Browsing by Author "Raymond, Scott"

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    Economic Strategies of Terminal Classic Households in the Northern Maya Lowlands: Multicrafting and Economic Diversification of a Mid- Elite Residential Compound at Xuenkal, Yucatan
    (2013-01-30) Alonso Olvera, Alejandra; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Raymond, Scott
    The rise of Chichen Itza is associated with a period of changes and economic growth in the northern Lowlands during the Terminal Classic (A.D. 800-1000) and Early Postclassic (A.D. 1000-1200) periods (Andrews et al. 2003:151). Although some sites continued to grow, many sites were abandoned or had drastic declines. However, communities that continued to be occupied show visible shifts in ceramic and architectural styles, and settlement patterns that most likely reflect modifications in their political and economic organizations. Based on their ability to support Chichen Itza political and economic frameworks, elite life and activity in surrounding communities did not come to an end during the Terminal Classic. Examining elite life in areas that managed to carry on during difficult times allows a closer evaluation of specific strategies employed by elite groups to cope with a fluctuating economy and an innovative, yet short lasting, complex level organization. Xuenkal was one of Chichen Itza’s secondary centers that managed to operate under Terminal Classic conditions; therefore it presents a perfect case to examine economic structures that hypothetically originated from Chichen Itza’s integrative policy. Regional secondary centers have been overlooked when evaluating the impact Chichen had on local economies and how they were incorporated into the regional economy. Xuenkal offers several advantages for investigating such questions. An examination of Xuenkal elite contexts provides a means for examining elements that best represent levels of integration, affiliation, or submission endorsed by Chichen Itza. The archaeological exploration of one of Xuenkal’s Terminal Classic Platforms offers an opportunity to investigate domestic economic strategies implemented during times of economic change. The assessment of one mid-elite household provides evidence to evaluate the premise that control over production was necessary to guarantee economic interaction and economic intensification. New configurations of domestic and productive spaces are predicted to reflect particular activities related to multricrafting and intermittent crafting as particular strategies that were not previously employed by prominent elites in the Classic period. Mid-elite material culture would reflect redundancy in craft production necessary to be included in the political economy structure and within market and redistribution systems sponsored and controlled by Chichen Itza.
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    International Conference on the Prehistory and Paleoecology of Western North American Arctic and Subarctic
    (The University of Calgary, 1974) Raymond, Scott; Schledermann, Peter
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    Pre-colonial Irrigation and Settlement Patterns in Three Artificial Valleys in Lima – Peru
    (2014-01-31) Narváez, José; Raymond, Scott
    This investigation consist in the analysis of the southwest section of the lower Rimac River Valley, located in the Peruvian Central Coast, where three artificial valleys, generated by three main irrigation channels named La Magdalena, Maranga, and La Legua, originated from a single mother channel from the River. The objectives of this work were to establish the occupation sequence and settlement pattern in those artificial valleys in Precolonial times trying to shed some light into the origins of social complexity and the role of the irrigation systems in this process. Another main objective is to understand the main characteristics of Precolonial societies in the area, comparing them with the classic definitions from Neoevolutionary cultural anthropology: band, tribe, chiefdom and state that have been widely used by several scholars who worked on the Peruvian case. In order to reach those objectives, this investigation used modern and old maps and aerial photos in order to make a map of the area before the modern expansion of the city in the Twentieth Century that destroyed the irrigation systems and numerous archaeological sites, locally known as huacas. Several pottery collections from this area were analyzed in order to establish the chronology and cultural association of several archaeological sites. The investigation also comprised the analysis of colonial documents from the Sixteenth to the early Nineteenth centuries, some of them published and other kept in archives and libraries in Lima, trying to establish the political and territorial organization of the indigenous population in the late Precolonial period. This investigation found few elements that support the idea of an original emergence of state or the existence of urban settlements in the valley. The political organization seemed to be closer to the notion of simple and complex chiefdoms, with a hierarchy of lords controlling some sections of the artificial valley, during the Ancon (800-400 BC), Lima (300-800 AD) and Ychsma (1000-1476 AD) occupations, that were absorbed by expansive polities in some parts of their history: Janabarriu (Chavin) associated with the Ancon occupation, Topara (400 BC-300 AD), Wari (800-1000), and Inca (1476-1532).