“Paint it black”: Wealth‐in‐people and Early Classic Maya blackware pottery

Abstract

During the Early Classic period in the Maya lowlands (AD 250-600), black serving vessels were placed as offerings in the highest-status elite burials. Complicated forms and sophisticated decorative conventions transformed these simple ceramic containers into precious social valuables that were deposited with only the most privileged individuals. This article presents new data, analyses, and interpretations of the production and exchange of Early Classic blackware that are informed by the concepts of wealth-in-people as wealth-in-knowledge. I specifically ask whether Early Classic Maya blackware was produced and exchanged by highly skilled artisans who were commissioned by political elites in an effort to grow political followers through gifting and increase a leader's wealth-in-people. This research demonstrates that Early Classic blackware was produced and consumed as a means to aid kings in becoming venerated ancestors. Blackware was part of a performative process of maintaining a leader's social network that continued in death and that was emphasized by descendants as a means to further legitimize their own accession and political futures.

Embodied value: Wealth‐in‐people

“…As he put it, in Africa, the means of domination belonged to people who could control others. The relationship between demographic control and political centralization is a thread running through wealth‐in‐people studies in ecological anthropology (Nyerges 1992) and in archaeology, as reviewed in the articles by McGill et al () and Callaghan () that follow. Ethnographic studies of kinship and political organization echoed this point by drawing attention to rights‐in‐people (see reviews in Bledsoe ; Kopytoff and Miers ).…”

“…This perspective also describes how material things, particularly artistic products like ancestral figurines, were repositories of specific individuals' talents and identities (Guyer , 6). Among the ancient Maya, objects became an extension of various selves and were used to spread political influence, create social debt, and even achieve immortality (Callaghan ). Things also exist to symbolize and materialize rights to others and act to account for and measure rights‐in‐others.…”

“…Importantly, many of the instances of wealth‐in‐people in this volume invoke this sense of wealth that began in a specific past, endures, and makes claims on the future. Franzen's () farmers claim as inalienable their land, equipment, and cattle as “gold” and “real wealth.” Life cycle rituals build wealth‐in‐people and extend belonging to ancestors and the dead through their position of supernatural social power (Bähre ; Callaghan ; McGill et al ; Mulder ). Bähre () and Mulder () both discuss how funeral insurance guarantees that loved ones become venerated ancestors through a well‐attended and well‐appointed funeral.…”

“…Finally, among the ancient Maya, blackware pottery was specifically produced and placed in royal tombs to help Maya kings escape from the underworld after death and be resurrected as a divine ancestor of their lineage. A leader's social network continued in death, and descendants relied on their ancestors to further legitimize their own accession and political futures (Callaghan ).…”