Keywords
estudios regionales
organización social prehispánica
investigación comparativa
arqueología del oriente de Honduras
settlement pattern studies
regional studies
prehispanic social organization
comparative research
archaeology of eastern Honduras
How to Cite
Abstract
This research explores the social organization of prehispanic communities in the Jamastrán Valley in Southeastern Honduras. It reconstructed the demographic patterns of a 250 km² region through a full coverage systematic survey. Our ceramic evidence indicates that the Jamastrán Valley was occupied between about 600 and 1000 AD. Evidence derived from the comparison of different social trajectories in regions of western, central, and eastern Honduras, points to three common factors that stand out as crucial elements for understanding the development of social hierarchies in those regions; access to prime agricultural land, craft production and local exchange and interregional interactions. Each of these factors can be understood as components of two basic political strategies: economically or prestige-based ones. The articulation or combination of these factors, and the ability to connect economic and prestige strategies to each other, enabled the consolidation of permanent forms of social inequality in many regions of prehispanic Honduras. We suggest that the demographic history of the Jamastrásn Valley is related to broader political and economic processes identified in the social trajectories of most archaeologically known regions in Honduras. Our research in Jamastrán also indicates that local aspiring leaders in the valley seem to have failed to articulate in a complementary fashion both economic and prestige-based strategies to strengthen their social status, in contrast to other contemporary regions.
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