so my name is Ryan Collins and I want to
start by asking a question and that is
what can we learn about mediating social
difference today from an ancient Maya
city this is a big question right and
we’re going to return to it at the end
but how I want to start is just by
breaking down and unpacking this
question so first when I say social
difference I’m talking about the shared
cultural beliefs that we all have that
also enforce social distinctions on a
society based level so these types of
beliefs they can be based upon religion
they can be based on politics gender
ethnicity or socioeconomic status all of
these grand scale sorts of things but we
can also see these differences occurring
on the small scale for example when I
was a kid my sister and I would go with
my dad on a pilgrimage to see our very
favorite baseball team in Tampa Florida
we were always going to see the New York
Yankees right so when we got the Tampa
and we’re hanging out it was always
better for us we felt more comfortable
if we were hanging out with the Yankees
fans and the Tampa fans were also happy
with that too as far away as you could
go so what I’m trying to illustrate with
this example is it if you’re a fan of
one team versus another you can find
yourself being marked in social on and a
social relationship in one way and if
baseball doesn’t do it for you then
you’re also finding a way to mark your
own social identity in relationship to
that and this is generally how social
differences work by cohesive beliefs
that pull one group together but
paradoxically separate another so I’m an
anthropologist who focuses on the social
past now a show hands how many of you in
here know what anthropology is that’s a
lot this is impressive that’s great now
don’t feel embarrassed how many of you
don’t know what anthropology is or maybe
need to brush up on it okay awesome
I see a couple anthropologist who are
not raising their hands shame on you
now anthropology can basically be summed
up as a discipline that’s focused on one
research question and that is what
brings society’s communities together
and what are the tensions that pull them
apart for anthropology or for many
aspiring anthropologists you never hear
about this topic until you get to
college when I first was picking my
courses for college about 13 years ago I
want to be an English major and I showed
up to the Registrar’s Office
ready to sign up for my English courses
but I showed up a little late and I got
stuck with two courses with anthropology
in the title I reassured my parents for
hours that this would fulfill a general
education requirement this is a sad
thing because anthropology focuses on
again what people come together it’s a
holistic discipline of understanding
people today people in the past and
everywhere it’s all about bringing
social interaction to the foreground but
we tend not to know about until we’re in
a specific space so what I like to study
with this question of what is it that
brings people together
are these rituals of social solidarity
now a ritual of social solidarity is
just an event or people come together
because of a specific theme an idea
something that’s abstract it exists
beyond that of an individual it’s
something communal now take a look
around you today you’ll see many people
sitting here gathered because of a theme
we’re all participating in a collective
ritual of social solidarity right now so
now that we know what these are now that
we’re all familiar with all these
jargony terms like anthropology social
difference in rituals of social
solidarity we can start to move on to
where is it that I’m looking in the
ancient past to understand where such
rituals take place well we need to look
at places around us today so I’m sure
that many of you are familiar with the
Boston Commons central park in New York
or the nosh or the National Mall in
Washington these are places that we tend
not to think much about if you’re going
through passing by and your daily
commute you might be thinking about
where
you’re going you might be having a lunch
break and having existential thoughts
about the day and anything else but
these are also the same arenas where we
see collective engagement with
communities for major events and some of
those large-scale rituals of social
solidarity that we see today are the
March for science the women’s March the
people’s march for climate these are
things that are happening around us they
again bring communities together on an
abstract notion that exists outside of
yourself I was fortunate enough to be at
the March for science in DC just last
weekend and as an archaeologist I’m
interested in the materials that people
have that showcase what these events are
all about so if you take a look at some
of these signs some of my favorite ones
that really demonstrate what these types
of events are about it says science for
the common good again that’s an
individual representing something about
being take being together with a
community that’s much larger than
themselves I want to take us back in
time because we’re going to put on our
anthropological hats right now now that
we have these concepts defined and down
I want to ask when do these rituals of
social solidarity begin and how did
people come together in the past so to
do this I’m gonna take us to a site
called yashuna Yucatan Mexico this was a
city beginning about 3,000 years ago and
at this city you have major monumental
groups you have all of these crazy
features of my society that really
showcase how special this place was but
it didn’t start off that way in the
beginning we ended up finding with my
project proyecto interview now political
de Centro de Yucatan
which is a mouthful so we’re just gonna
call it pipsy now we were interested in
figuring out the earliest occupation of
this city plaza your Town Square your
Boston Commons we wanted to see what
people were doing in the beginnings of
this place and how they’re related to
the development of society and what we
found was that the plaza your commune
space existed before there any
residences before there any households
before there was agriculture in fact the
community was that of a mobile
horticulturalist foraging group or
