The Inalienable in the Archaeology of Mesoamerica

Brigitte Kovacevich is assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on the complex interplay between technology, power, social action, and culture change in the past and present, and she is interested in Mesoamerican archaeology, lithic analysis, household archaeology, gender, identity, and preindustrial economic systems. She is currently codirector of the Holt´un Archaeological Project, Guatemala, and has conducted research in Mexico, Arizona, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Michael G. Callaghan is visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University. He specializes in complex societies of Mesoamerica, with a specific emphasis on prehistoric economy and its articulation with politics and ritual. His research interests include Mesoamerican archaeology, the origins of social complexity, prehistoric economies, the archaeology of ritual, gender in archaeology, and ceramic analysis. He is currently codirector of the Holt´un Archaeological Project, Guatemala.

Table of Contents iii
 
Chapter 1. Introduction: Inalienability, Value, and the Construction of Social Difference  1
Brigitte Kovacevich and Michael G. Callaghan 
 
Chapter 2. Olmec Things and Identity: A Reassessment of Offerings and Burials at La Venta, Tabasco  14
John E. Clark and Arlene Colman 
 
Chapter 3. Situational Inalienability and Social Change in Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca  38
Sarah B. Barber, Andrew Workinger, and Arthur A. Joyce 
 
Chapter 4. The Bones of the Ancestors as Inalienable Possessions: A Bioarchaeological Perspective  54
Anna C. Novotny 
 
Chapter 5. Cultivated Landscapes as Inalienable Wealth in Southeastern Mesoamerica  66
E. Christian Wells 
 
Chapter 6. Alienating Ancient Maya Commoners  81
Jon C. Lohse 
 
Chapter 7. The Inalienability of Jades in Mesoamerica  95
Brigitte Kovacevich 
 
Chapter 8. Maya Polychrome Vessels as Inalienable Possessions  112
Michael G. Callaghan 
 
Chapter 9. Negotiation of Inalienability and Meanings at the Classic Maya Center of Aguateca, Guatemala  128
Takeshi Inomata 
 
Chapter 10. Land, Labor, Bodies, and Objects: Comments on Inalienability and Mesoamerican Social Life  142
Barbara J. Mills 
 
List of Contributors 150
 
Erratum  152