Archaeological Papers of The American - 2008 - Morehart - 5 Situating Power and Locating Knowledge A Paleoethnobotanical

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5
Situating Power and Locating Knowledge:
A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective on Late
Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations
Christopher T. Morehart
Northwestern University
and
Christophe G. B. Helmke
University of Copenhagen
ABSTRACT
Viewing household production in terms of a political economic balance of “give and take” circumvents difficulties
related to gender attribution in archaeology and challenges timeless gender stereotypes. This chapter proposes such
an archaeological approach to gender by examining the charcoal assemblages from two Late Classic period Maya
archaeological sites in the upper Belize Valley of western Belize. These sites occupied distinct positions within a
complex political economic landscape, and their charcoal assemblages reflect heterogeneity in household production.
The type and the intensity of activities, including wood procurement and craft production, were socially contingent.
We propose that household activities and forms of knowledge were conditioned by the positions of households within
broader political economic landscapes, not conforming to the timeless social stereotypes imposed by archaeologists.
Keywords: maya archaeology, paleoethnobotany, political economy, knowledge, gender
onfronting the assumed universality of a gendered divi- Confounding the issue of a gendered division of labor,
C sion of labor has become one of the central goals of an
engendered archaeology (Conkey and Gero 1991; Conkey
many archaeological statements about gender are based on
ethnographic information, positioned within either an evolu-
and Spector 1984; Conkey and Tringham 1997; Pyburn tionary or a particularistic explanatory framework. Drawing
2004; Robin 2002a, 2006). Often positioned within the func- on ethnographic descriptions of the activities of men and
tional arguments of a social evolutionary framework, this women, archaeologists then attribute particular classes of
assumption maintains that certain activities are universally artifacts or archaeological features as within the domain of
and more efficiently associated with either males or females men or of women. On one level, such an approach can repro-
and that evolution affects gender in ways that are transhis- duce the often androcentric biases inherent in many ethno-
torically uniform and, hence, predictable according to a par- graphies that excluded both women and gender from ethno-
ticular evolutionary stage (i.e., Klein 2004). Yet, following graphic research design (Conkey and Spector 1984; Stahl
Conkey and Spector, “[a] division of labor between males 1993). On a more fundamental level, the uncritical and di-
and females should not be assumed but rather be considered rect application of ethnographic analogies to the archaeolog-
a problem or a feature of social structure to be explained” ical record potentially dehistoricizes social configurations in
(Conkey and Spector 1984:19). both the past and the present. When gender is presented as
ARCHEOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, Vol. 18, Issue 1, pp. 60–75, ISSN 1551-823X,
online ISSN 1551-8248.
C 2008 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-8248.2008.00005.x.
15518248, 2008, 1, Downloaded from https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1551-8248.2008.00005.x by Cochrane Mexico, Wiley Online Library on [07/03/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Late Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations 61
historically homogeneous, archaeologists promote a static Paleoethnobotany, Ethnographic Analogy,