perhaps several so they’re not living
there but they’re coming together
seasonally annually to do to put on
events to talk about their community
that really put their community at the
foreground and the things that they’re
doing with the initial occupation is
scattering personal adornments now these
beads that you see here they’re not
coming from one individual they’re
coming from the jewelry of several
individuals who helped partake in
building this Plaza for the first time
so that we know that this is a ritual
that takes place for a community it’s
not just one person who’s getting to put
things out there it’s everybody imbuing
this space with a piece of themselves we
also see evidence of feasting and water
catchment
with water catchment we understand that
the ancient Maya society found this to
be a part of ritual significance it
offers up something to the rain god
chalk so having vessels like this for
water catchment emphasize the importance
of ritual belief and the people who are
coming together first now we also have
episodes where we see burning and
isolated patches on a floor now that may
not look like anything because if I was
finding this for the first time and I
did ask this what is that why does it
matter
well that actually lets us know that
people are having feasting events that’s
where you’re cooking for large scale
groups and a very isolated moment so
it’s kind of special now over the next
six hundred years this site undergoes
dramatic change we see that the Center
Plaza our town square is still at the
center of the action but now it’s being
led to by roadways connecting it to our
first major districts of this city and
these first major districts are starting
off on equal footing and because the
plaza is at the center of this districts
at the center of yashuna we know that
community engagement was still at the
foreground that was still the most
valuable thing but there are many
changes happening
this point of time now we’re starting to
see vessels that are more for
individuals we’re starting to see the
incorporation of exotic non-local trade
wares like Jade obsidian and marine
shell from thousands of miles away we’re
also seeing ceramics that are indicative
of fermentation so we know that there’s
agriculture we’re also seeing this
practice of burying axes again this may
not seem like much to us but if you
think about it in the past this is a
means of marking your identity when we
see axes being buried in a public space
like this it relates not just the Maya
centers but the Olmec centers as well
this place has a truly metropolitan feel
to it and it’s bringing in outsiders we
also see the political systems are
shifting as well so before when y’all
should not have been an egalitarian
society things were more open and
communal but now we’re seeing roadways
like this which are essentially stages
or platforms for political events that
are meant for individuals to walk on so
we now know the political systems are
shifting to be more ingrained within one
member of society or at least a cohesive
small group so your social
stratification is now becoming much more
enforced invisible now as I mentioned
before we’re seeing the incorporation of
new symbols in new forms and ways of
life with this cross we’re seeing a pull
as I said before to Olmec to other Maya
centers it’s a symbol that marks Yoshino
as a special Center as a major city
within the Maya landscape and what we
also know is happening at this point of
time his population is increasing and in
an unprecedented level one of the rules
we have to think about with cities in
the ancient past is that they required
outsiders to grow when we think about
cities today we’re lucky we’re very
fortunate that we have modern technology
medicine access to healthcare in the
past
mortality rates would have been much
higher because access to those things
was not available so for a city to grow
and
financial rate you needed to be pulling
in communities from outside so when we
think about yashuna it’s clear that
there would have been an amenity in this
city that they would have had to
understand social difference as a part
of everyday life and the way to mediate
that again was through engagements in
this communal space things wouldn’t
always be this way it wasn’t always
hunky-dory unfortunately as time grew on
our previous Central Plaza our gathering
space for putting community rituals of
social solidarity on the foreground they
disappear this space is abandoned in
fact our early major districts they
start to become abandoned as well and
our only new growth happens at the North
where political powers are clearly being
invested within a single family in fact
now a dynastic ruler who has wealth
that’s greater than that of the rest of
society showcasing that there’s a
complete distinction from what was there
in the past this is no longer a truly
egalitarian society with the plaza we
see it does come to an end for the Maya
they had this thing called the
termination ritual and what that means
is that monumental places like a Plaza
like a building they all had souls so to
terminate it meant it’s a ceremonially
kill it to end its space as a meaning of
significance so when this space is
killed it coincides with this rise of
inequality with a marked showcasing of
difference as being somehow shelved when
I started off this talk today I asked
you the question what can we learn about
mediating social difference from an
ancient Maya city we have to look at the
data we see that a city began because of
community investment because of
community-wide participation
acts that required people to experience
coming together to visibly be there with
one another over time that comes to an
end because these community engagements
are no longer part of your bodily
experience they’re not part
your everyday they’re not part of your
memory when we think about the march for
science today we think about the women’s
March we think about all of these other
protest events these are the rituals of
social solidarity that we need to keep
enforcing we need to retain these as
points of our own experience with one
another or else they’ll fade from our
memory thank you [Applause]
