[Aztlan] It is time to seriously re-evaluate the so called "Postclassic" Period

[Carlos Rincón Mautner]

Dear Bradley:
I applaud your proposal and approach to re-evaluating the postclassic to better understand the Maya. The nonsense resulting from the application of terminology derived from the European experience, (for example), really does obfuscate understanding what was going on in Mesoamerica in terms of cultural developments, socio-cultural organization, trade, religion etc. for different time periods. It would be great were we to stop "pigeon-holing" everything Mesoamerican so that it fits particular models or theories that reify what happened (more appropriately, what we think happened) somewhere else. Clearly the terminology of Classic and then post-Classic suggests it was all "auge y esplendor" (just dandy) and then it all lost the shine and collapsed, and what came after was dribble or decadent by comparison. Where was this approach formulated? When? How useful is it?
It has been productive for me to move away from the predominant views and ideas of "centralized" control and the tendencies to focus on pre-eminent, but rare sites like Teotihuacan and Monte Albán.
Empire in my opinion is someone else's experience, a term imported to Mesoamerica. We can find some evidence that makes it look like the concept of empire holds water, but then whose definition of empire do you prefer? What do you do with evidence that does not look like there was an empire in place? What do you call that then? "Paramount chiefdoms?" "Paramount kingdoms?" "Tribute states?" Confederation possibly provides a more accurate and less loaded picture. The problem is that denying a people something, such as urbanism, writing, empire, makes them look backward, and makes us as scholars look prejudiced. So we are forced to go along with, but of course they had an empire..... One must necessarily make special cases out of everything and fudge definitions because what happened in Mesoamerica was different, for many different reasons. We end up talking about "city states" or "petty kingdoms", "oriental despotism" when we actually have little evidence for states, urban centers or centralized control of waterworks for many places, and we create special categories that are not very informative like "village kingdoms". What are we talking about, quite frankly? Once on the horse, must we necessarily ride it.....?! 
For example, is there any explanation for the foundation of a city other than much hashed out "sinoikism?"
This last point of what to call things is a very real and enormous problem. One thing is to coin a new term, and another is to get people to use the more appropriate "neologistic" terminology. The use of "classic" and "postclassic" is easy, because even if inaccurate, and meaning different things for different places, it evokes a simple picture, something we can grasp, particularly the chronological placement, and we generally prefer simple things even though they may not be accurate. From what I have read, it would appear that there is great value in a false sense of security and propagating "scholarly" myths. Finally, the chances that the unfortunate use of the terms classic and postclassic will be dropped are close to nill. However, if we ever want to understand what happened, it is probably best to go slowly rather than rushing to peg our finds so they reify existing preconceptions.  
Best,
Carlos
 
           

> From: bradley_russell at hotmail.com
> To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:48:53 +0000
> Subject: [Aztlan] It is time to seriously re-evaluate the so called "Postclassic" Period
> 
> 
> 
> I have come to the conclusion that is is time that we academics take a serious new look at the "Postclassic" period of Maya history.  My ongoing work at the Postclassic political capital of Mayapán has forced me to do so.  This time period has been largely dismissed by researchers including the giants from the Carnegie Mayapán Project, upon whose shoulders my current research rests.  Even they described the Postclassic period and the city itself as something of a "decadent" remnant of the once great "Classic" period.
>  
> However, my dissertation research has convinced me that Mayapán was far from the degenerated remains of what came before.  It was a vibrant, powerful, cosmopolitan center of great interest in and of itself.  The shift away from overland trade routes seen at the time of the poorly named "Maya collapse" did not reduce the culture to poverty and decadence. They did not enter some kind of "Dark age" as many seem to believe.  Just the opposite, it saw the rise of a new source of political capital rooted not in religion. Instead it was rooted largely in wealth created by mercantile exchange and military power.  It opened up new long distance contact with regions far to its north and south.  The demise of the "Classic" period system of political control by competing divine kings drawing in large part on religious justifications for their power led to the formation of new multepal governments of confederated polities whose political control exceeded the territorial limits of the cla!
>  ssic period city-state actors.
>  
> My research has shown that Mayapán's size exceeded that of the Tarascan imperial capital.  The ethnohistoric documents and archaeology point to the site's domination of distant and previously independent polities that became provinces subject to tribute and other demands.  Muscle was provided by mercenaries imported from the gulf coast and central Mexico who brought with them new weapons technologies which seemed to out compete those in use at the time of the "collapse" and through the Terminal Classic.  The city is ringed by one of Mesoamerica's most formidable defensive systems. It was among the largest known for any time period.  This military advantage and the wealth brought in by long distance trade connections allowed the Kokom and their allies to force rapid resettlement of significant populations from throughout the areas they controlled into the city which boomed as a result.  The site's rulers were able to spread a new religion throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, not!
>   unlike what was seen when the Aztec empire forced dominated regions to reform their religion to incorporate Huitzilopochtli into their pantheons.
>  
> I firmly believe that the data exist to show that rather than the Maya falling into ruin, this time period saw the rise of a previously unrecognized and ignored Maya/Itza empire controlling territory from the northern coast south well into the heart of the Petén.  It seems likely that a similar imperial system centered on the site of Utatlan took hold of the southern Maya region.  I will continue working to assemble these data into a series of publications arguing for that empire's existence.  That will of course take time. However, It is time that we take a hard, new look at the period and what was achieved by the Maya following the collapse.  
>  
> Recognition of a Maya empire would be as significant a revision in our thinking as was the demise of the peaceful priest model and will take time to take root in the literature and certainly popular thought.  In my opinion, that change is long overdue. The Postclassic was a time of empire throughout the rest of America and it is time that we begin to realize that the Maya area was no different. Even that the Maya had an empire that predated the better recognized Aztec empire which persisted long enough to be seen firsthand by the first European arrivals.  The fact that Mayapán fell to internal divisions and strife before Spaniards arrived led to the first misconceptions about this important period.  They failed to see it firsthand and simply assumed that divisions that they saw across the peninsula reflected a long held pattern. But, was in my opinion just the last stage of the fall of the Mayapán imperial capital.
>  
> Empires throughout history have fallen and their provinces broken up into smaller independent polities. If we had no knowledge of the Soviet Empire and arrived in Eastern Europe today or in the Roman provinces after its empire's collapse we may have made the same mistaken assumptions.  But, we should not continue to perpetuate what the Spaniards got so very wrong.
>  
> Bradley Russell, Ph.D.
> http://mayapanperiphery.net/
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