Mexican Obsidian at Tikal, Guatemala

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
New Information ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Early Classic Period ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Early Late

More than 1,200 artifacts from Tikal provide new information about the presence of Mexican obsidian in the Maya Lowlands and Teotihuacan"s possible role in its transmission. In addition to the source of green obsidian near Pachuca, six other Mexican sources were identified in the Tikal sample. These artifacts date from the early Late Preclassic into the Early Postclassic periods. Over 96 percent are prismatic blades and thin bifaces, whose recovery contexts, spatial distributions, and signs of use-wear indicate they were predominantly utilitarian and domestic artifacts used by all social groups. They were commodities that were transported over Highland-Lowland long-distance exchange networks of considerable time depth. This long-standing, interregional exchange of goods is essentially different from the relatively brief adoption and integration during the Early Classic period of objects, art styles, and behavior of Teotihuacan origin. Obsidian sequins and eccentrics of Teotihuacan style were material components of this latter phenomenon. Their forms and recovery contexts suggest use in rituals borrowed from Teotihuacan, but by lesser elites or wealthy commoners rather than by Tikal"s rulers.

scholarly journals HONDURAS IN EARLY POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Rosemary A. Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Chichen Itza

AbstractSocial groups in Honduras played a key role in regional developments betweena.d.800 and 1100, acting as the pivot in long-distance networks extending west as far as Tula, north to Chichen Itza, and south to Costa Rica. Understanding the role of Honduran settlements at this time has been obstructed by the lack of well-dated contexts from this period and the associated uncertainty about the development of the key Honduran ceramic type, Las Vegas Polychrome. This paper offers a definition of the distinctive features that characterize Las Vegas Polychrome, reviewing evidence supporting earlier dates than traditionally suggested for this type, as early as the emergence of any white-slipped polychrome in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It summarizes evidence for a suite of luxuries consumed in conjunction with Las Vegas Polychrome, and points to the products most likely produced in Honduras for exchange with partners who provided these. Finally, the article considers the ideological, social, and political implications of changes in Honduran settlements where the new pottery was used.

The Terminal Formative to Classic Period Obsidian Assemblage at Palo Errado, Veracruz, Mexico

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles L. F. Knight ◽  
Michael D. Glascock
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Activation Analysis ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Early Classic Period ◽  
Early Late

AbstractAbbreviated Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) was carried out on a sample of obsidian artifacts from the Terminal Formative to early Late Classic period site of Palo Errado, located in the southern Gulf lowlands of Veracruz, Mexico. Our understanding of Classic period obsidian economies in the southern Gulf lowlands has been largely informed by studies of the political economies of the highland Mexican cities of Teotihuacan and Cantona, which appear to have controlled the Pachuca and Otumba, and Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian sources, respectively. However, the NAA results from Palo Errado indicate that while the local obsidian economy was dominated by prismatic blade technology utilizing Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian, five additional highland Mexican sources were used during the Early Classic period. The presence of Ucareo and the use of Otumba in core-blade reduction, for instance, set Palo Errado apart from contemporary sites in the southern Gulf lowlands. Temporal variation in quantity of supplemental obsidian sources and their use in different reduction technologies suggest that consumers at Palo Errado had access to abundant Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian of a quality high enough to facilitate the production of fine prismatic blades. At the same time, however, they continued to participate in exchange networks that tied them to other areas of central Mexico, independently from other contemporaneous sites in the southern Gulf lowlands.

The Business of Narrative at Tula: An Analysis of the Vestibule Frieze, Trade, and Ritual

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Kristan-Graham
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Important Center ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
As If

The so-called frieze of the Caciques at Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, is an 8-m-long bench with most of its original polychromed face intact. It formed part of a larger composition that once ran around the perimeter of the Vestibule, a colonnaded hall that served as a foyer for Pyramid B. The composition of profile males is adapted to look as if they are actually marching around the room toward the pyramid. Although Hugo Moedano Koer (1947) identified the figures as caciques or local chiefs, an analysis of architectural setting, subject matter, and ethnohistory suggests instead that the figures represent merchants engaged in rituals related to trade. This new reading demonstrates that Tula had decorative programs paralleling its development as an important center of long-distance exchange during the Early Postclassic period, and that merchants from Tula may have been a plausible prototype for Aztec pochteca.

