The Organization of Chipped-Stone Economies at Piedras Negras ...

knowledge demand a detailed analysis of local economies that takes into account
technology, material, use, style, quantity, distribution, and symbolic meaning, among
others. In this way cross-site comparison may reveal regional patterns that change
through time and space, as well as commonalities between polities that may have been
overlooked in past studies.
In Maya archaeology the nature and existence of markets, class structure, tribute
systems, gift exchange, and even production and consumption are heavily debated topics.
Nevertheless, similarities between polities do appear to exist, for example, in the
universal collection of tribute by the ruling elite. The socio-economic structures and
practices of ancient Maya society appear to differ over space and time, and the plural
nature of local economies is one likely origin of this variation. Rice (1987), McAnany
(1995), and others have modeled a separation between elite and commoner exchange
systems, and a tribute system based on land tenure and land ownership. The first system
is concerned with the exchange of elite goods reserved for only one stratum of society,
whereas the second system describes utilitarian items exchanged between commoners. A
tribute system connects the elite to the commoners and their agricultural surplus through
land tenure. Rice has argued that “rocks” and “pots” simply were not worth the time and
effort of the ruler to control, but resource variability and specific historical contexts make
this statement difficult to apply over the entire lowlands. This position begs the question,
what rocks and what pots at what time? Determining what was controlled and what was
not controlled, and by whom, is a difficult endeavor and one that has not been carried out
with equal fervor in all areas of the Maya world. Furthermore, Clark (n.d.) recently
3