Living With the Ancestors Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society

Ancestor veneration in the Maya lowlands traditionally has been associated with divine kingship and royal genealogies. But in this revisionist study, Patricia McAnany challenges this view and presents a strong case for the Formative Period roots of ancestor veneration, suggesting that it is an ancient agrarian practice linked to the emergence of restrictive patterns of land tenure and unequal access to resources. She proposes that Formative domestic burial interments represent text-free genealogies. Integrating archaeological, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic data, McAnany argues that lineage is the organizing principle throughout all segments of Maya society, elite and non-elite alike. She questions the monolithic view of the Classic Maya as a society of kings and peasants and instead describes the Classic Period as an era of dynamic tension between the older organizational structures of the lineages and the newer, more centralized and extractive forces of divine kingship. A first approach to a complete history of the Maya, this work integrates ritual practice with agrarian concerns and household structure; it is important reading for everyone interested in Mesoamerican culture.McAnany, Patricia A. is the author of 'Living With the Ancestors Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society' with ISBN 9780292752368 and ISBN 0292752369.