Copyright by Micaela Nerio Obledo 2011 - The University of Texas ...

Given the above discussion of prestige goods and definitions of status, it follows
that the command and control of the finite and variable surplus labor resource
utilized for prestige good manufacture would fall to (an) individual(s) of elevated
social status who would be esteemed and admired by the non‐elite population for
their economic and other successes, indicated by their ability to possess prestige
technologies. The recruitment or conscription of surplus labor forces for the
sourcing and manufacture of prestige technologies was a right, power or privilege
engendered from the category of elite status, which was itself an ascribed status.
This ascribed status classification of ‘elite’ was perpetuated or maintained by these
same material markers or sanctions of status represented by prestige technologies,
establishing a recurrent cycle allowing for the reification and progressive
elaboration of the elite class.
While the possibility does exist that elite status evidenced in the current data
was achieved rather than ascribed, per the definitions discussed above (Foladare
1969; Linton 1936), this cannot be convincingly or certainly argued without more
data. Necessary data includes a detailed study of all osteological material from all
three sites for any indications as to occupational specialization (i.e. – malformations
or anomalous bone characteristics consistent with a repetitive motion or suite of
motions indicative of task performance) and corroborating or supplemental
epigraphic or iconographic evidence. This combination of data is not presently
available for the Preclassic at these sites, therefore I contend that the more
empirically and theoretically sound conclusion is that the social differentiation
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