vision of social relations, unintentionally reinforcing the and Gender
conclusion that understanding change and variability is not
a worthwhile endeavor. Little has been written on firewood and social relations,
Identifying these uncertainties and biases has led sev- particularly gender, in Maya prehistory. Maya archaeology’s
eral archaeologists to question the entire nature of archae- focus on “high culture” rarely includes plants. The belief that
ological research, from design to analysis to interpretation, organic remains do not preserve in the tropics has created a
as providing both a technology and a discourse of power gap filled in with observations from disparate ethnographic
(sensu Foucault 1980). While recognizing the significance sources. Such an approach perpetuates static models that
of this critique, the perspective taken here is based on the obscure historically contingent variability in the past and
position that there are historical and material realities that the present (Robin 2002a).
constrain the range of archaeological interpretation (Wylie The lack of concrete research into Maya wood utiliza-
1992) and that the problem with gender bias in archaeol- tion is surprising. Wood charcoal is one of the most abundant
ogy lies not with data but, rather, with the questions that archaeobotanical remains (Hastorf and Johannessen 1991;
archaeologists ask and the modes of inference that they then Johannessen and Hastorf 1990; Smart and Hoffman 1988).
construct (Brumfiel 1992, 1996:459). People burned a lot of wood in the past, every day, and for
This chapter examines social relations by viewing many different reasons. The need for domestic firewood has
household production in terms of a political economic bal- structured daily routines in many 20th-century Maya com-
ance of “give and take.” We present an alternative to un- munities in the Highlands and Lowlands, and household
critical, ahistorical gender attribution in archaeology that hearths commonly are kept lit throughout the day and night
challenges timeless stereotypes of a universal gendered di- (Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934; Vogt 1969; Wisdom 1940).
vision of labor. Productive activities are situated between The exploitation of wood and tree resources is also central to
broader political economic relationships and the internal models of ancient Maya environmental impact and societal
structure of households and communities. Within this ma- collapse (Abrams and Rue 1988; Abrams et al. 1996; Culbert
trix, individuals must balance the daily rounds necessary 1988; Hansen et al. 2002; Paine and Freter 1996; Rice
for social reproduction. Productive activities can be seen as 1993). Abrams and others have argued that overexploitation
connected to a political economy that differentiates people’s of hardwood and pine populations in the Copan Valley of
activities as well as the scale of their social networks, cre- western Honduras led to ecological degradation and, eventu-
ating a heterogeneous landscape of knowledge and practice ally, political fragmentation (Abrams and Rue 1988; Abrams
(Morehart 2006). The practices and systems of knowledge et al. 1996). They calculated that, regardless of the consump-
of household members vary not according to timeless gen- tion rates employed for analysis, the demand for domestic
der roles but according to the material reality of this nested fuelwood exceeded other wood demands by several hundred
landscape. We consider this model by examining wood ex- times. Although based on an experimental approach, this re-
ploitation practices, especially the use of firewood, by the search emphasizes the importance of firewood in household
Late Classic Maya. First, we examine how the ethnographic economies and stresses that the consumption of firewood
record has been used to create static pictures of gender, was connected systemically to macro-level sociopolitical
particularly how accounts of household activities and cos- processes.
mology have been used to support a gendered division of Archaeologists have confronted the paucity of archaeo-
labor. Analogy often is employed in a contradictory man- logical data on Maya wood utilization by drawing on ethnog-
ner that subverts variability and distorts historical realities. raphy. Relying on ethnographic literature, scholars have pro-
Our archaeological perspective is based on the charcoal as- posed women and girls collected firewood. For example,
semblages from two sites in western Belize, Pook’s Hill and Sharer’s Daily Life in Maya Civilization states, “We can as-
Chan Nòohol, which occupied distinct positions within the sume that in the past, as today, girls were trained to take
Late Classic milieu. By analyzing the distribution of wood on the traditional roles associated with wife and mother in
charcoal between these sites and articulating these data with the Maya family . . . they undoubtedly played an essential
other artifact assemblages, particularly weaving tools, we part in subsistence by collecting firewood, wild foods, and
attempt to situate household production within a histori- condiments” (Sharer 1996:120, emphases added). Yet vari-
cally flexible political economic landscape and, in the pro- ability in gender roles within and between commonly cited
cess, challenge static social stereotypes projected onto the ethnographic texts rarely is considered. Redfield and Villa
ancient Maya. Rojas’s (1934:66, 71) ethnography of the Yukatek Maya, a
62 Christopher T. Morehart and Christophe G. B. Helmke
mainstay in Maya analogy, records that women collected hunting, gathering medicinal plants, collecting fruits from
firewood when young boys aged six to seven were un- economically important trees, and collecting firewood.
available to perform this task. Wisdom’s ethnography of In other words, the wild and undomesticated space mod-
the Ch’orti’ states, “The men usually collect it individu- eled in cosmology would seem to have been also a useful
ally for their own kitchens” (Wisdom 1940:85–86, empha- space. But if this space was the realm of men, how were
