Household Craft Production in the Prehispanic Urban Setting of Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico

Salt and marine products in the Classic Maya economy from use-wear study of stone tools

“…Surplus household production of commodities for marketplace trade was an important means for the distribution of goods and resources in the Maya area from the Late Classic period ( 4 – 6 , 8 ) through the Postclassic ( 27 ). Marketplaces made nonlocal goods and resources, including highly crafted goods, widely available to Classic Maya householders ( 4 ).…”

1 Introduction: Urban Commerce in Ancient Mesoamerica

“…E. Smith and Heath-Smith 1994). Jade bead production may be indicated by preforms, debitage, string-sawn pieces, and drills (Hammond et al 1977;Kovacevich 2006Kovacevich , 2013; while shell bead production may be indicated by drills and shell debitage (Masson and Peraza Lope 2014;Masson et al 2016). The spatial dimension of currency production and use is important to understanding its circulation within and between different cities, and between cities and their hinterlands.…”

“…Recent research suggests instead that in pre-Contact Mesoamerica, direct elite control over craft production may only have occurred for a small number of luxury items (e.g., Inomata 2001;Reents-Budet et al 2000;Sheets 2000). The majority of craft production in Mesoamerican cities was part-time and dispersed through a large number of households, particularly the manufacture of utilitarian craft items (Hirth 2009;Masson and Peraza Lope 2014;Masson et al 2016;Sheets 2000). Instead, ancient Mesoamerican states focused policing efforts on regulating distribution through taxes on merchants and marketplace vendors, and the standardization of currencies (Berdan 1975(Berdan , 1992, which is a more effective strategy for managing geographically-dispersed populations (Feinman and Garraty 2010;Masson and Freidel 2012;Trigger 2003).…”

8 The “Othering” of Maya Political Economies

“…Ironically, the Relaciones Histórico-geográficas also records the diverse products made or harvested in Maya towns located near differing natural resources, reflecting degrees of economic niche specialization suitable for cultivating regional trade interdependencies. Household archaeology at Mayapán reveals that surplus production for exchange and widespread integration into regional commerce existed in the centuries just prior to Spanish Contact (Masson and Peraza Lope 2014b; Masson et al 2016). Contact period salt factories, locally owned and operated, exchanged tons of salt as far as Aztec central Mexico (Kepecs 2003(Kepecs , 2007.…”