The Life-Giving Stone: Ethnoarchaeology of Maya Metates

4. Modern Patterns of Acquisition, Use, Discard, and Reuse

After being finished at the quarries and the home workshops of metateros, grinding stones are sold at the local market, or occasionally, wholesalers will purchase metates for resale in other parts of Guatemala. Many aspects of the sale and distribution of grinding stones among the Nahualá and Jilotepeque metateros mirror those reported in Cook’s study. For example, metateros from my research area predominantly sell their products in local markets. They also sell to local end buyers, who will use the tools in their own homes or sell them to distributors who sell the metates in other towns at marked-up prices. Cook (1982) described the marketing of manos and metates in Oaxaca , Mexico, presenting an extremely detailed analysis of the structure of this economic system, with information on competition, transportation costs, spatial patterns, circulatory routes, price structure, and other significant aspects. The sale of grinding stones in the Oaxaca Valley involves several people with distinct roles, including the propio, who sells metates he made himself, and the regatón, “an individual who is not a native of the producing village and who buys metates for resale in his home village or elsewhere” (Cook 1982:253). Regatones can also be finishers of metates and manos, who purchase crudely finished products from metateros and complete the final stages of smoothing themselves, making them ready to sell. On the consumer side of the market, regatones buy finished products in big or small lots and resell them either at a local market, at “hinterland marketplaces,” or in their permanent stall or shop within a market (Cook 1982:253–254). Cook (1982:251–252) also identified several routes of circulation for manos and metates. For example, propios, from their home workshops, four Modern Patterns of Acquisition, Use, Discard, and Reuse acquisition, use, discard, and reuse 67 can sell directly to an end buyer, to a regatón, or they can transport their product to the marketplace for sale. Distribution concludes when the metate and mano arrive at the home of a consumer, who will either use the grinding stone or offer it as a gift to someone. A few instances of barter were also observed among the Zapotec metateros, such as the trade of semi-finished metates in exchange for prepared food, dried beans, the use of an ox team, a crowbar, and even for labor involved in “finishing services on three unfinished metates” (Cook 1982:256). Also at times, metateros do not sell or exchange their manos and metates but rather give them to a bride who is a godchild or relative (Cook 1982:254), a tradition of gifting also practiced among the Q’eqchi’, K’iche’, and Poqomam of the Guatemalan highlands. Dary and Esquivel (1991:9–10) explain that in San Luis Jilotepeque the retail prices of metates are determined by size as well as the distance of the marketplace from the quarry. Metateros sell directly to end buyers or to middlemen (like the regatones of Oaxaca), who then distribute as far as Cobán, Alta Verapaz, El Salvador, and Honduras. Ramon, an informant from the Coxoh Ethnoarchaeological Project, sold directly to “store owners, finca owners, and the native population” (Nelson 1987a:155). Most of his product was purchased at fiesta markets, usually in Chiantla, which is a short distance from his home in Malacatancito, Guatemala. He also traveled to several other fiesta markets in towns in the highlands of western Guatemala (Nelson 1987a:154). The system of exchange and sale in Mexico and Guatemala has probably changed dramatically since precolonial times, particularly with the introduction of motorized vehicles for transport and the use of coin or paper currency. Still, plaza marketplaces continue to play a principal role. Cook (1982:257) describes the dual function of the plaza as “an arena of concentrated supply and demand where one can find buyers for what one brings to sell and sellers of what one needs to buy.” Plazas were an integral part of the system of trade for the people of precolonial Mesoamerica and remain so for those who live in these areas today. One block from the center plaza of Nahualá’s market, metateros bring their newly sculpted manos and metates to sell, typically to people who negotiate the price and take the stones home (fig. 4.1). chapter four 68 Broken manos can be easily replaced at the market. Some metateros bring more manos than metates because of the...