Home
:
Book details
:
Book description
Description of
Ancient Maya Commoners
Many studies on the development of ancient civilisations focus on a very small segment of society, the elite. These ten papers, from a symposium organised for the 1999 meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago, look instead at the actions and lives of the ordinary Mayan people, examining the role that these `commoners' played in shaping their social environment. Contributors discuss daily life in the highlands, the role of pottery and food consumption, life on the coast, Mayan `farmsteads', social and political organisations, spatial mobility, the economy, and stereotypes