Ancient Maya Political Economies

In this volume, which is dedicated to William Rathje and indebted to his theories of material culture, 14 essays consider aspects of the political economies of the Maya in regions found in the Yucatan, Belize, and Guatemala. The papers range in scope from broad to specific with topics that include a new assessment of the role of luxury goods in the larger economic system, regional patterns of modes of exchange, and assessing the scale of Maya economies based on exchange between local, regional, and distant areas. The contributors teach anthropology and archaeology at universities in the US and the UK. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR