Jessica MacLellan, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona, will investigate the role of household rituals in the development of ancient Maya civilization. This project will provide empirical evidence to address broad questions about the roles of households and ritual in social and political change around the world, particularly in non-Western societies. Many scholars have shown that public rituals are key to the integration of communities and the emergence of kingship in early states. Some argue that such rituals are based on pre-existing domestic practices, but in the case of the earliest Maya communities, the nature of the relationship between domestic and public remains unclear. MacLellan's research will illuminate the social processes involved in the transition to a sedentary, agriculture-based lifestyle and in the subsequent emergence of a complex civilization. Related studies in the Maya area have focused on smaller sites, later time periods, and other regions, and therefore on different social processes. MacLellan's work will provide a new, complementary perspective on the role of household activities in the development of socio-political hierarchies.
MacLellan's research is part of the Ceibal-Petexbatún Archaeological Project, an international collaboration directed by Dr. Takeshi Inomata and Dr. Daniela Triadan, also of the University of Arizona. The site of Ceibal, in Guatemala, was founded as a public ceremonial center surprisingly early - around the time sedentary villages and ceramics began to appear in the Maya lowlands (about 1000 BC). Ceibal therefore presents a rare opportunity to investigate how changes in ritual practices relate to important socio-political transformations, beginning around the transition to agriculture. MacLellan has conducted preliminary investigations at the Karinel Group, an early residential area. Through further, carefully targeted excavations at the Karinel Group and subsequent laboratory analyses, MacLellan will evaluate three specific questions in order to determine how shifts in household ritual affected the broader society at Ceibal: 1) When did people at Ceibal began living in permanent, formal groups of structures, and did a more mobile lifestyle continue after the site's public plaza was constructed?; 2) During which time periods did domestic rituals resemble public rituals conducted in the Central Plaza?; and 3) Did domestic rituals involving the bones of ancestors predate and facilitate the development of socio-political hierarchies? MacLellan will establish a clear, refined chronology of the Karinel Group through ceramic analysis and radiocarbon dating in order to answer these questions. This chronology will serve as important comparative data for other Mesoamerican archaeologists. The Ceibal project will employ many local Maya and Hispanic laborers. Through interactions with nearby communities, the researchers will discourage looting, deforestation, and other destructive activities at archaeological sites in the region. The project will also train several Guatemalan students in field and laboratory methods, thereby shaping and supporting the next generation of Guatemalan archaeologists.
