The “Tributary” Relationships among the Yucatan Maya on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest (16th Century): An Ethnocultural Analysis

Abstract

The article is devoted to the relatively unexplored question of the pre-Columbian tributary relationships in the late Yucatec Mayan Society on the Eve of the Spanish conquest in an anthropological perspective. The author insists that our sources do reflect some ritual and “prestige” aspects of the so-called pre-Columbian “tributary” system. In fact, the cultural analysis of the reports on the pre-Hispanic “tribute” reveals the features of the more “primitive” redistribution system and ideology of the “prestige economy” system in the terms of modern anthropology. The “prestige economy” was studied for the Mayan area on the basis of the relatively late ethnological data (XVII–XX cc.) related to communities reformed by the Spanish (cabildo government, cofradia brotherhoods for the catholic cult). It is impossible to apply it to the earliest times before the conquest. Still, this data exists for the conquest period, but it is largely neglected by “mesoamerican” ethnologists. We can try to examine it through information on the pre-colonial tribute among the Maya.