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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Enchaining Kinship: Figurines and State Formation at Cahal Pech, Cayo, Belize Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0nr943rx Author DeLance, Lisa L. Publication Date 2016 Copyright Information This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution- NoDerivatives License, availalbe at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Enchaining Kinship: Figurines and State Formation at Cahal Pech, Cayo, Belize A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Lisa LaVon DeLance December 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Wendy Ashmore, Chairperson Dr. Travis Stanton Dr. Christine Gailey Copyright by Lisa LaVon DeLance 2016 The Dissertation of Lisa LaVon DeLance is approved: ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements There are so many people to whom I owe thanks. First and foremost, to Dr. Wendy Ashmore, who has been a constant source of support and encouragement, challenging me to grow both professionally and personally. I will be forever grateful for her willingness to take a chance on an eager graduate student, and for encouraging me to explore unconventional interpretations. I am grateful for her warm support and constructive critiques. She was and continues to be generous with her praise, modest in her suggestions, and always reminding me that learning is a lifelong process. I would not be the scholar I am today without her and I consider myself lucky to call her my mentor and friend. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Christine Gailey, who has always supported and encouraged me to pursue the things which I thought were impossible. She has taught me to always think critically about the world around me, explore and engage with facets of anthropology not related to archaeology, to persevere when things become difficult, and to thrive with a special grace reserved for those who have seen and experienced some of the best and worst that life has to offer. She is an inspirational mentor and friend. Dr. Travis Stanton not only supported my ideas, but helped me to approach them pragmatically while also reminding me of the “big picture” of what I intended to accomplish. He has helped me keep both my research and my academic career in iv perspective, allowing me to find the answers on my own, while ensuring that I didn’t fall painfully flat on my face. Dr. Thomas Patterson’s brilliant mind, eagerness to offer input, and quick wit made graduate school a fun and memorable experience, while Dr. Karl Taube was always willing to discuss iconography and offer insights and opinions when I most needed them. To both I offer my heartfelt gratitude for their time, knowledge, and energy. I also owe a special thanks to Anna Wire, Becky Campbell, Lilia Liederbach-Vega, and Tiara Caldwell-Pleas for their tireless efforts on behalf of all graduate students, and their ability to do their job every day with smiles on their faces. This dissertation would not have been possible without the moral and financial support of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BVAR) and project directors Dr. Jaime Awe (Northern Arizona University) and Dr. Julie Hoggarth (Baylor University). I thank both Dr. Awe and Dr. Hoggarth for being so generous with their time and energy, and for allowing me to explore multiple dimensions of figurine usage at Cahal Pech and throughout the larger Belize River Valley. I wish to thank Emily Kaplan from the Smithsonian Institution who provided invaluable conservation advice and guidance in order to protect the Cahal Pech figurine corpus for future generations of researchers. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my laboratory assistants through the BVAR project: G. Van Kollias, Sydney Lonaker, Stephen Rosenberg, Mike Berns, Lisa Green, Johnny Chuch, Divine Gamez, Magdalen Gibson, Daniel Lopez, Annabel Avendano, Amanda Bermudez, Josie Howl, v Casana Popp, and E.J. Taylor. Additionally, I would like to thank Antonio Beardall from the Belize Institute of Archaeology for his friendship and support throughout my field research and beyond. This dissertation would not be what it is without the editorial expertise and wonderful comments of Dr. Tom Garrison of University of Southern California, and Dr. Guy Hepp of California State University, San Bernardino, and to both of them, I extend my gratitude for their time and energy. I wish to also thank my family and friends, whose love and encouragement, both emotional and financial, kept me going. And last but certainly not least, to my cohort: Jared Katz, Erin Gould, Sharon Rushing, Jennifer Cullin, and Kyle Harp-Rushing for providing unwavering friendship and support throughout graduate school and beyond. It is safe to say that this dissertation would not have been completed without their love and encouragement. They are not just colleagues and friends, but dear family, and I consider myself lucky to call them such. This dissertation research was funded by both the BVAR project and the Center for Ideas and Society Humanities Research Grant, along with the Graduate Student Research Fellowship and private funding from Virginia DeLance and Larry and Vicki DeLance. Writing of the dissertation was supported by the University of California, Riverside Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship and the University of California Graduate Student Resource Center and the GradSuccess program. vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Enchaining Kinship: Figurines and State Formation at Cahal Pech, Cayo, Belize by Lisa LaVon DeLance Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Anthropology University of California, Riverside, December 2016 Dr. Wendy Ashmore, Chairperson This dissertation examines the use and deposition of ceramic figurine fragments from the site of Cahal Pech, Cayo, Belize over the range of occupation of the site from the Formative Period to the Terminal Classic Period (ca. 1,100 BC to AD 900). This research considers critically the similarities and differences in figurine use and depositional practices between the site core and smaller neighboring structure groups examined synchronically, while also charting similarities and differences across the entire site diachronically. Mesoamerican figurines are often tied to notions of ancestor veneration and are generally, although not exclusively, believed to have been tools for ritual practice. An investigation of use and depositional practices of these figurines reveals that the rise of social and political complexity and the presence of ceramic figurine deposits at Cahal Pech have a negative correlation. This suggests that during the state formation process at vii Cahal Pech, ancestor veneration rituals involving figurines were either fundamentally changed to not include figurines in ritual practice or the importance of community based ancestor veneration ritual gradually ceased. Furthermore, the exploitation and decline of kin group autonomy associated with state formation is further examined to elucidate how the deposition of ceramic figurines tied to ancestor veneration were used as symbols of acquiescence and resistance to the marginalization of kin groups inherent in the state formation process. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: STATE FORMATION, ENCHAINMENT, AND FIGURINES 1 Research Questions 6 Question 1: Is there a difference in the treatment of ceramic figurines found at the Cahal Pech site core versus the Cahal Pech periphery groups? 6 Question 2: Do the features found on ceramic figurines change over time? 7 Question 3: Is there a correlation between changes in social and political complexity at Cahal Pech and the uses and deposition of ceramic figurines? 8 Question 4: Are Formative Period figurines found in different contexts than figurines dating to the Terminal Classic period? 9 Chapter Organization 9 CHAPTER 2: ENCHAINMENT AND FIGURINES 13 Fragmentation and Enchainment 15 Fragmented Figurines 18 CHAPTER 3: STATE FORMATION AND KINSHIP 24 Maya States 24 Strongly Centralized States 27 The Regional State Model 27 ix
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