Maya Postclassic state formation: segmentary lineage migration in advancing frontiers

Fox, John W.

Book

Maya Postclassic state formation: segmentary lineage migration in advancing frontiers

Cambridge University Press • Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] • Published In 1987 • Pages: xv, 310

By: Fox, John W..

Abstract
During the Postclassic period ruling dynasties extended far and wide across southern Mesoamerica, many enbodied by strong affinity and possible kinship ties with one another. Not only did these various Maya-speaking peoples manifest astonishing commonality in archaeological remains, but also they maintained firm accordance in their written histories pointing to a common ancestry. 'To further distinguish them as a group, their architecture, ceramics, religion and mythology were stoutly cast in a Toltec mold deep within the Maya realm. This study addresses how these Mexican/Mayan peoples acquired their especially hybrid cultural matrix, sudden long-distance migration, intrusion, conquest, and intermarriage with indigenous population, and then how the equally abrupt collapse of apparently mighty state systems occurred: (p. 1). In this work Fox focuses on how three temporally and geographically sequential frontiers came into being, running west to east: '…the original Gulf frontier where the hybrid Mexican/Mayan traditions first evolved (Part I), the western Guatemalan highlands (Part II) where the Queché and acropolis traditions eventually came to constitute a core of the segmentary state, and an eastern frontier (Part III), the edge of Mesoamerica, where the Quiché, Cakchiquel and others had only recently entered by the time of the Spaniah Conquest (pp. 282-283).

Theoretical orientation in research and its results

External migration

History and culture change

Historical reconstruction

Ceramic technology

Structures

Settlement patterns

Miscellaneous facilities

Lineages

Territorial hierarchy

Form and rules of government

Congregations