Pomp and Circumstance Before Belize: Ancient Maya Commerce and the New River Conurbation

Abstract

In this Chapter I consider commercialism as a stimulus to the development of ancient Maya cities. I shift focus from production and prestige economy, which have been the subject of much archaeological research and theorizing, to consumption by ordinary households, which is less often discussed. I do not propose consumerism as a prime mover for the rise of cities, nor do I visualize ancient Maya traders as canoe-borne capitalists. I do propose that consumer culture is not exclusively a product of modern capitalism (contra Campbell 1987, McCracken 1988 and others), and that certain archaeological patterns suggest that a healthy trade in commodities contributed to Maya urbanism. Urban Maya Most of the objections to calling Maya settlements cities have been answered. The argument that Maya populations were not dense enough is countered by the knowledge that most early urban centers in other parts of the world were not as densely populated as archaeologists once thought (Hansen

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