sis added). During the late 20th century, many Lakantun women collecting the firewood? On one level, this apparent
(a.k.a. Lakandon) Maya women incorporated the collection contradiction is the product of equating cosmological and
of firewood into their many daily tasks (McGee 2002:56), ideological statements to the lived reality of social actors
but they often relied on their unmarried male children to col- (Morehart 2006). On another level, the contradiction sug-
lect firewood (Boremanse 1998:40). Furthermore, Lakantun gests an interpretive fuzziness—a chaos of disarticulated
firewood-collecting often is a joint, family task performed inferences and analogies that are not in dialogue with one
in tandem with agricultural activities and on the walk back another but rather are grounded in the assumption of univer-
from the field. Although these accounts associate firewood sal gender roles.
collecting with particular groups, the high degree of vari- Most approaches to analogy are markedly “continuity-
ability is clear. centric” in that they seek to make explicit conditions of en-
Scholars likewise have employed cosmology to rein- during continuity between ethnographic and archaeological
force these more economic assessments of a gendered divi- cases. The “direct historical approach” (Gould and Watson
sion of labor. A binary division of the world into a domesti- 1982), common in Maya archaeology, maintains that we can
cated, ordered, social space versus an undomesticated, wild, compare the ancient Maya to the modern Maya because they
dangerous space constitutes a cosmological model discussed are “Maya.”1 Archaeological and ethnographic cases be-
in several contemporary Maya ethnographies. This model come homogenized in terms of one another, and archaeolog-
also appears in ethnohistoric texts, and it seems to have cor- ical narratives are linked by a concern with the “traditional”
relates observable in the iconographic corpus of the Classic over the “modern” (Stahl 1993:243). When stemming from
and the Postclassic Maya. Archaeological applications of an unquestioned acceptance of the assumedly invariant
this cosmology often have confined past Maya women to the ethnographic record, such “continuity-centric” approaches
domesticated realm, arguing the undomesticated, dangerous lack the historical imagination necessary to adequately ex-
realm could only be navigated by men (e.g., Stone 1995; plain or to contextualize variability. The tyrannical legacy
Taube 2003). Although this claim is parallel to assumptions (Conkey and Spector 1984:13; Robin 2002a:13; cf. Wobst
that segregate men’s and women’s worlds into public versus 1978) of this approach has influenced reconstructions of
private spaces, this conclusion evades a more fundamental almost all aspects of Maya society, including agricultural
and historical contradiction relevant to this chapter. systems, iconography, ritual, politics, and gender.
As the Spanish began to reorganize the social, political, One can examine particular configurations past and
and economic worlds of the Maya following the conquest, present without making a blanket claim of continuity. Fur-
they began to record data on Maya landholdings and tenure thermore, archaeologists cannot ignore certain aspects of
(Restall 1997). Employing a European model of agricul- the ethnographic record that they feel are “modern” and,
tural practices, they separated Maya land into that of field, consequently, irrelevant; as Talal Asad observes, “much of
known in Yukatek as kool (“milpa” or “sementera”), and that what appears ancient . . . is itself recently invented” (Asad
of forest, k’áax (“bosque” or “selva”) (Bastarrachea et al. 1991:316). The ethnographic record is not a stagnant data
1992; McAnany 1995). Their basic assumption was that land set to be drawn upon selectively. Archaeologists can view
not in agricultural production was unused forest. Although the ethnographic record critically without disposing of its
classifying k’áax into unused land certainly had implications potential for elucidating the past. A critical utilization of
for restructuring and appropriating indigenous landholdings, the ethnographic record is one that frames ethnographic and
their assumption was fundamentally flawed. This is a clear archaeological comparisons within historically situated po-
example of the often vast misunderstandings of colonial litical and economic contexts. Such an approach flips com-
officials—the “uneasy relationship between knowledge and monly held notions of continuity on their heads by articu-
power” (Dirks 1992:176). Rather than unused, unproductive lating the past with the present as an ongoing and unfolding
land, k’áax was a highly productive source of economic re- historical process. The present is continuous with the past
sources (McAnany 1995). Better viewed as either managed not through a compartmentalized vision of the survival of
forests or managed fallows (Gómez-Pompa and Kaus 1990; “traditional” cultural forms but, instead, as a real, material
Peters 2000), k’áax was one of the principal locations for consequence of History.
Figure 5.1. Map of the upper Belize Valley showing sites discussed in the text.
Case Examples: Pook’s Hill and Chan Nòohol context (Helmke 2001, 2003, 2006a, 2006b; Helmke et al.
2003; Robin 1999, 2002a, 2002b, 2004) (Figure 5.1).
This study contrasts wood use by people who occu- Pook’s Hill is a medium-sized plazuela group located
pied different socioeconomic and political positions in the in the karstic foothills that form the western perimeter of the
Maya area. Two major factors influenced the selection of Roaring Creek Valley, overlooking a fertile alluvial valley
sites for this study. The most pragmatic consideration in- below (Figures 5.1). Pook’s Hill lies 4.7 kilometers north of
volved the availability of data. Collecting archaeobotanical the major center Cahal Uitz Na and one kilometer north-
data still is not a standard component of excavation strategies west of the minor center of Chaac Mool Ha. Cahal Uitz Na
