In contrast to the highly organized state religion often attributed to the Classic Maya (Thompson 1950, 1954, 1970), Postclassic Maya religion has been portrayed as having broken down into a system of privatized or individualized worship (Proskouriakoff 1955; Freidel and Sabloff 1984). Ethnohistoric support for a system of dispersed worship has been derived from accounts such as those of Bishop Landa, who describes the existence of numerous idols in Maya houses (Tozzer 1941: 110). Archaeological evidence that has been used to bolster this view of Postclassic religion are the broken pieces of incense burners found throughout Postclassic sites and the widespread distribution of caches and presumed household shrines in residential groups (Pollock et al. 1962, but cf. D. Chase 1992). Proskouriakoff’s (1955, 1962) interpretation of these phenomena was that the Postclassic Maya had a plethora of gods, a marked departure from the Classic period, which she viewed as having a single dominant deity (following Thompson’s 1954 and 1970 conceptions of Itzamna). In more recent literature, the widespread distribution of Postclassic incense burners has sometimes also been taken to suggest a decentralization of Maya religious practices within a still extant state system (Sabloff and Rathje 1975a; Andrews 1993: 59).
That these bodies of data indicate the breakdown and privatization of late Maya religion is not at all clear. The ethnohistoric evidence itself is not without ambiguity; Dennis Tedlock (1993: 145-146), for example, has pointed out that descriptions of numerous idols in early historic “confessions” may have been exaggerated in response to fear of torture. Postclassic cache and censer deposition patterns have also been viewed as reflecting organized rituals centered on the calendar year rather than as reflecting a fragmented society characterized by dispersed individualized worship (D. Chase 1985a, 1985b). Differences between Classic and Postclassic religion, however, do exist. Data from Postclassic Santa Rita Corozal, Belize, suggest that Maya religion was characterized by a trend toward broadening and popularizing the extant symbolism of the Classic period, something particularly evident in Postclassic caches (D. Chase 1988; D. Chase and A. Chase 1998). From our perspective. Postclassic Maya religion was broad-based and had a large constituency. Nearly identical offerings were made at distant sites, as can be seen in cached deposits at Mayapan in Yucatan and Santa Rita Corozal in northern Belize (D. Chase 1986); intriguingly, both sites also are thought to have been the governing seats of distinctive regional political units. To some extent these Postclassic cache similarities may be viewed as comparable to the similarities in Classic-period caches found at separate Classic-period sites like Tikal and Piedras Negras in Guatemala (Coe 1959). But, there are significant differences. Although residential caches are found in some Classic sites, they usually comprise different items than those found in caches associated with Classic-era nonresidential monumental architecture (for example, compare Culbert 1993a with Coe 1990 and Becker 1999). Similar Postclassic caches can be found both in central locations and throughout residential units.
Regardless of whether or not the characterization of dispersed ritual reflects Late Postclassic society, the basic archaeological patterns upon which these interpretations are made—specifically the widespread distribution of caches, incense burners, and shrines—are found not only in the Postclassic period, but are also common among certain Classic-period Maya sites. Late Classic residential-group caches are ubiquitous at Caracol and form a very distinctive pattern. Caches with modeled and appliqued faces and small lip-to-lip bowls containing human finger bones are found in the eastern structure in the majority of groups that have been tested (D. Chase and A. Chase 1998). Censerware is found throughout the Late Classic settlement and is not restricted to the Caracol site epicenter (A. Chase and D. Chase 1996d). Specialized shrines also occur in many Classic-era residential groups at Caracol and elsewhere (Becker 1982; Leventhal 1983, Tourtellot 1983: 47; A. Chase and D. Chase 1994b). Thus, practices presumed to be uniquely Postclassic actually have antecedents much farther back in the Classic period. And, continuity, rather than disjunction, may be found between the Classic and Postclassic patterns. Indeed, as indicated above, if a shift from centralized to dispersed ritual practices may be discerned in the archaeological record, it occurred prior to a. d. 600 at sites like Caracol.
World History