Structural, temporal and genetic properties of social groups in the short-lived migratory bat Nyctalus leisleri

Behaviour ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 154 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 785-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ladislav Naďo ◽  
Renáta Chromá ◽  
Peter Kaňuch
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Natal Philopatry ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Nyctalus Leisleri ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pregnancy And Lactation ◽  
Capture Recapture ◽  
Social Associations ◽  
Migratory Movements

Social groups of bats that operate under fission–fusion dynamics tend to establish and maintain non-random associations. We examined the social and genetic structure of the Leisler’s bat (Nyctalus leisleri), a species that is typical of tree-dwelling and long-distance migratory species in Europe. We used long-term co-occurrence data (capture-recapture sampling of roosting individuals) in combination with individual genetic relatedness (inferred from a set of microsatellite markers) to assess relationships between structural, temporal and genetic properties of roosting groups. Our results showed that social structure in groups of roosting Leisler’s bat was not random. Social clusters revealed by network analysis were almost identical to demographic cohorts, which indicates that Leisler’s bats are able to maintain social bonds only over a single season. After the period of active maternal care, roosting groups became smaller with a significantly higher level of genetic relatedness among adult females in contrast to the pregnancy and lactation stages. This provides some evidence that temporal social associations may be positively correlated with genetic relatedness. Low recapture rates of bats across seasons in light of natal philopatry indicates a shorter life span of individuals likely due to high mortality during long distance migratory movements. This probably has the most significant effect on the social system of this species.

Linguistic Divergence and the Collapse of Preclassic Civilization in Southern Mesoamerica

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce H. Dahlin ◽  
Robin Quizar ◽  
Andrea Dahlin
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Proximate Cause ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
Early Classic Period

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

Rights of Exit

Legal Theory ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Green
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
Parochial Schools ◽  
Hiring Practices ◽  
Social Clubs ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Conduct Codes

Social groups claim authority to impose restrictions on their members that the state cannot. Churches, ethnic groups, minority nations, universities, social clubs, and families all regulate belief and behavior in ways that would be obviously unjust in the context of a state and its citizens. All religions impose doctrinal requirements; many also enforce sexist practices and customs. Some universities impose stringent speech and conduct codes on their students and faculty. Parochial schools discriminate in their hiring practices. Those who complain about such internal restrictions on the liberties of members might well be told to “love it or leave it.”

Made for exchange: the Russian Karelian lithic industry and hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks in prehistoric north-eastern Europe

Antiquity ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Alexey Tarasov ◽  
Kerkko Nordqvist
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Agricultural Societies ◽  
Lithic Industry ◽  
Distance Communication

The hunter-fisher-gatherers of fourth- to third-millennium BC north-eastern Europe shared many characteristics traditionally associated with Neolithic and Chalcolithic agricultural societies. Here, the authors examine north-eastern European hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks, focusing on the Russian Karelian lithic industry. The geographically limited, large-scale production of Russian Karelian artefacts for export testifies to the specialised production of lithic material culture that was exchanged over 1000km from the production workshops. Functioning both as everyday tools and objects of social and ritual engagement, and perhaps even constituting a means of long-distance communication, the Russian Karelian industry finds parallels with the exchange systems of contemporaneous European agricultural populations.

An End-User’s Journey of System Use

2011 ◽  
pp. 124-148
Author(s):  
Zahid Hussain ◽  
Khalid Hafeez
Keyword(s):  
End Users ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
End User ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
New Information ◽  
User Attitudes ◽  
System Use ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Using a new information system is a journey that end-users follow, sometimes by choice and at other times by obligation. This journey changes their attitudes and behavior as they explore the system and discover its workings. In this chapter we map such a journey using Morgan’s (1986, 1997) metaphors by tracking a change in end–user attitudes and behavior. We use a longitudinal case study approach to follow this journey, report the direction and any shifts in end-users’ conceptual position. Our results show that within a space of eighteen months the organization’s overall metaphorical stance shifted from the organism to the machine metaphor. This reflects the end-user’s initial optimism for the change to enable ease of working to that of efficiency dictated by the senior management towards the end. This shift was due to organizational conditional factors, such as the ISD methodology.

Connected by More Than Exceptional Imports: Performance and Identity in Hallstatt C/D Elite Burials of the Low Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof ◽  
Robert Schumann
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Frequent Contact ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Similarities And Differences

The Low Countries' Early Iron Age is marked by the emergence of lavish burials known as chieftains’ graves or princely burials. These extraordinary elite burials of the Hallstatt C/D period contain weaponry, bronze vessels as well as decorated wagons and horse-gear imported from the Hallstatt culture of Central Europe, where the same objects are found in the famous Fürstengräber. While the connection between these regions has long been recognized, the nature of this contact remains poorly understood. Here we present the preliminary results of an on-going re-examination of elite funerary practices in both regions and the likely direct long-distance interactions reflected in them. Similarities and differences in the treatment of objects and the dead in funerary rituals indicate that, to a certain extent at least, these geographically separated social groups were integrated in a specific elite burial practice, indicating frequent contact across hundreds of kilometres.

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