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Persistent Identifier
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doi:10.60507/FK2/26GMYD |
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Publication Date
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2026-02-27 |
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Title
| Digital supplementary materials of the project "Asymmetrical Dependency and Resource Control Among the Classic Maya of the Southern Lowlands" |
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Author
| Graf, Paul (University of Bonn) - ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6790-0607 |
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Contact
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Use email button above to contact.
Graf, Paul (University of Bonn) |
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Description
| Premodern societies in tropical environments lived under extreme conditions that influenced their social structure. In the Classic Maya society in the Southern Maya Lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula, human–environment interactions contributed to the emergence of strong inequalities between different social groups. But in which way were these groups entangled with each other? This project was developed in the context of a PhD dissertation (Graf 2026) and includes different types of data. The research project explored different forms of asymmetrical dependency among the Classic Maya. It considered distinct individual actors and social roles (captives, servants, dwarfs), and intergroup relationships between households and neighborhoods. The latter was studied by examining the role of essential resources, i.e., tangible and intangible things that are considered vital or morally necessary for individuals in their social environment. The goal consisted of identifying unbalanced power relations based on the control of essential resources and revealing the social mechanisms that legitimated these asymmetrical relationships in society. The project pursued a multidisciplinary methodology consisting of different approaches from environmental archaeology, digital archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, ethnohistory and linguistics. Archaeological fieldwork was conducted in the western periphery of Tzikin Tzakan and southwest Tamarindito in the Petén region of Guatemala. Remote-sensing and ground-truthing techniques were used to create a representative sample of resource zones, residential areas, infrastructure, and certain landscape features. This data was processed in a geographic information system in order to study interaction spheres and draw their spatial connection using Least Cost Path and other analyses. Apart from the archaeological case study, forms of asymmetrical dependency in the Classic Maya society were reconstructed by conducting a lexical analysis of emic terms in different Mayan languages (emic = from an intracultural view). It was concluded that various forms of asymmetrical dependency existed in the Classic Maya society, including captive-taking, patronage, servitude and exploitation for tribute and corvée labor. Furthermore, it was pointed out that fictional kinship relations and moral values, including the moral aspect of resources, played a crucial role in legitimizing these asymmetrical relationships. |
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Subject
| Arts and Humanities |
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Subject Refinement
| Ancient Cultures: Prehistory and World Archaeology [101-01]
Geophysics and Geodesy: Geophysics [315-01]
Geophysics and Geodesy: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography [315-02]
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology [106-01]
Plant Sciences: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems [202-02] |
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FreeKeyword
| Asymmetrical Dependency
Archaeology
Classic Maya
Southern Lowlands
Tzikin Tzakan
Tamarindito
Guatemala
Geophysics
Essential resources
Ethnohistory
Ethnobotany
Spatial analysis |
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Related Publication
| IsCitedBy: Graf, Paul. 2026. Asymmetrical Dependency and Resource Control Among the Classic Maya of the Southern Lowlands: The Social Impact of Resource-Based Dependency Relationships in Premodern Societies. PhD dissertation. De Gruyter, Berlin, forthcoming. |
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Notes
| The digital supplementary material includes multiple datasets from different aspects of the project. On the one hand, they include reviews in tabular form on theories (geopolitical models for the Classic Maya, Suppl.-1) and methods (geophysical applications in the Latin America and the Caribbean, Suppl.-2). On the other, archaeological and technical data is provided, including the excavation database (Suppl.-4), material analyses (Suppl.-6 and 7), postprocessing scripts and documents (Suppl.-3, 5 and 11), and multiperspective approaches on resource preferences and dietary behaviors, as well as ethnographic and corpus-linguistical data (Suppl.-8, 9, 10 and 12). |
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Language
| English; Spanish, Castilian |
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Production Place
| Archaeological site Tzikin Tzakan, Petén, Guatemala, WGS84 17.032379 -89.242951 |
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Contributor
| Researcher : Benz, Annkatrin
Researcher : Schwendener, Omar
Supervisor : Grube, Nikolai
Supervisor : Eberl, Markus
Researcher : León Antillón, Mónica de
Researcher : Arenales, Grecia
Researcher : Elías, Silvia
Researcher : Botzet, Marie
Data Collector : Fajardo, Ivannoe
Data Collector : Vela, Marie
Data Collector : Estrada, Rebecca
Data Collector : Quiñonez, Kimberly
Data Collector : Morgan, Hannah
Data Collector : Dávila, Melvin
Data Collector : Wyatt, Andrew
Data Collector : Lima Albeño, Elián
Data Collector : Bac Pac, Julián
Data Collector : Juárez Sandoval, Edwin
Data Collector : Donis Gómez, Francisco
Data Collector : Donis Portillo, Marvin
Data Collector : Osorio Pineda, Wendy
Data Collector : Chiquin Díaz, Ezequias
Data Collector : López, Vilda
Data Collector : Leonel, Hugo
Data Collector : Bac Xitumul, Mynor
Data Collector : Chó Coc, Santiago |
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Grant Information
| EXC 2036, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) |
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Depositor
| Graf, Paul |
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Deposit Date
| 2026-02-23 |
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Time Period Covered
| Start Date: 800 BCE ; End Date: 2025 |
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Date of Collection
| Start Date: 2019-10-01 ; End Date: 2024-10-20 |
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Kind of Data
| textual data; coded documents; survey data; aggregate data; process-produced data |
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Software
| R, Version: 4.0 to 4.4
QGIS, Version: 3.40.10 (LTR)
SAGA, Version: 8.4.0
GRASS GIS, Version: 8.4.1
Agisoft Metashape Professional, Version: 1.7.4 |
