The Low-Density Urban Systems of the Classic Period Maya and Izapa: Insights from Settlement Scaling Theory
The Low-Density Urban Systems of the Classic Period Maya and Izapa: Insights from Settlement Scaling Theory
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经典时期玛雅和伊萨帕的低密度城市系统：聚落规模理论的见解
DOI：
10.1017/laq.2020.80
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发表时间：
2020
影响因子：
0.9
通讯作者：
Rosenswig, Robert M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Smith, Michael E.;Ortman, Scott G.;Lobo, José;Ebert, Claire E.;Thompson, Amy E.;Prufer, Keith M.;Liendo Stuardo, Rodrigo;Rosenswig, Robert M.
中美洲南部的民族，包括古典时期的玛雅人，经常被认为表现出相对于当代城市系统的独特的空间组织类型。在这里，我们使用系统、全覆盖调查中记录的聚落规模框架和聚落特性来研究中美洲南部聚落系统与当代系统的相似和不同之处。我们发现这些聚落中的人口-面积关系与其他农业聚落系统报道的人口-面积关系有很大不同，但是当人们将一个地点震中视为相关的社会互动区域，并将从给定中心管理的人口视为相关的互动人口时，会出现更典型的模式。我们的结果表明，中美洲南部人口的社会混合速度比当代系统的典型时间节奏要慢。住宅区反映出需要平衡农业的能源和运输成本与前往中心地区的较低频率的通勤成本。尽管如此，城市建设等活动的收益递增仍然是通过较低频率的社会混合来实现的。这些发现表明，低密度城市化与当代城市系统之间的主要区别在于社会混合的空间和时间节奏。
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the population-area relationship in these settlements differs greatly from that reported for other agrarian settlement systems, but that more typical patterns emerge when one considers a site epicenter as the relevant social interaction area, and the population administered from a given center as the relevant interacting population. Our results imply that southern Mesoamerican populations mixed socially at a slower temporal rhythm than is typical of contemporary systems. Residential locations reflected the need to balance energetic and transport costs of farming with lower-frequency costs of commuting to central places. Nevertheless, increasing returns in activities such as civic construction were still realized through lower-frequency social mixing. These findings suggest that the primary difference between low-density urbanism and contemporary urban systems lies in the spatial and temporal rhythms of social mixing.