Wealth and Well-being in an Ancient Maya Community: A Framework for Studying the Quality of Life in Past Societies
Wealth and Well-being in an Ancient Maya Community: A Framework for Studying the Quality of Life in Past Societies
复制标题
古代玛雅社区的财富和福祉：研究过去社会生活质量的框架
DOI：
10.1007/s10816-021-09508-8
复制
发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Scholnick, Jonathan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Munson, Jessica;Scholnick, Jonathan
不平等是当代社会的一个内在因素，高收入差距影响着从预期寿命到暴力犯罪的方方面面。虽然当今社会的不平等是复杂和多方面的，但人类历史上存在的不平等现象的突出和持续，提出了关于其在过去更广泛影响的重要问题。在本文中，我们讨论了考古学的生活质量（QOL）概念，并介绍了研究过去社会中财富和福祉的多个维度的方法。我们说明这种方法采用的概念人格，对待个人嵌入在复杂的社会，这些数据使我们能够对近2000年来玛雅社会特有的不平等程度和种类进行历时分析。我们进一步讨论如何将这些技术应用于其他单位的考古分析和比较案例研究。通过追踪物质财富、社会福利和健康方面的差距，可以更详细地分析过去造成不同程度不平等的具体背景和历史进程。
Inequality is an intrinsic element of contemporary societies, with high income disparity impacting everything from life expectancy to violent crime. While inequality in today’s society is complex and multifaceted, the prominence and persistence of inequality that existed throughout human history raise important questions about its broader impacts in the past. In this paper, we discuss the concept of quality of life (QOL) for archaeology and introduce methods for studying multiple dimensions of wealth and well-being in past societies. Using previously published burial data from the ancient Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios, we illustrate this approach employing notions of personhood that treat individuals embedded in complex socio-material relations. These data enable diachronic analyses in the degree and kinds of inequality that characterized this Maya community over a span of nearly 2000 years. We further discuss how these techniques can apply to other units of archaeological analysis and comparative case studies. Tracing the disparities in material wealth, social well-being, and health through time enables a more detailed analysis of the specific contexts and historical processes that gave rise to varying degrees of inequality in the past.