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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The evolution of social power during the ceramic age of Puerto Rico is investigated. Archaeological site plans, ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts, and size/spatial distributions of ball courts and ceremonial plazas are investigated as they relate to political organization and leadership roles in prehistoric Puerto Rico. One of the strands linking 14 centuries of ceramicage culture in Puerto Rico is the emphasis on ceremonial space as an overtly integrative arena for the group. As the definition of the "group" evolvedfrom a village-bound entity to a multivillage polity, the importance and elaboration of ceremonial space increased accordingly. The central argument in this paper is that politically motivated individuals accrued power by controlling the rituals and ceremonies that were offundamental importance for maintaining and reproducing society. Rituals and ceremonies were performed in specially designated areas of communities. As access to power narrowed to specific lineages, families, or individuals, the designated community spaces became more formal in construction and location. These ceremonial spaces, referred to as ball courts and ceremonial plazas in the ethnohistoric accounts, ultimately became contested places as well as places of contest.Se investiga la evolucion del poder social durante la era ceramica de Puerto Rico. Se analizan los planos arqueologicos del sitio, los relatos etnohistoricos y etnograficos, las distribuciones del tamano/espacio de los bateyes y las plazas ceremoniales con respecto a la organizacion polftica y posicion de mando en el Puerto Rico prehistorico. Una de las conexiones que une 14 siglos de cultura de la era ceramica en Puerto Rico es el e'nfasis puesto en el espacio ceremonial como un punto de reunion del grupo. A medida que la definicion de "grupo " evolucionaba, desde una entidad de aldea hasta una comunidad integrada por varias aldeas, la elaboracion del espacio ceremonial y su importancia iban aumentando. El tema central de este informe es que las personas con motivacion polftica acumulaban poder controlando los ritos y las ceremonias que resultaban fundamentales para el mantenimiento y la reproduccion de la sociedad. Los ritos y las ceremonias eran realizados en areas especiales de la comunidad. Cuando el acceso al poder se limito a linajes, familias, o personas particulares, los espacios designados de la comunidad se convirtieron en lugares mas formales en te'rminos de construccion y de localizacion. Estos espacios ceremoniales, denominados bateyes y plazas ceremoniales en los relatos etnohistoricos, eventualmente se convirtieron en lugares contestables y lugares de contienda. WhenChristopher Columbus and his colleagues arrived i...

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