Investigating Terminal Preclassic and Classic Period Power and Wealth at K'o, Guatemala

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the relationship between power and wealth in past societies by examining the economic networks through which wealth was distributed at K’o, Guatemala from the Terminal Preclassic through the Classic period (AD 150-900). Long-term patterns in construction activity form the basis of long-term estimates of elite power, and Hirth’s (1998) distributional approach has been employed as part of an examination of wealth. This study has sought to determine the degree to which jade artifacts, shell artifacts, obsidian artifacts, and grinding stones were acquired through elite redistribution, reciprocal luxury gifting among elites, and/or informal barter and marketplace exchange, and tests the hypothesis that a decline in wealth relative to power is dependent upon the networks through which wealth was distributed within this past economy.