Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2001
Department 1
Anthropology
Abstract
House society models, based on the work of Levi-Strauss but since refined by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, provide a good model for understanding social organization among the ancient Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica based on a comparative study of societies in the Copan Valley, the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley), and the Cuyumapa Valley, all in Honduras. Social Houses are flexible, enduring social groupings that define kinship flexibly, recognizing adoption, marriage, shared residency, and other factors as ways to create ties that endure over generations.
Copyright Note
This is the authors's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Hendon, Julia A., and Rosemary A. Joyce 2001. A Flexible Corporation: Classic Period House Societies from Eastern Mesoamerica. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans, LA.
Comments
Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, in the session, "Corporate Groups in Prehispanic Mesoamerica: Studies in the Variety of Social Organization and Resource Mobilization" in New Orleans, LA, in 2001.