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

conversion of symbolic capital may not have garnered any long-term economic or
material benefit.
The defeat of Ruler 7 in A. D. 808 may have constituted another blow to an
already failing type of social organization. Nevertheless, production activities continued
for decades after the demise of Ruler 7, often in the same residential groups. Hence,
control of the civic economy by the king may not have been substantive during the
Terminal Classic. Overall production declined, but the organization of craft production
remained relatively static.
We should alter our theoretical frameworks to accommodate social aspects of
production, and investigate ways that utilitarian activities may have been religious
experiences, or at least, socially recognized and ideologically potent activities. These
production techniques also have implications for the uses of products. Interpreting the
distinction between ceremonial and utilitarian activities and objects should be reserved
until rigorous analyses are conducted, or until a theoretical framework is constructed that
supports those claims. This reconsideration should begin with the artifact typologies
created and used by modern archaeologists and lithic technologists.
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