at Maya sites, though research has shown that systematic ar- appears to have served as the capital of the local polity dur-
chaeobotanical sampling can yield considerable social, eco- ing the Classic period (Awe et al. 1998). Chaac Mool Ha
nomic, and ecological information (e.g., Lentz 1991, 1999; was the principal northern satellite to Cahal Uitz Na, similar
McKillop 1994; Miksicek 1991; Morehart 2002, 2003; to other satellites in the greater Belize Valley (Driver and
Morehart, Wyatt, and Lentz 2004). The second consideration Garber 2004). Pook’s Hill likely was incorporated into the
focused on selecting settlements that represented distinctly Cahal Uitz Na polity through Chaac Mool Ha, possibly via
different types of habitations in scale and size. The sites tributary networks.
of Pook’s Hill and Chan Nòohol met these requirements. Investigations at Pook’s Hill have focused on the site’s
First, researchers at both sites systematically collected ar- terminal occupation, which dates to the Late to Terminal
chaeobotanical remains during excavations. Second, Pook’s Classic period (ca. 830–950 C.E.) (Helmke 2001, 2003,
Hill is an affluent plazuela group, while Chan Nòohol is a 2006a, 2006b; Helmke et al. 2003; Morehart 2001). Pri-
cluster of seven commoner farmsteads. Moreover, both sites mary contexts date back to at least the Middle Classic (ca.
are located in the greater upper Belize River watershed of 550 C.E.). On the other hand, the earliest ceramic speci-
western Belize, providing a somewhat similar environmental mens from secondary contexts can be attributed to the Late
Figure 5.2. Plan map of the plazuela group, Pook’s Hill.
Formative (ca. 300–100 B.C.E.), while the latest belong to the largest concentration of funerary and votive deposits at
Early Postclassic complexes (later than ca. 950 C.E.). The the site was found in association with this eastern shrine.
site is comprised of the remains of nine masonry building Evidence of ritual feasting was associated with the western
platforms enclosing a central plaza (Figure 5.2). The archi- range building, which Helmke (2001) has interpreted as a
tectural group as a whole encompasses an area of approx- possible part-time “feasting hall.” The site’s residents also
imately 1,106 square meters of which the plaza occupies maintained access to minor quantities of exotic goods (i.e.,
just over 430 square meters. The largest building measures jadeite, marine shell, obsidian, and pyrite). Pook’s Hill’s rel-
16.5 meters long and is over 2.5 meters high above the plaza ative affluence may indicate strategic flexibility based on the
surface. The smallest structure measures 7.1 meters long mobilization of social, political, and economic ties.
and is approximately 0.8 meters high. Chan Nòohol is located along the limestone uplands
Most of Pook’s Hill’s structures are rectangular in plan in the interfluvial zone between the Mopan and Macal
and can be categorized as “range structures” (long, linear, rivers, the two principal branches of the Belize River
masonry structures delimiting an open patio or plaza). A (Figure 5.1). The site contrasts with Pook’s Hill in several
dome-vaulted sweatbath or pib’naah has been identified ways (Figure 5.3). Whereas Pook’s Hill consists of a single
at the northwest corner of the plazuela (Helmke and Awe affluent plazuela group, perhaps a community node itself,
2005), and an ancestor shrine structure is located on the Chan Nòohol is a cluster of seven commoner farmsteads
eastern side (Helmke 2003). The group conforms to the so- and was part of a larger farming community, Chan, during
called Plaza Plan 2 configuration defined at Tikal by Becker the Late Classic period (Ashmore et al. 2004; Robin 1999,
(1971, 1999:139–147) based on the presence of the ances- 2002a, 2002b, 2004). The site is four kilometers southeast of
tor shrine defining the eastern perimeter. As is common, the civic center of Xunantunich, which was the polity capital
Figure 5.3. Plan map of Chan Nòohol. Redrawn from Robin 1999:Figure 17.
of the area during the Late Classic period. Although the pole-and-thatch buildings on low rubble platforms between
farming community of Chan has an occupational history that 0.1 and 1.1 meters high. The interior of most residences was
spans from the Middle Preclassic to Early Postclassic peri- taken up by a low bench for seating or sleeping. The labor
ods (ca. 1000/800 B.C.E.–1150/1200 C.E.), the Chan Nòohol necessary to build these structures easily could have been
farmsteads included in this study date to the late facet of accommodated by an individual family. Most daily activ-
the Late Classic period (ca. 660–780 C.E.). Moreover, the ities occurred either in outdoor spaces or in the ancillary
establishment of the Chan Nòohol households corresponds structures. Chan Nòohol, thus, is marked by an open organi-
to the Chan community’s maximum settlement expansion zation of space, which may have shaped social behavior by
and to the community’s incorporation into the Xunantunich promoting more complementary and egalitarian interactions
polity. among residents (Robin 2002b).
The spatial organization of Chan Nòohol’s architecture Artifactual data from Chan Nòohol’s farmsteads sug-
is notably distinct from that of Pook’s Hill (Figure 5.3). gest a focus on productive practices geared toward local con-
Chan Nòohol’s seven farmsteads (CN1–CN7 in Figure 5.3) sumption and household reproduction (Robin 1999, 2002a,
were spaced between 50 and 100 meters apart. Each farm- 2002b, 2004, 2006). Members of each farmstead undertook
stead was composed of one or two main residential struc- common domestic and agricultural tasks. With the excep-
tures and in many cases ancillary structures surrounded by tion of prismatic obsidian blades, granite grinding stones,
work areas and agricultural terraces. In contrast to Pook’s slate artifacts, and two greenstone artifacts recovered from
Hill, Chan Nòohol’s structures were constructed as small two households (CN5 and CN7), the majority of artifacts
were made of resources available locally. High numbers of

