Abstract

IZQUIERDO Y DE LA CUEVA, Ana Luisa. Heterarchy and Corporate Units. Institutions of Internal Maya Government. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2018, vol.51, pp.11-42. ISSN 0185-2574.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ecm.2018.51.855.

We are far from a complete knowledge about the Maya ways of government. However, with data coming from different disciplines, we may have a glance of how Maya people regulated their life. From a sociological standpoint we propose a hypothesis about the social basis of the political power not centered upon sacred kings and their hierarchical authorities. In this essay we explain that the Late Classic Maya power was an heterarchy, meaning that Maya capitals used to coordinate authorities of different levels and characteristics in a segmentary state of conical clans, integrated by corporative units. These units were collective groups with their own identity, and had been documented by Archaeology, Epigraphy, Linguistics, Ethnohistory and Ethnology.

Keywords : Maya; political organization; power; Late Classic; heterarchy; corporate units.

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