CHAPTER 2 LATE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA 113Meat was plentiful as indicated by abundant quantities of deer, turkey, peccary (wild
pig), and dog at sites like Mayapan, or fish at sites on Cozumel Island. Although
hunting was the most common means of securing wild game such as deer and pec-
cary, at Mayapan, deer were raised in captivity. Dogs and turkeys were domesticated
by Mesoamerican peoples long before the Postclassic period, and the degree to which
dogs were a food source varies strikingly according to region. Along with other ani-
mals, they were commonly used for ritual sacrifice.
Despite efforts toward self-sufficiency, communities were limited by the degree
to which resources were unevenly distributed. Sometimes settlements within a polity
depended on each other for raw materials; for example, Mayapan flint-knappers ob-
tained raw chalcedony cobbles from another town, since no outcrop was located
near the city. Craftspersons who made shell ornaments at inland towns depended
on coastal towns for the marine shells themselves.
Family and community land ownership is documented for the lowland Mayan
peoples. Sites such as Mayapan and Cozumel (along with earlier sites) are divided by
a maze of houselot boundary walls. Field walls are also documented that delineated
agricultural plots belonging to specific social groups, as Freidel and Sabloff (1984)
argue for Cozumel. Nobles owned valuable orchards, particularly those with cacao
or edible fruits. Although towns held some land in common, improvements to prop-
erty (e.g., orchards) were probably privately owned, as Ralph Roys (1957) suggests.
Mayan Politics. Matthew Restall’s (1997) ethnohistoric research indicates that
the cah,or community, was the principal unit of social and political affiliation. The
cah represented a town and its agricultural landholdings, a political unit of
governance, and the center of social identity for its members. Two other primary
units of identity were social classes and the ch’ibal,an out-marrying extended
family (or lineage) group. The ch’ibalprovided a basis for sociopolitical subunits
and economic organization within the cah.Specific, allied ch’ibalgroups would
often maintain marriage alliances with each other, and this practice helped to
preserve social-class standing across generations.
Mayan society had three primary social classes: nobles (almehen), commoners
(macehual), and slaves, although a range of social statuses was possible within these
categories. Restall has identified four levels of social status within the Colonial period:
almehenoband four levels within the macehualob(this status division probably had pre-
contact precedents). Nobles comprised about 25 percent of society. Female slaves
(munach) and male slaves (ppentac) were common in Yucatec Mayan society. Warfare
was often performed for the purpose of raiding for captives, some of whom were
sacrificed, whereas others became slaves. Slaves were used in the local economy and
were also exported to Central Mexico.
Ethnohistorian Ralph Roys identified sixteen distinct Mayan polities during the
sixteenth century, and one other polity has been proposed by Grant Jones in the
central/northeastern Belize area (Figure 2.18). These polities were referred to by the
Mayan term cuchcabal,which signified a town’s geographic jurisdiction. The organi-
zation of these polities varied from those that had a three-tier political hierarchy, led