start by asking a question and that is
what can we learn about mediating social
difference today from an ancient Maya
city this is a big question right and
we’re going to return to it at the end
but how I want to start is just by
breaking down and unpacking this
question so first when I say social
difference I’m talking about the shared
cultural beliefs that we all have that
also enforce social distinctions on a
society based level so these types of
beliefs they can be based upon religion
they can be based on politics gender
ethnicity or socioeconomic status all of
these grand scale sorts of things but we
can also see these differences occurring
on the small scale for example when I
was a kid my sister and I would go with
my dad on a pilgrimage to see our very
favorite baseball team in Tampa Florida
we were always going to see the New York
Yankees right so when we got the Tampa
and we’re hanging out it was always
better for us we felt more comfortable
if we were hanging out with the Yankees
fans and the Tampa fans were also happy
with that too as far away as you could
go so what I’m trying to illustrate with
this example is it if you’re a fan of
one team versus another you can find
yourself being marked in social on and a
social relationship in one way and if
baseball doesn’t do it for you then
you’re also finding a way to mark your
own social identity in relationship to
that and this is generally how social
differences work by cohesive beliefs
that pull one group together but
paradoxically separate another so I’m an
anthropologist who focuses on the social
past now a show hands how many of you in
here know what anthropology is that’s a
lot this is impressive that’s great now
don’t feel embarrassed how many of you
don’t know what anthropology is or maybe
need to brush up on it okay awesome
I see a couple anthropologist who are
not raising their hands shame on you
now anthropology can basically be summed
up as a discipline that’s focused on one
research question and that is what
brings society’s communities together
and what are the tensions that pull them
apart for anthropology or for many
aspiring anthropologists you never hear
about this topic until you get to
college when I first was picking my
courses for college about 13 years ago I
want to be an English major and I showed
up to the Registrar’s Office
ready to sign up for my English courses
but I showed up a little late and I got
stuck with two courses with anthropology
in the title I reassured my parents for
hours that this would fulfill a general
education requirement this is a sad
thing because anthropology focuses on
again what people come together it’s a
holistic discipline of understanding
people today people in the past and
everywhere it’s all about bringing
social interaction to the foreground but
we tend not to know about until we’re in
a specific space so what I like to study
with this question of what is it that
brings people together
are these rituals of social solidarity
now a ritual of social solidarity is
just an event or people come together
because of a specific theme an idea
something that’s abstract it exists
beyond that of an individual it’s
something communal now take a look
around you today you’ll see many people
sitting here gathered because of a theme
we’re all participating in a collective
ritual of social solidarity right now so
now that we know what these are now that
we’re all familiar with all these
jargony terms like anthropology social
difference in rituals of social
solidarity we can start to move on to
where is it that I’m looking in the
ancient past to understand where such
rituals take place well we need to look
at places around us today so I’m sure
that many of you are familiar with the
Boston Commons central park in New York
or the nosh or the National Mall in
Washington these are places that we tend
not to think much about if you’re going
through passing by and your daily
commute you might be thinking about
where
you’re going you might be having a lunch
break and having existential thoughts
about the day and anything else but
these are also the same arenas where we
see collective engagement with
communities for major events and some of
those large-scale rituals of social
solidarity that we see today are the
March for science the women’s March the
people’s march for climate these are
things that are happening around us they
again bring communities together on an
abstract notion that exists outside of
yourself I was fortunate enough to be at
the March for science in DC just last
weekend and as an archaeologist I’m
interested in the materials that people
have that showcase what these events are
all about so if you take a look at some
of these signs some of my favorite ones
that really demonstrate what these types
of events are about it says science for
the common good again that’s an
individual representing something about
being take being together with a
community that’s much larger than
themselves I want to take us back in
time because we’re going to put on our
anthropological hats right now now that
we have these concepts defined and down
I want to ask when do these rituals of
social solidarity begin and how did
people come together in the past so to
do this I’m gonna take us to a site
called yashuna Yucatan Mexico this was a
city beginning about 3,000 years ago and
at this city you have major monumental
groups you have all of these crazy
features of my society that really
showcase how special this place was but
it didn’t start off that way in the
beginning we ended up finding with my
project proyecto interview now political
de Centro de Yucatan
which is a mouthful so we’re just gonna
call it pipsy now we were interested in
figuring out the earliest occupation of
this city plaza your Town Square your
Boston Commons we wanted to see what
people were doing in the beginnings of
this place and how they’re related to
the development of society and what we
found was that the plaza your commune
space existed before there any
residences before there any households
before there was agriculture in fact the
community was that of a mobile
horticulturalist foraging group or
perhaps several so they’re not living
