|
Click on the column headers below to sort the abstracts.
|
| Degree |
Field |
Author |
Chair |
Title |
Date |
Abstract |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Barrett |
Shafer |
Constructive hierarchy through entitlement: inequality in lithic resource access among the ancient Maya of Blue Creek, Belize |
Dec/2004 |
Close |
| |
This dissertation tests the theory that lithic raw materials were a strategic resource among the ancient Maya of Blue Creek, Belize that markedly influenced the development of socio-economic hierarchies at the site. Recent research has brought attention to the role of critical resource control as a mechanism contributing to the development of political economies among the ancient Maya. Such research has been primarily focused on the control of access to water and agricultural land. The examination of lithic raw materials as a critical economic resource is warranted as stone tools constituted a fundamental component of the ancient Maya economy. My research objectives include measuring raw material variability in the Blue Creek settlement zone and its immediate environs, assessing the amount of spatial and temporal variability present in the distribution of various raw materials, determining the degree to which proximity to a given resource influenced the relative level of its use, and testing whether differential resource access relates to variability in aggregate expressions of wealth. To meet these objectives, I examined 2136 formal stone tools and 24,944 pieces of debitage from excavations across the Blue Creek settlement zone, and I developed a lithic raw material type collection using natural outcrops. Significant spatial and temporal differences were observed in the use of various raw materials. Control of critical resources under conditions of scarcity is shown to have caused social stratification among the ancient Maya of Blue Creek. Initial disparities in use-right arrangements based on first occupancy rights produced substantial, accumulative inequality in economic capability and subsequent achievements. During the Early Classic period, these disproportionate allowances ultimately undermined the more egalitarian structure observed during the Preclassic. The Early Classic period at Blue Creek is characterized by increasing extravagance among the elites and increasing disenfranchisement throughout the hinterlands when compared to earlier periods. This suggests that elites at the site only became fully able to convert their resource monopolies into substantial gains in power, prestige, and wealth during the Classic period. |
Download |
|
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Boyd |
Shafer |
The Work of Art: Rock Art and Adaptation in the Lower Pecos, Texas Archaic |
Dec/1998 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Bruchez |
Carlson, David |
Archaeological Investigations, Department of Sololá, Southern Maya Highlands: PreMaya to Postclassic Settlement, Northern Terrestrial Rim and Subsurface Shore Lake Atitlán, Guatemala |
May/1997 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Carlson |
Shafer |
Texas Beyond the Periphery: An Archaeological Study of the Spanish Missions During the 18th Century. |
Dec/1994 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Dering |
Bryant |
Dynamic Variation in Agricultural Practices During the Classic Period in the Tonto Basin, Arizona. |
May/1996 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Dockall |
Shafer & Solecki |
Technological and Functional Variability of Convergent tools from Nahr Ibrahim, Lebanon: Behavioral Implications for Levantine Mousterian Technological Organization |
May/1997 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Gang |
Dickson |
Comparative Analysis of Lithic Materials Recovered from Shurmai (GnJm 1) and Kakwa Lelash (GnJm 2) Rockshelters, Kenya |
Dec/1997 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Hampton |
Bryant & Shafer |
Rock Quarries and the Manufacture, Trade, and Uses of Stone Tools and Symbolic Stones in the Central Highlands of Irian Jaya, Indonesia: Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives |
May/1997 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Jones |
Bryant |
Pollen Evidence of Prehistoric Forest Modification and Maya Cultivation in Belize. |
Dec/1991 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Kuehn |
Waters |
The Geoarchaeology of the Little Missouri Badlands: The Late Quaternary Stratigraphic and Paleoenvironmental Context of the Archaeological Record |
May/1995 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Meyers |
Carlson, David |
Community, Household, and Status at Hacienda Tabi, Yucatan, Mexico |
Dec/1998 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Neyland |
Carlson, David |
A Study of the Cultural Adaptation in Pram-Class Boatbuilding in the Netherlands |
Aug/1994 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Pearl |
Dickson |
Late-Pleistocene Archaeological and Geoarchaeological Investigations in the Mukogodo Hills and Ewaso Ng'iro Plains of Central Kenya |
May/2001 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Pendleton |
Bryant |
Late Holocene Paleoenvironment and Human Ecology in Southwestern New Mexico |
May/1993 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Raisor |
Dickson |
Determining the antiquity of dog origins: canine domestication as a model for the consilience between molecular genetics and archaeology |
Aug/2004 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Reinhard |
Bryant |
Diet, Parasitism and Anemia in the Prehistoric Southwest |
Dec/1988 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Schroeder |
Carlson, David |
Historical Archaeology in the Grand Prairie Division of Illinois: Environmental, Social, Demographic, and Technological Dimensions of Frontier Development |
May/1995 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Sobolik |
Bryant |
Paleonutrition of the Lower Pecos Region of the Chihuahuan Desert |
May/1991 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Nautical |
Bratten |
Crisman |
The Continental Gondola Philadelphia |
May/1997 |
View |
| Dissertation |
Archaeology |
Zimmerman |
Bryant & Steele |
Dietary Reconstruction and Subsistence Strategies of Prehistoric Hunter Gatrs of the Texas Gulf Coast |
Dec/1997 |
View |
