It has been suggested that the Postclassic Maya may have been “pragmatic mercantilists” (Sabloff and Rathje 1975a: 79) with an ascending merchant class who perfected masonry false-fronts on buildings, employed mass-production methods in pottery production, and conducted extensive long-distance trade. The Late Postclassic Maya also have been projected as being more cosmopolitan in their external ties; this is particularly visible in their somewhat more uniform art styles (Robertson 1970). Evidence for an extremely wide distribution of similar or identical material remains—including ceramics (Plumbate: Shepard 1948), lithics (tanged points: Rovner 1975), art (Mixteca-Puebla: Nicholson 1960), and architectural styles (plaza plans: Rice 1986; Rice and Rice 1985; Tourtellot, Sabloff, and Carmean 1992)—in and following the Terminal Classic, ethnohistoric descriptions of traders (Roys 1957; Sabloff 1977), and comparisons to the dendritic Aztec economic system (Hassig 1985; Santley 1994) have all led to suggestions that both upward mobility and a cosmopolitan outlook were made possible among the Postclassic Maya by an increased emphasis on trade.
Cozumel may have had a focus on trade that was more pronounced than anything that existed in the Classic period (Freidel and Sabloff 1984; Sabloff and Rathje 1975a, 1975b). Yet it is clear that the Maya had a long history of involvement in trade. Studies indicate that even the Preclassic Maya were active traders (Cobos 1994; Hammond 1976; Sidrys 1976). Stackable vessels and standardized vessel forms, thought to be indicative of mass production during the Postclassic era (Sabloff and Rathje 1975a), also can be considered as a hallmark of the Late Preclassic (labial flanged bowls) and Late Classic (ring-based plates) Maya lowlands. Throughout the lowlands during the Early Classic period, contact was maintained and trade goods obtained from distant areas such as the Guatemalan and Mexican highlands (Ball 1974a, 1983b; Coe 1967; Pendergast 1970b). Thus, the Postclassic era is not the only Maya time-span that may have focused on trade and mass production.
Arguments about trade and economics are integral to considerations of Me-soamerican social complexity. Sanders (1992: 291) has noted that “only within a large mercantile class and its related economic elements, the tlameme and elite craft specialists who processed the raw products brought by the merchants, could a significant, well-defined middle class emerge in setting as energetically and technologically limited as Prehispanic Mesoamerica.” Research at large Maya sites like Caracol (A. Chase 1992; A. Chase and D. Chase 1987a, 1996c; D. Chase and A. Chase 1994), Dzibilchaltun (Kuijack 1974; Andrews IV and Andrews V 1980), and Tikal (Haviland and Moholy-Nagy 1992) have produced archaeological data suggesting that such a level of institutional complexity was, in fact, met during the Late Classic era.
Various archaeological data indicate the growth of a middle social level beginning minimally in the early part of the Late Classic period. Investigations at Caracol, Belize, indicate that most residential groups were engaged in the manufacture of items for trade. These same data demonstrate that material well-being and upward mobility were widespread during the Late Classic period (A. Chase 1992; Chase and Chase 1996b). Tombs, polychrome pottery, marine shell, jadeite, and other ritual items were found throughout the excavations at Caracol (D. Chase 1988; A. and D. Chase 1994b, 1996d; D. Chase and A. Chase 1996). Dental inlays, sometimes thought to be indicative of status (Krecji and Culbert 1995), are also relatively widespread (D. Chase 1994: 131-132). Even hieroglyphic texts— at least the portable ones—were apparently shared by non-elite individuals; in fact, portable artifacts with hieroglyphic texts have been found largely in non-elite contexts at Caracol. The widespread distribution of all these items is indicative of a highly integrated economic system at Caracol.
Sabloff and Rathje (1975b: 19-20) argued that effective internal communication combined with a homogenized artifactual assemblage and a centralized bureaucracy characterized Cozumel Island as a trading center during the Postclassic era. In actuality, what they defined is consistent with an administered economic system (e. g., C. Smith 1974, 1976b) where distribution is controlled by a central elite or bureaucracy. It is also consistent with archaeological data from Caracol that have been used to argue for an administered economic system (A. Chase 1998). Caracol’s radiating causeways not only served as passage routes for the site’s population, but also, in conjunction with the causeway termini, as a framework for distributing goods throughout the city (A. Chase and D. Chase 1996a, 1996c). Thus, the emergence of internally complex economic institutions and of a middle socioeconomic level, once argued to mark only Postclassic society, as typified by the Aztec (Sanders 1992), appears to have occurred among the Late Classic Maya and is another indication of cultural continuity between the Classic and Postclassic periods. Regardless of whether the discussion revolves around trade, mass production, status levels, economic systems, or upward mobility, antecedents to Late Postclassic Maya patterns may be discerned in the earlier Classic period.
UNKING THE CLASSIC AND POSTCLASSIC
Viewing the Terminal Classic-period Maya from multiple perspectives and with a concern for hermeneutics helps make understandable heretofore undiscernible or controversial areas of Maya culture. Moreover, such analyses help make the Postclassic Maya appear substantially less unique and the “collapse” even less uniform.