there but they’re coming together
seasonally annually to do to put on
events to talk about their community
that really put their community at the
foreground and the things that they’re
doing with the initial occupation is
scattering personal adornments now these
beads that you see here they’re not
coming from one individual they’re
coming from the jewelry of several
individuals who helped partake in
building this Plaza for the first time
so that we know that this is a ritual
that takes place for a community it’s
not just one person who’s getting to put
things out there it’s everybody imbuing
this space with a piece of themselves we
also see evidence of feasting and water
catchment
with water catchment we understand that
the ancient Maya society found this to
be a part of ritual significance it
offers up something to the rain god
chalk so having vessels like this for
water catchment emphasize the importance
of ritual belief and the people who are
coming together first now we also have
episodes where we see burning and
isolated patches on a floor now that may
not look like anything because if I was
finding this for the first time and I
did ask this what is that why does it
matter
well that actually lets us know that
people are having feasting events that’s
where you’re cooking for large scale
groups and a very isolated moment so
it’s kind of special now over the next
six hundred years this site undergoes
dramatic change we see that the Center
Plaza our town square is still at the
center of the action but now it’s being
led to by roadways connecting it to our
first major districts of this city and
these first major districts are starting
off on equal footing and because the
plaza is at the center of this districts
at the center of yashuna we know that
community engagement was still at the
foreground that was still the most
valuable thing but there are many
changes happening
this point of time now we’re starting to
see vessels that are more for
individuals we’re starting to see the
incorporation of exotic non-local trade
wares like Jade obsidian and marine
shell from thousands of miles away we’re
also seeing ceramics that are indicative
of fermentation so we know that there’s
agriculture we’re also seeing this
practice of burying axes again this may
not seem like much to us but if you
think about it in the past this is a
means of marking your identity when we
see axes being buried in a public space
like this it relates not just the Maya
centers but the Olmec centers as well
this place has a truly metropolitan feel
to it and it’s bringing in outsiders we
also see the political systems are
shifting as well so before when y’all
should not have been an egalitarian
society things were more open and
communal but now we’re seeing roadways
like this which are essentially stages
or platforms for political events that
are meant for individuals to walk on so
we now know the political systems are
shifting to be more ingrained within one
member of society or at least a cohesive
small group so your social
stratification is now becoming much more
enforced invisible now as I mentioned
before we’re seeing the incorporation of
new symbols in new forms and ways of
life with this cross we’re seeing a pull
as I said before to Olmec to other Maya
centers it’s a symbol that marks Yoshino
as a special Center as a major city
within the Maya landscape and what we
also know is happening at this point of
time his population is increasing and in
an unprecedented level one of the rules
we have to think about with cities in
the ancient past is that they required
outsiders to grow when we think about
cities today we’re lucky we’re very
fortunate that we have modern technology
medicine access to healthcare in the
past
mortality rates would have been much
higher because access to those things
was not available so for a city to grow
and
financial rate you needed to be pulling
in communities from outside so when we
think about yashuna it’s clear that
there would have been an amenity in this
city that they would have had to
understand social difference as a part
of everyday life and the way to mediate
that again was through engagements in
this communal space things wouldn’t
always be this way it wasn’t always
hunky-dory unfortunately as time grew on
our previous Central Plaza our gathering
space for putting community rituals of
social solidarity on the foreground they
disappear this space is abandoned in
fact our early major districts they
start to become abandoned as well and
our only new growth happens at the North
where political powers are clearly being
invested within a single family in fact
now a dynastic ruler who has wealth
that’s greater than that of the rest of
society showcasing that there’s a
complete distinction from what was there
in the past this is no longer a truly
egalitarian society with the plaza we
see it does come to an end for the Maya
they had this thing called the
termination ritual and what that means
is that monumental places like a Plaza
like a building they all had souls so to
terminate it meant it’s a ceremonially
kill it to end its space as a meaning of
significance so when this space is
killed it coincides with this rise of
inequality with a marked showcasing of
difference as being somehow shelved when
I started off this talk today I asked
you the question what can we learn about
mediating social difference from an
ancient Maya city we have to look at the
data we see that a city began because of
community investment because of
community-wide participation
acts that required people to experience
coming together to visibly be there with
one another over time that comes to an
end because these community engagements
are no longer part of your bodily
experience they’re not part
your everyday they’re not part of your
memory when we think about the march for
science today we think about the women’s
March we think about all of these other
protest events these are the rituals of
social solidarity that we need to keep
enforcing we need to retain these as
points of our own experience with one
another or else they’ll fade from our
memory thank you [Applause]
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