lords, Mexicon 22(5): 97–110.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. & Mathews, P.. 1985. The dynastic sequence of Dos Pilas, Guatemala. San Francisco (CA): Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute. Monograph 1.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. & Stuart, D.. 1996. Of gods, glyphs, and kings, Antiquity 70: 289–312.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. & Stuart, D.. 1998. The ancient Maya self, RES 33: 73–101.Google Scholar
Johnston, K.J. 1985. Maya dynastic territorial expansion, in Fields, V. (ed.), Fifth Palenque Round Table: 49–56. San Francisco (CA): Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 1992. Mesoamerican writing systems. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 1993. Ancient Maya political organization, in Sabloff, & Henderson, (ed.): 111–83.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 1998. The peaks and valleys of ancient stales, in Feinman, & Marcus, (ed.): 59–94.Google Scholar
Martin, S. & Grube, N.. 2000. Chronicle of the Maya kings and queens. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Mcanany, P.A. 1993. The economics of social power and wealth among eighth-century Maya households, in Sabloff, & Henderson, (ed.): 65–90.Google Scholar
Miller, M.E. 1995. Maya masterpiece revealed at Bonampak, National Geographic 187(2): 50–69.Google Scholar
Robertson, M.G. 1985. The sculpture of Palenque 3. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J.A. & Henderson, J.S. (ed.). 1993. Lowland Maya civilization in the eighth century AD. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Schele, L. 1983. Human sacrifice among the Classic Maya, in Benson, E.B. (ed.), Ritual human sacrifice in Mesoamerica: 7–48. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Schele, L. & Freidel, D.. 1990. A forest of kings. New York (NY): William Morrow & Co.Google Scholar
Schele, L. & Mathews, P.. 1998. The code of kings. New York (NY): Scribner.Google Scholar
Schele, L. & Miller, M.E.. 1986. The blood of kings. Fort Worth (TX): Kimbell Art Museum.Google Scholar
Southall, A. 1956. Alur society. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons.Google Scholar
Southall, A. 1991. The segmentary state, in Claessen, H.J. & van de Velde, P. (ed.), Early state economics: 75–96. New Brunswick NB: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Southall, A. 1998. The segmentary state in Africa and Asia, Comparative Studies in Society and History 30(1): 52–82.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 1987. Ten phonetic syllables. Washington (DC): Center for Maya Research. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 14.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 1993. Historical inscriptions and the Maya collapse, in Sabloff, & Henderson, (ed.): 321–54. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 1995. A study of Maya inscriptions. Ph.D dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville (TN).Google Scholar
Suhler, C. & Freidel, D.. 1998. Life and death in a Maya war zone – within a Yucatan pyramid lie the grim remains of a violent change in rulership – the remains of a slaughtered royal family (Yaxuna. northern Yucatan, Mexico), Archaeology 51(3): 28–34.Google Scholar
Tambiah, S.J. 1976. World conqueror and world renounce!: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tambiah, S.J. 1985. Culture, thought, and action. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Valdés, J.A. & Fahsen, F.. 1995. The reigning dynasty of Uaxactún during the Early Classic: the rulers and the ruled, Ancient Mesoamerica 6(2): 197–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, D. 1998. Warfare and status rivalry, in Feinman, & Marcus, (ed.): 311–52.Google Scholar
Webster, D. 2000. The not so peaceful civilization, Journal of World Pre-histoiy 14 (1): 65–119.Google Scholar