Realizing Value in Mesoamerica

Scott Hutson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of several books on the Maya. He has been doing fieldwork in the Maya lowlands, usually focusing on household archaeology, settlement patterns, and ritual practice, since 1996.Charles Golden is Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University. He has conducted archaeological research in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, and his investigations have focused on the borders between Maya kingdoms and the economic, social, and ritual ties that bound rural villages into larger political communities.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: Approaches to Value.- Chapter 2. Postclassic Maya Things and their Entanglements.- Chapter3. Considering Reciprocity and Gratitude in the Postclassic Basin of Mexico Economies.- Chapter 4. Chronotopic Value: Objects and Meaning Through Mesoamerican Timespace.- Part II: Lithics and Land.- Chapter 5: Assembling Value in Mesoamerica.- Chapter 6. Understanding Obsidian Values Among the Ancient Maya.- Chapter 7. On Value and Values: The Displayed and Hidden Action of Classic-Period Maya Jades.- Chapter 8. Shifting Landscapes of Value in the Maya World. Part III: Crafting.- Chapter 9. Crafting Jewels, Creating Value: Techné and Tlateccayotl among the Nahuas in the Basin of Mexico.- Chapter 10. The Social Value of Cotton Textiles in Postclassic Oaxaca, Mexico.- Chapter 11. Soft Infrastructure: Realizing Value of Craft Producers in Small Centers and Settlements in Veracruz, Mesoamerica.- Part IV: Exchange.- Chapter 12. Exchange Value inClassic Period Maya Economies: The View from Western Belize.- Chapter 13. Magic and Marxism: Valuing Enchantment in the Maya Political Economy.- Chapter 14. Classic Maya Tribute as a Social Register.- Part V: Inequality.- Chapter 15. Beyond Economic Inequality: Unmeasurable Values, Collective Demand, and Community Building in Classic Period Mesoamerica.- Chapter 16. Inequality of What? Multiple Paths to the Good Life.