Living With the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society

by Patricia A. McAnany

"Argues that ancestor veneration is a fundamental feature of the Maya cultural tradition at all socioeconomic levels. Uses ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological information to explore relationships among ancestors, lineages, and land tenure on the one hand, and systems of social inequality and political power on the other"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

229 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jeb Card · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important book for suggesting the importance of kinship ideas and organization to prehispanic Maya society and the role of kinship ideology in the creation of Maya chiefdoms and kingship. Not well put together, either leaving too much archaeological evidence out or getting into tangents. Nonetheless, an important work in reframing Maya archaeology through a cultural and not materialistic/ecological lens.