Community Organization in the Parroquia de Yaxcaba, Yucatan, Mexico, 1750–1847

Abstract

AbstractThe following paper examines archaeological variability in community organization of sites in the parroquia de Yaxcaba. Yucatan, Mexico, froma.d.1750 to 1847. Using historical and archaeological evidence, the course of political-economic change in Yucatan is followed from the recovery of the Indian population in 1750, through the Bourbon reforms and Independence from Spain, to the Caste War of Yucatan in 1847 in order to assess its implications for continuity or discontinuity of Maya adaptive patterns. Three settlements—a pueblo, a hacienda, and an independent rancho—were intensively mapped to reveal patterns of house lots, streets, features, plazas, and public architecture. Differences in spatial organization among the settlements can be specifically linked to variation in population growth, tax structure, and land stress coincident with changes in the colonial regime. Variation in household production strategies and the choice of tactics that minimize subsistence risk were largely dependent on the community's degree of integration with the colonial system. The evidence from Yaxcaba suggests that two key processes are particularly important in determining articulations between rural and urban areas: disenfranchisement from the means of production and the extension of credit. These two processes affect variation in the relations of production that partly explain how communities either become entangled in or remain apart from political-economic change.