artifacts and activity areas associated with agricultural pro-
duction and food processing suggest these were the principal
economic activities at Chan Nòohol. Given the lack of ev-
idence for other forms of specialization, residents at Chan
Nòohol seem to have been tied into the Xunantunich politi-
cal economy through their labor and agricultural production.
The relatively short occupational depth of the farmsteads,
their very modest size and composition, and their localized
economic orientation suggest the farmers had limited access
to certain resources and sociopolitical ties. Nevertheless, de-
spite the site’s lower economic standing, archaeological re-
search has uncovered evidence of community-based rituals
and feasting (Robin 1999:264, 2002b:259–260).
Paleoethnobotanical investigations were undertaken at Figure 5.4. Scanning electron micrograph of pine (Pinus sp.)
both Pook’s Hill and Chan Nòohol in order to better un- charcoal from Pook’s Hill in cross-section.
derstand human–plant interactions at the sites (Lentz et al.
2005; Morehart 2001; Robin 1999). A total of 69 archaeob- and little pine. Pine can be distinguished from hardwoods
otanical samples have been analyzed from Pook’s Hill to date by the lack of vessel elements (cellular structures that con-
(Morehart 2001). Samples were collected for water-assisted duct water and solutes) and the presence of resin ducts in
flotation from several contexts, including middens, burials, the wood. Moreover, pine can be identified easily from sites
caches, floor deposits, and architectural fill and collapse. Ar- in the Maya Lowlands as it is the only gymnosperm indige-
chaeobotanical remains from Pook’s Hill indicate residents nous to the area (see Balick et al. 2000). Eighty-eight per-
relied on multiple domesticated plants, such as maize (Zea cent of all samples from Pook’s Hill contained pine charcoal,
mays), squash (Cucurbita sp.), and chile peppers (Capsicum whereas 25 percent contained hardwood taxa and three per-
annuum). The remains of fruits from economically useful cent contained charred palm (Figure 5.5a). This disparity is
trees, such as hog plum (Spondias sp.), calabash (Crescentia even more observable when one compares charcoal weights,
cujete), coyol palm (Acrocomia aculeata), avocado (Persea though weight measurements may be less reliable due to dif-
sp.), and chico sapote (Manilkara sp.), may suggest that the ferential preservation between samples. Ninety-six percent
site’s inhabitants maintained orchards (Morehart 2001). of Pook’s Hill’s total charcoal weight is pine, versus four
Paleoethnobotanical efforts at Chan Nòohol focused on percent of hardwood and 0.2 percent of palm (Figure 5.5b).
collecting macrofloral remains and soil samples for flota- Samples from burials, caches, middens, floors, and archi-
tion during the course of excavations (Robin 1999:546). tectural collapse all contained substantially more pine than
Seventy-one samples were taken predominantly from house- hardwood charcoal. This widespread contextual distribution
hold refuse deposits and from agricultural terraces. Like of pine at Pook’s Hill suggests that pine was being used for
those from Pook’s Hill, archaeobotanical samples from Chan a variety of tasks, from construction activities to firewood to
Nòohol contained a variety of remains from domesticated ritual.
cultigens and fruit trees (Robin 1999:296–305). The dis- Almost the exact opposite distribution of wood char-
tribution of maize at Chan Nòohol provides tentative ev- coal characterizes Chan Nòohol (Figure 5.6a, b). Ninety-
idence that farmers processed maize in their fields (Robin four percent of archaeobotanical samples from Chan Nòohol
1999:296, 2006); remains of maize glumes were found in ter- contained hardwood charcoal. Only 2.8 percent of Chan
race excavations, but none were located in domestic refuse Nòohol’s samples yielded pine. Weight measurements of
deposits. Similarly, no maize glumes were found at Pook’s wood charcoal from Chan Nòohol reinforce this pattern.
