[Aztlan] origin of the notion that the Maya were non-urban

[Michael Smith]

Is there a historiographic account of the origins of the notion that the
Maya were a "civilization without cities"? I am interested in who made
this claim at what date. My very quick glance finds Gordon Willey making
this claim in the recorded discussion at the "City Invincible"
symposium, held in 1958  (p 44-45). I am less interested in the later
stage of the debate (1970s and on). My purpose for this (apart from
longstanding curiosity) is to clarify the process by which the idea of
Gordon Childe's concept of the urban revolution became incorporated into
Mesoamerican archaeology, and what Willey's role may have been.

 

Kraeling, Carl H., and Robert McC. Adams (editors)  1960  City
Invincible: A Symposium on Urbanization and Cultural Development in the
Ancient Near East. Oriental Institute Special Publication. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago.

            

Mike

 

Dr. Michael E. Smith

Professor of Anthropology

School of Human Evolution & Social Change

Arizona State University

www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/