The role of infield agriculture in Maya cities
Introduction
Recent research on urbanism in the Maya area has shown that many Maya settlements can be considered low-density cities: their residential and institutional components are relatively dispersed across the landscape (Fletcher, 2009, Smith, 2011, Isendahl, 2012, Smith and Novic, 2012, Isendahl and Smith, 2013). Why did the Maya maintain open spaces in their cities? Infield agriculture has been credited as the primary reason (Isendahl, 2012). According to this view, space within the urban sector was kept open for intensive cultivation of crops and other economically useful plants. This explanation fits well with current views of Maya agriculture, which have transformed over the past five decades from simplistic models of swidden farming to much more sophisticated models of diverse subsistence strategies and technologies (e.g. Puleston, 1968, Harrison and Turner, 1978, Flannery, 1982, Turner and Harrison, 1983, Fedick, 1996, Sheets et al., 2011, Dahlin et al., 2005, Robin, 2012).
Even though low-density urbanism should be embraced as an analytical tool for understanding the nature of Maya cities, it should not be applied uniformly across the Maya area. Agro-urbanism is the basic template, but understanding the specific variations of it adopted by communities is key to how we model past processes of settlement, land use, economy, and political interaction. We require a more nuanced approach. Thus while we can use infield agriculture as a starting point, citing its presence alone is not enough to explain intersite variability in low-density cities.
This paper proposes one cause for some of the settlement diversity seen across some Maya cities: multigenerational, household-based stewardship of infield agricultural systems. Using comparative archaeological data on houselot size and number of structures per houselot at three cities in the northern Maya lowlands – Cobá, Mayapán, and Chunchucmil (see Fig. 1) – I show that the differing degree to which households maintained long-term ownership over open land around the house helps to explain patterns of urban variation. As I said, this is only one cause – we should expect many more. This discussion is not presented to be conclusive as much as it is to call attention to the need for more complex models of Maya urbanism and pre-modern urbanism more generally.
Section snippets
Household and house, infield and outfield
Before going further, a few terms need to be defined. A household is a corporate social entity or activity group categorized by its various functions, which include production, consumption, resource distribution, coresidence, transmission, and reproduction (Wilk, 1983, Ashmore and Wilk, 1988, Netting et al., 1984, Alexander, 1998). Houses are the physical structures where households live, though more than one household can reside together in a single structure, just as a single household can
Infield agriculture on a multigenerational scale
A discussion of multigenerational infield agriculture in the Maya area starts with two components that arise repeatedly in ethnographic and ethnohistoric literature: extended family households and houselot subsistence systems. After introducing each, I reframe the Maya example within the context of Robert Netting’s smallholder model to underline some broader patterns that accompany multigenerational household-managed, houselot-based infield agriculture. Then I conclude this section with a case
The present study
To evaluate differential investment in multigenerational household-managed, houselot-based subsistence among cities in the northern Maya lowlands, we can look at two variables from within walled houselots: (1) the total number of associated structures and (2) the amount of houselot area left vacant. Reiterating my earlier discussion, the number of structures is a rough approximation of family size (and by extension, a measure of multigenerational coresidence) and the vacant area of the houselot
Discussion
When comparing the cross-plot of archaeological case studies (Fig. 11) to the hypothetical cross-plot (Fig. 4), the result emerges immediately: the composition of Chunchucmil’s houselots suggests that multigenerational household-managed, houselot-based infield agriculture was occurring at a much higher intensity there than at Mayapán or Cobá. But as I have tried to emphasize, approaching the degree of investment using just these two variables is an approximation, less a last word and more a
Conclusion
Archaeologists have come a long way since one system (a slash and burn field or the milpa) dominated reconstructions of ancient Maya subsistence systems. Part of the pushback against that traditional view involved an awareness that there were many agricultural technologies that co-existed, one of which was infield agriculture. Archaeologists now recognize that infield agriculture within cities contributed to a widespread pattern of low-density urbanism in the Maya area. This realization has
Acknowledgments
I thank Joyce Marcus for sharing her insights and support during the preparation of this paper. Stimulating conversations with Travis Stanton, Aline Magnoni, Traci Ardren, Dan Griffin, and Stephanie Miller during the 2014 field season of the Proyecto de Interacción Política del Centro de Yucatán contributed significantly to the reworking of this paper into its finished form, as did the astute and helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers.
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2023, Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyCitation Excerpt :At the site of Chan in the Belize River Valley, Wyatt hypothesized the presence of intensively managed terraced infields based on the density of terraces and the dispersed settlement patterns at the site (2008a). In the Yucatan, Fisher calculated the differing intensity of infield cultivation by comparing variation in the number of domestic structures and the amount of vacant houselot area that she hypothesized contained multi-generational, household based infield systems (2014). The comparatively more dense settlement of Chunchucmil still indicates spaces for infield homegardens, a pattern reinforced by the geochemical analysis conducted in these inter-residential spaces (Hutson, 2010).
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2021, Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyCitation Excerpt :Many houselots contain more than one nuclear family, normally reflected by the presence of more than one house structure in the houselot (three nuclear families, on average, in Chunchucmil houselots). Households with more people and a larger labor pool might have demanded more space for crafts or additional gardening (Fisher, 2014; Hirth, 2009; King et al., 1994; McAnany, 1995). The notion that households with more people simply require more space may not lead to a positive correlation between household size and houselot size, since neighboring space might not be available once a household grows too large for the houselot.
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2021, Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyCitation Excerpt :While this might suggest that elite planning and organization facilitated the growth of the city, recent work has identified that bottom-up construction and management of water reservoirs was also key to the successful expansion and agricultural productivity of this settlement (Chase, 2016). Similar studies at other Maya sites suggest households in those locations had even more autonomy in managing their infield agricultural systems, thereby shaping the organization of their settlement landscapes (Fisher, 2014). The site of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, shows a different mix of centralized and decentralized autonomy in the formation of its extensive settlement complex.
Household garden plant agency in the creation of Classic Maya social identities
2020, Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyCitation Excerpt :Refuse, including organic plant materials, is sorted and disposed of both within and outside the domestic compound (Hayden and Cannon, 1983; Hutson et al., 2007). Close proximity to the house, and main activity areas, means household gardens receive more attention than cornfields, and time intensive agricultural features such as raised beds or container gardening are more likely to succeed (Fisher, 2014). In addition to places to grow pot herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees, household gardens in the Maya area today (and historically) are highly social areas, where activities such as childcare, crafting, sewing, bathing, cooking, and visiting occur (Arnold, 1990; Kintz, 1990; Redfield and Villa Rojas, 1934).
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2020, Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyCitation Excerpt :Though subtle, evidence for differentiated agricultural strategies in the northern Maya lowlands has been identified. The average size of walled-in house lots varies across sites, implying different degrees of emphasis on horticulture and infields (Batún Alpuche, 2009; Fisher, 2014; Hutson et al., 2006). Animal bone and enclosures found within house lots signal the importance of animal husbandry in food systems (Alexander, 2004:133-134; Masson and Peraza Lope, 2008), while self-contained animal pens and infields found at Mayapán suggest intensive agricultural pursuits within the city’s walls (Hare et al., 2014).