Hill (Morehart 2001), which may suggest an initial stage Less than one percent (>0.01 grams) of Chan Nòohol’s to-
of maize processing occurred prior to transport, particularly tal charcoal weight is pine, whereas almost 100 percent is
the removal of kernels from the cob. from hardwoods. Clearly, the farmers at Chan Nòohol were
Despite these similarities, the distribution of wood char- burning very little pine.
coal between the sites differs. Based on charcoal from flota- The distinction in wood charcoal between the two sites
tion samples, the residents of Pook’s Hill were burning pine may be related partially to the environment. Two species of
(Pinus sp.) almost exclusively (Figure 5.4). The residents of pine exist in the Maya Lowlands and in Belize specifically
Chan Nòohol, in contrast, were burning mostly hardwoods (Balick et al. 2000; Farjon and Styles 1997; Mirov 1967;
Figure 5.5. Distribution of hardwood and pine charcoal at Pook’s Hill by ubiquity (a) and
weight (b).
Morehart et al. 2005; Standley and Steyermark 1958: environment surrounding Pook’s Hill and Chan Nòohol; both
46–51): Pinus caribaea Morelet and P. oocarpa Schiede. can be classified as nonlocal resources.
P. caribaea is by far the more common and characterizes Access to pine was not simply an ecological concern
the swampy savanna lands of northern, central, and south- but likely was mediated by the political economy (Lentz
ern Belize and certain areas of Petén, Guatemala, and the et al. 2005; Morehart 2002:261–264; see Hastorf and Jo-
Mountain Pine Ridge of western Belize. P. oocarpa prin- hannessen 1991 for a similar Andean example). Pine was
cipally inhabits higher elevations, including Mesoamerican a valued item throughout the Lowlands, serving both util-
Highland regions, with a less common distribution in Be- itarian and ritual purposes, though it is locally scarce in
lize. The Mountain Pine Ridge, located along the northern many regions (Lentz 1999; Lentz et al. 2005; Morehart
fringe of the Maya Mountains and north of both Pook’s 2002; Morehart et al. 2005; Thompson 1970:146). In the
Hill and Chan Nòohol, has populations of both P. carib- Roaring Creek Valley, the political center Cahal Uitz Na
aea and P. oocarpa.2 Nevertheless, neither species inhab- may have had developed centralized control over pine and
its the semideciduous, subtropical forests in the immediate other resources from the Maya Mountains (e.g., slate and
Figure 5.6. Distribution of hardwood and pine charcoal at Chan Nòohol by ubiquity (a)
and weight (b).
granite). No archaeobotanical data are available from Cahal household labor. The residents of Chan Nòohol had to in-
Uitz Na itself. But samples from Actun Nak Beh, a cave tegrate the collection of wood for their daily needs as part
connected to Cahal Uitz Na by a causeway, overwhelmingly of recurring daily practices, and wood collection potentially
contained pine (Morehart 2002; Morehart et al. 2005). In involved the entire family—men, women, boys, girls.
this context, the abundant pine charcoal from Pook’s Hill The impact of collecting wood on the allocation of
may indicate political and economic relationships between household labor is of particular interest when one exam-
the two sites. In contrast, the residents of Chan Nòohol, a site ines the evidence for other economic activities. Consider
with fewer political ties, likely had less access to pine and an activity long stereotyped as essential to Maya wom-
instead used a range of locally available trees for their wood anhood: weaving. Spindle whorls were recovered at both
needs. That some households procured their own wood sup- Pook’s Hill and Chan Nòohol, but as in the case of wood
plies from the local environment (i.e., Chan Nòohol) while charcoal, the sites differ (Figure 5.7). At Chan Nòohol a to-
other households obtained it through trade, gifts, or tribute tal of eight spindle whorls were found among the site’s seven
(i.e., Pook’s Hill) would have affected the organization of farmsteads (Robin 1999:272). This low number in relation
(attested epigraphically as puutz’ b’aak, “needle bones”),

