Chan: An Ancient Maya Farming Community

6. Ritual in a Farming Community

6 Ritual in a Farming Community Cynthia Robin, James Meierhoff, Caleb Kestle, Chelsea Blackmore, Laura J. Kosakowsky, and Anna C. Novotny This chapter explores ritual practices at Chan’s Central Group and its EGroup . Chan’s community center, with its 5.6 m high east temple, is not remarkable from the perspective of the broader Maya world. But Chan’s residents imbued this place with sacred significance, which continued across the community’s 2,000-year history while the fortunes of royal sacred centers in the vicinity waxed and waned (Robin et al. 2005). The history of ritual at Chan demonstrates that farmers in farming communities innovated many of the rituals archaeologists initially recognized as Classic period royal rituals. As our archaeological research uncovers Chan’s ancient ritual significance not just for scholars but also for contemporary Belizeans , the site once again is becoming a locale for modern farmers’ rituals. Ritual, religion, and worldview are key aspects of any society. Yet archaeologists traditionally consider it difficult to understand ancient ritual and beliefs and question how we could demonstrate the thoughts of nowdeceased people. Increasing interest in the subject of Maya worldview over the past decades produced a plethora of information on the ritual practices of the upper echelons of Maya society (for example, Ashmore 1991; Ashmore and Sabloff 2002; Martin and Grube 2000; Schele and Freidel 1990; Schele and Matthews 1999). In part this is because the Maya nobility recorded their religious beliefs in hieroglyphic writing and elaborate artistic media. For these social strata, ritual was a key aspect of social and political life and the organization of large civic-centers. Still scholars questioned if, in the absence of ancient texts and images, we can understand Maya farmers’ rituals and beliefs. Just a decade ago, Johnston and Gonlin (1998) noted in a review of the meaning of commoner houses that our ability to understand commoner worldview through their 114 · C. Robin, J. Meierhoff, C. Kestle, C. Blackmore, L. Kosakowsky, and A. Novotny poorly preserved houses has yet to be demonstrated. Are farmers simply the masses that filled the open plazas of large Maya civic-centers? What role did ritual and religion play in farmers’ lives? Did farmers understand the religious pomp and circumstance performed at Maya civic-centers? Could farmers’ popular religion have had an impact on Maya state religious practices? Over the past decade, Maya studies have begun to answer these questions (Gonlin and Lohse 2007; McAnany 2004a; Plunket 2002; Robin 2003). Understanding ritual in the absence of the texts and images that Maya royalty left behind is certainly a more difficult task. But just as Maya royalty and nobility expressed their beliefs in material media and their ritual practices left behind material traces, the rituals and beliefs of other social strata are found in the material traces of their practices. Ritual can certainly be a monumental practice, but it can also be an ordinary practice, involving ordinary places and things (for example, Blackmore 2011; Brady and Ashmore 1999; Brown and Sheets 2000; Gonlin and Lohse 2007; Lohse 2000; Lucero 2010; McAnany 2004a; Mock 1998; Plunket 2002; Robin 2002a; Walker and Lucero 2000). Archaeologists willing to look for ritual in ordinary places, activities, and things can discern the religious practices of all members of a society. Research at Chan reveals information on the religious practices and worldview of Maya farmers—from the views of the humblest farmer to those of community leaders (for example, chs. 4, 8, 9, 12, 13, and 15, this vol.). This chapter focuses on the organization and practices of communityscale ritual that took place in its Central Group under the auspices of Chan’s leaders. Here we bring together the work of a number of researchers. Jim Meierhoff, Caleb Kestle, Chelsea Blackmore, and Ethan Kalosky supervised excavations at Chan’s Central Group (Blackmore 2003; Kestle 2004, 2005; Meierhoff et al. 2004). Laura Kosakowsky (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and ch. 3, this vol.) undertook ceramic analysis and chronological assessments, and Anna Novotny (2007, 2008, and ch. 12, this vol.; Novotny and Kosakowsky 2009) conducted osteological analysis. Chan’s Central Group The Central Group and West Plaza make up Chan’s community center (figure 6.1). The Central Group is the largest architectural complex at Chan and was its main location for community-level ceremony, administration, and adjudication. As well, it houses a residence for Chan’s leading family. Ritual in a Farming Community · 115...