The Postclassic Maya maintained some aspects of Classicism and modified others. The texts on Classic stelae and altars recorded predominantly political activity, neglecting other aspects of culture and history. Yet the extant Postclassic Maya codices indicate that Classic-era writing must have been used to record a much wider range of more practical information. None of the known Maya codices bear close resemblance to Classic monuments, as none record dynastic history. However (and contrary to popular belief). Long Count notation continued long after the ninth century in the lowlands (Tedlock 1992: 247-248). The very striking examples of Postclassic art—innovative work that stressed different media than those generally favored in earlier eras—indicate that a vibrant culture still existed (D. Chase 1981; Pendergast 1986a). Postclassic Maya religion continued to have both pan-Maya symbolism and household distribution of ritual items (seen in the Classic period). Widespread Postclassic caching practices (D. and A. Chase 1998) can be seen as an attempt to involve more people in the detailed aspects of religious activity and have Late Classic precursors. In general, trends begun in the Late Classic period continued with greater emphasis in the Postclassic; mass-production techniques were used (especially with regard to ceramics) and internally complex economic institutions were established. Upward mobility was also apparently an option in the Classic era and is not restricted solely to the Postclassic.
All this is not to deny that discontinuities existed between the Classic and Postclassic eras. Populations moved away from many of the old cities to areas where important resources—especially water—were more readily available. Residential groups became less visible and were seemingly not as evenly dispersed over the landscape as were their Classic counterparts; rather, Postclassic house groups were densely “clustered” into what appear to be numerous small towns. Architectural constructions also involved less intensive building techniques in combination with exterior adornment of building facades in more perishable plaster and paint, building modes (with origins much earlier in the Classic period) that were certainly not inappropriate for an established society (see also Andrews 1993: 58-59).
Situating Terminal Classic events and activities within a continuous, rather than disjunctive, frame of reference sheds additional light on the Classic to Postclassic transition. Information pertaining to eighth - and ninth-century events in the Maya lowlands is suggestive of factors that were important to the Maya of the Terminal Classic. Many sites do show evidence of both increased warfare and alliances (A. Chase 1985b; D. and A. Chase 1992). Stone monuments portray warriors, exhibit captives, and tell of battles as well as of alliances (Gmbe 1994a). Like the late monuments, molded-carved pottery also shows both bound captives and scenes of alliance. Terminal Classic murals depict warriors and battles. Some lowland sites show evidence of fortification. Although there may have been rapid abandonment of the epicentral locations at some sites, there is also increasing evidence for continued occupation of certain outlying areas. Terminal Classic trade routes survived into the Postclassic and so apparently did many elite. We believe that there were significant political changes in Maya society at the end of the Classic period, but that these alterations merely reinforced cultural variations and traditions put into place centuries earlier.
Was the transition from the Classic to Postclassic really a devolution? Does it represent the “fall” or “collapse” of a formerly great civilization? We think not. More than any other point in Maya prehistory, the Classic to Postclassic transition requires hermeneutic considerations to illuminate understanding of this transformation. What is seen in Postclassic society is the continued adaptation of the Maya to a shifting reality (e. g., Rathje 1975). This adaptation generally followed traditionally established Maya patterns, but with modifications conditioned by social and political events that link the Classic and Postclassic periods. Importantly, many of the culture changes generally associated solely with the Postclassic in past literature and interpretive frames (summarized in Chase and Rice 1985)— the appearance of a middle status level, privatization of worship, pragmatic mercantilism, and expansive warfare—had their roots squarely in the preceding Classic period. Thus, the basic developmental trends toward Postclassic lifeways were already in place well prior to the Terminal Classic. The Postclassic Maya cultural transition was not solely the result of a specific, or a series of specific, disjunctive Terminal Classic events, whether cast in terms of warfare, climate change, or environmental degradation. Postclassic Maya and their cultures are not disjunctive with their Classic ancestors; they are the product of a long tradition of transformations, including those taking place during the minimally two-hundred-odd years of what was once termed the Maya “collapse.”
NOTES
1. The utility of these features in characterizing even the Classic-period Maya is a point that can certainly be debated. Use of trait-lists obscures the variability in culture during all time horizons. Finely carved monuments do not occur at all Maya sites; they are conspicuously absent, for example, at the majority of Classic-period sites in northern Belize. Tall pyramids are now known to exist during the Preclassic period not only at El Mirador, but also at sites such as Caracol, where they are generally obscured by later construction activities. And, like Postclassic house pads (D. Chase 1990), much Classic-period occupation occurs in relatively low-lying residential constructions. Similar to the Postclassic, the absence of polychrome pottery in many Early Classic contexts has, in the past, led researchers to assume incorrectly that there was little or no occupation during this time (see A. and D. Chase 1995; Lincoln 1985). While tombs are thought to characterize Classic Maya society, they also occur in Postclassic contexts at Mayapan (Pollock et al. 1962) and Lamanai (Pendergast 1981a). Finally, Classic Maya centers also varied substantially in size from huge, densely populated cities to much smaller hamlets and centers.
2. Apparent cessation of monument erection is also not limited to the “collapse” but is found at other times in Maya prehistory. Some of these occasions are attributed to ancient monument destruction (such as at Tikal, presumably by Caracol [A. Chase 1991] or at Naranjo, presumably as a result of warfare [Houston 1991]) associated with political turbulence. In other situations a lack of stone monuments may be an intentional act by an otherwise successful polity; for instance, we believe Caracol’s Late Classic non-use of stone monuments must have been politically expedient (A. and D. Chase 1996c). In still other situations, the stone monument record may have been purposefully replaced with stucco building decoration, as at Copan (A. Chase 1985b).
World History