often bearing the names and titles of their original owners.
Such inscribed needles are known from Altun Ha, Tikal,
and Naranjo, where they record the royal names of men and
women of the court (see Houston and Stuart 2001:64–65;
Trik 1963:10–18). Since needles have been found inscribed
with both male and female names, one cannot make an im-
mediate leap to gender attribution.
Pook’s Hill’s weavers possibly were producing cloth be-
yond the household level to participate in the political econ-
omy via tribute or gifting (Beaudry-Corbett and McCafferty
2002; Brumfiel 1991; Hendon 1997; Inomata 2001) or the
production of ritual offerings (Morehart, Awe, et al. 2004).
In contrast to Chan Nòohol, individuals at Pook’s Hill were
able to reinvest their time into weaving rather than collect-
ing firewood or engaging in other agroforestry practices.
The presence of such a diversity of weaving implements
may indicate technological diversification in this elite craft
(Brumfiel 2006).
Conclusions and Future Implications

Although no simple solution, thinking about wood use
provides a window into complicating notions of gender.
Wood procurement and consumption was part of every
household’s activities, elite and commoner. But the mech-
anisms of wood acquisition depended on how household
labor was invested in broader processes (Hastorf and Johan-
nessen 1991). The human ecology perspective on household
dynamics (i.e., Netting 1993; Wilk 1983, 1997) would seem
to contain the recipe for breaking down essentialist notions
of gender: if households are adaptive units, they must adapt.
Inflexible production, whether attributed to stagnant sub-
sistence strategies or to gender, would be maladaptive. In
Figure 5.7. Sample of spindle whorls from Pook’s Hill (a–o; drawn this regard, it is surprising that ecological perspectives on
by Helmke) and Chan Nòohol (p–r; drawn by Robin 1999): (a–h)
limestone spindle whorls; (i–l) ceramic spindle whorls and reused,
the past that developed within processual archaeology failed
centrally perforated sherds; (m) slate spindle whorl preform; to break apart the “black box” of the household and avoid
(n–o) slate pebble spindle whorls; (p) ceramic spindle whorl; (q–r) gender stereotypes.
limestone spindle whorls. The issue is not whether women, men, boys, or girls col-
lected firewood or performed any task exclusively. Rather,
productive labor is situated in variable political economic
to households suggests that weavers were producing cloth contingencies (Pyburn 2004). The manner in which these
for local consumption only. The less time spent on activi- households were articulated to larger networks of politi-
ties such as weaving enabled productive diversification. At cal and economic power influenced the tasks that house-
Pook’s Hill eight limestone spindle whorls, one modeled and hold members did or did not perform. In this historical
incised ceramic spindle whorl, 20 perforated ceramic disks context, members of commoner households whose primary
(both complete and fragmentary) that may have been used labor for regional political economies was through agricul-
to spin cotton, a charred fragment of a bone sewing needle, tural production and periodic labor projects differed from
and the remains of at least two additional bone weaving nee- members of elite houses who participated in political eco-
dles were found (see Stanchly 2006). These weaving needles nomic networks via the production of prestige goods such as
are similar to other inscribed needles found at Maya sites textiles.
Figure 5.8. Schematic representation of the relationship between wood utilization and the
complexity of knowledge.
Forms of activities and the knowledge derived from not a monolithic and normative entity. Social relationships,
them are part of a broader political economic balance of productive practices, and systems of knowledge are consti-
give and take. Although weaving may have been a source of tuted by one’s position in a historically contingent political
cultural capital for elite houses (Inomata 2001), farming and economy (Morehart 2006).
agroforestry constituted a complex repertoire of knowledge Recognizing the contingency of ecological knowledge
that many elites, male and female, young and old, may have and practice reinforces and promotes a social view of the
lacked. As elites organized their daily rounds on productive past (Hastorf and Johannessen 1991). Archaeological study
activities that reproduced long-distance social, political, and of the micro-variability in commoner agro-technologies has
economic networks, they invested proportionately less time been growing (e.g., Dunning 1996, 2004; Fedick 1996). But
in practices that enhanced knowledge of the local environ- the vast majority of studies on knowledge remain centered
mental milieu, such as collecting wood (Morehart 2006). on elite esoterica and ritual life, topics that are consumed
Figure 5.8 presents a schematic model of the rela- easily by the media and popular audiences. By dehomoge-
tionship between access to woods and access to ecological nizing the past and embedding knowledge in historically ma-
knowledge. With more use of locally available hardwoods terial social realities, archaeologists can address enduring,
at Chan Nòohol and with a focus on agricultural activi- romanticized stereotypes of the Maya, both men and women,
ties, residents potentially would have had wider and more such as Ix Chel, the Maya goddess of weaving, medicine,
complex forms of locally based knowledge. With more use and childbirth—the essential Maya woman—or the time-
of pine at Pook’s Hill and a greater investment in prestige less maize farmer and native ecologist—the essential Maya
good production, residents may have had greater access to man (see Ardren 2006; Klein 1988). A paleoethnobotan-
and knowledge of more distant social and political relation- ical approach that examines variation in a seemingly in-
ships (cf. Helms 1998), but their locally based ecological significant form of data—wood charcoal—complicates such
knowledge may have been more restricted and less com- stereotypes and may provide an innovative entry into under-
plex. More taxonomically specific identifications of wood standing heterogeneity not only in social relationships, such
species at both sites will be needed to develop this model as gender, but also in the systems of knowledge that per-
more fully. Nevertheless, the major point is that knowledge is vaded such relationships during the Maya past.
Notes Awe, Jaime J., Christophe G. B. Helmke, and Cameron

