In the past two decades the literature shifted away from discussions revolving around the influence of other cultures on the Maya to increasingly more particularistic Maya-centric research. aya studies over the past several decades can be seen to have undergone paradigmatic shifts in focus. Si bien no refuta la función económica de la obsidiana esta investigación también analiza la forma en que ésta podía haber codificado la identidad a la vez que simbolizaba una hegemonía de una alianza concentrada en Teotihuacan. A fin de examinar cómo puede haber influido Teotihuacan a la industria de la obsidiana en la zona maya se utiliza un punto de vista funcional contextualizado al analizar los cambios en la distribución de la obsidiana. Al dirigirse a estos patrones en flujo durante el período Formativo Tardío y el Clásico Temprano el presente estudio identifica un elemento fundamental y mayormente ignorado para las implicaciones más amplias de este cambio. Se ha planteado durante mucho tiempo que Teotihuacan, por medio de Kaminaljuyu, influyó las industrias mayas de obsidiana en las tierras altas de Guatemala y por razones económicas alteró su patrón de utilización de fuentes. Como bien alterna su identidad como sustancia de bienes comerciales de alto estatus, de símbolo ideológico y de artículos domésticos, también puede considerarse indicación de nexos interregionales. Resumen Aunque haya acuerdo general en cuanto a la ubicuidad de la obsidiana en las colecciones arqueológicas existe menos acuerdo sobre la interpretación de su presencia en las antiguas comunidades mesoamericanas. While not refuting the valuable economic function of obsidian in Maya society this paper also discusses the way this valued item may have encoded ideas of identity and symbolised a Teotihuacan-centred hegemony of allied cities. Using a functional contextual viewpoint to analyse the shifting patterns of obsidian distribution, this paper reexamines the role Teotihuacan may have played in influencing the obsidian industry in the Maya area. Looking at the shifting patterns of obsidian source utilization in the Late Formative and Early Classic periods this paper identifies a pivotal, and long overlooked, key to understanding the broader implications of this shift. It has been long advocated that Teotihuacan, by way of Kaminaljuyu, influenced the Maya obsidian industries in Highland Guatemala and altered the pattern of source utilization for economic reasons. Alternately identified as high status trade goods, an ideological symbol, and a utilitarian domestic item, obsidian may also be a marker of interregional affiliations. While archaeologists generally agree as to the ubiquity of obsidian in archaeological collections there is less agreement as to the implications of its presence in ancient Mesoamerican communities. Clearly, not all blades from this ritual deposit were blood-letters, which raises questions about the manner in which such a ritual deposit was formed and the nature of ritual activity associated with caching behavior at Classic period Maya sites. Although some blades were used to let blood, the edge and surface wear on most of the used obsidian blades are consistent with other functions, including cutting meat/skin/fresh hide, cutting or sawing wood and dry hide, cutting or sawing other soft and hard materials, and scraping hard materials. The obsidian blood-letters recovered from the cache were used in cutting, piercing, and piercing-twisting motions. The results of the analyses indicate that some blades from the cache may have been used to let blood however, not all obsidian blades appear to have been used in the same way. 550–650 CE) dedicatory cache at the site of Pook's Hill, Belize, serve as a test case to explore the relationship between obsidian blades and ancient Maya auto-sacrificial blood-letting. The technological and use-wear analyses of 48 obsidian blades recovered from a Late Classic (c. In contrast, microscopic use-wear analysis of lithic artifacts can be used to examine blades for evidence of their use, and-provided comparative experimental data are available-to determine if they were blood-letters. Such a deductive approach does not provide a means to determine whether individual blades were used to let blood. Most evidence supporting this interpretation is circumstantial and derives from iconographic and ethnohistoric sources. A B S T R A C T When recovered from ritual contexts at ancient Maya sites, obsidian blades are frequently viewed as blood-letters used for auto-sacrifice.
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