Using Actor-Network Theory to Characterize the Production of Ancient Maya Caching Events at Cerro Maya (Cerros, Belize)
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Using Actor-Network Theory to Characterize the Production of Ancient Maya Caching Events at Cerro Maya (Cerros, Belize) Jeffrey Vadala 1
& Lisa
Duffy 2
Accepted: 3 September 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Inspired by actor-network theory, this research uses an operationalized archaeological actor-network approach to characterize and examine human-object relationships associated with ritual caching deposits (votive bundles of objects) at the site of Cerro Maya (formerly Cerros), Belize. Designed to be broadly applicable for archaeological studies, our archaeological actor-network approach made it possible to inductively examine, characterize, and diachronically compare the complex arrays of human and nonhuman relationships. In contrast to previous studies that characterized caches mainly in symbolic terms, we treated caches as traces of the small-scale actor-networks that emerged during the production of ancient Maya caching events. More specifically, our actor-network methodology made it possible to characterize caches and caching events in terms of the relationships between materials, temporality, objects, places, and groups of people, their intentions, and actions. The inductive and diachronic focus of approach also allowed us to compare arrays of caching actor-networks over time while considering the social affect that caching events had on subsequent caching events and the site’s social development. This approach demonstrates that even simple artifact clusters can be viewed as proxies for highly complex networks of interlinked social relations that play roles in shaping important historical interactions and social orders over time. Keywords Actor-network theory . Preclassic Maya . Social relations . Ceramics . Rituals .
Temporality
* Jeffrey Vadala [email protected] Lisa Duffy [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Vadala and Duffy
Introduction This study uses a modified actor-network approach to examine and characterize the human and nonhuman relationships that produced and shaped ancient Maya caches (bundles of objects) and the corresponding ritual events wherein they were buried. This new methodological and theoretical approach is undertaken at the early Maya site of Cerro Maya (formerly known as Cerros). Our approach contrasts with archaeological approaches (e.g., Coe 1959) that have focused generally on defining essential properties of artifacts to define or clarify typologies (Trigger 1989:195, 289 and 388) or to determine their symbolic meaning (Freidel and Schele 1988a, b; Chase and Chase 1998; Pendergast 1998; Walker 1998; and Estrada-Belli et al. 2003). More specifically, Michael Coe’s (1959:77) early work mainly defined caches as markers of the architectural inauguration (dedication) or termination. A third category “intrusive” was given to caches buried in architecture that was associated with neither building phase (Coe 1959). Coe’s approach to caches as fixed assemblages with definable
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