Griffith
1. It should be noted that the label of “Maya” itself 1998 Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Roar-
has been imposed upon modern and, by extension, ancient ing Creek Valley: Caves, Rockshelters, and
speakers of “Mayan” languages. With the exception of the Settlements. In The Western Belize Regional Cave
Yukatek, who term their language Maya’t’aan (from which Project: A Report of the 1997 Field Season. J. J.
the term Maya derives), no evidence exists that other lin- Awe, ed. Pp. 223–244. Occasional Paper Series
guistic or ethnic groups placed under the heading of “Maya” No. 1, Department of Anthropology. Durham:
originally recognized this classification. Department of Anthropology, University of New
2. Attempts to make species-level identifications of Hampshire.
pine charcoal specimens by comparing archaeological and
modern materials in transverse, tangential, and longitudinal Balick, Michael J., Michael N. Nee, and Daniel E. Atha
sections were unsuccessful given the fragmentary nature of 2000 Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Belize
the archaeobotanical material. with Common Names and Uses. New York: New
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15518248, 2008, 1, Downloaded from https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1551-8248.2008.00005.x by Cochrane Mexico, Wiley Online Library on [07/03/2023].

historically homogeneous, archaeologists promote a static Paleoethnobotany, Ethnographic Analogy,

Figure 5.2. Plan map of the plazuela group, Pook’s Hill.

were made of resources available locally. High numbers of

(attested epigraphically as puutz’ b’aak, “needle bones”),

Conclusions and Future Implications

Notes Awe, Jaime J., Christophe G. B. Helmke, and Cameron

References Bastarrachea, Juan R., Ermilio Yah Pech, and Fidencio

Abrams, Elliot M., and David G. Rue Becker, Marshall J.

Tradition in the Central Maya Lowlands. Klein, Cecelia F.

Helms, Mary W. McAnany, Patricia A.

Johannessen, Sissel, and Christine A. Hastorf Morehart, Christopher T.

Report of the 2000 Field Season. R. Ishihara, C. Peters, Charles M.

Sharer, Robert Interface. A. Gomez-Pompa, M. Allen, S. Fedick,

Smart, Tristine L., and Ellen S. Hoffman Thompson, J. Eric S.

Stahl, Ann B. Vogt, Evon Z.

Stanchly, Norbert Wilk, Richard R.

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