Household Inequality, Community Formation, and Land Tenure in Classic Period Lowland Maya Society
Household Inequality, Community Formation, and Land Tenure in Classic Period Lowland Maya Society
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DOI：
10.1007/s10816-020-09505-3
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发表时间：
2021-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Amy E. Thompson;Keith M. Prufer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Amy E. Thompson;Keith M. Prufer
获得社会资本和宝贵资源的机会调节了家庭决策，因为人们寻求占用最优质的可用土地。先前的占用、继承和土地保有权规范可能限制机会，造成家庭之间的不平等。我们研究了两个古典时期（公元250-900年）玛雅中心，在南部伯利兹的IxKuku 'il和Uxbenká的定居发展和结构不平等的过程。本文从人类行为生态学的透镜出发，对理想自由分布（IFD）和理想专制分布（IDD）两种人口密度模型对家庭决策的预测进行了评价。要做到这一点，我们将家庭的最初成立日期与9个可衡量的适宜性变量相关联，作为社会和环境资源的代理。我们的结论是，在Uxbenká和IxKuku 'il，社会资源，如动员劳动力的能力，合作，以及进入交通走廊，可能会影响人们选择居住的地方。环境资源，包括良好的农田和常年水源，广泛分布在各地，人人都能获得。这项研究强调了社会关系对家庭决策的重要性，这在考古记录中往往很难发现。制度化不平等的发展和表现是与过去和现在的所有社会相关的过程。
Access to social capital and valued resources modulates household decision-making as people seek to occupy the best-quality patches of land available. Prior occupancy, inheritance, and land tenure norms can constrain opportunities resulting in inequality between households. We examined processes of settlement development and structural inequality at two Classic Period (250–900 CE) Maya centers, Ix Kuku’il and Uxbenká, in Southern Belize. From the lens of human behavioral ecology (HBE), we evaluate the predictions of two population density models, the ideal free distribution (IFD) and the ideal despotic distribution (IDD), on household decision-making. To do so, we correlate the initial foundation date of households with nine measurable suitability variables as proxies for social and environmental resources. We conclude that at Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il, social resources, such as the ability to mobilize labor, cooperation, and access to a transportation corridor, likely influenced where people chose to live. Environmental resources, including good farmland and access to perennial water sources, were widely distributed across the landscape and accessible to everyone. This study highlights the importance of social relationships on household decision-making, which is often difficult to detect in the archaeological record. The development and manifestation of institutionalized inequality are processes relevant to all societies past and present.