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

Although this passage describes a special event, it demonstrates how production could
involve much more than economic efficiency. To understand the economic and social
interactions involved in this ritual requires more than an application of Western economic
theory.
The Pan-Maya practice of recreating mythical and historical events reveals the
essential role of humans in perpetuating the gods, both through everyday ritualized
practice and special, large-scale ritual events. This process had the recursive effect of
reaffirming social roles in the community and clarifying personhood and social identity
(Clark and Houston 1998; Joyce 2000). It is equally possible that the “profit” gained by
craft specialists could have spurred on horizontal of competition between craft producers
in the same field. Ritual knowledge would have been an important element of this
competition.
The intersection between craft production and personhood recalls the description
of the contact period oficio in ethnohistoric sources (see Clark and Houston 1998:39):
The final step of this developmental process of selfhood involved individual
achievement and office . . . Craft specialties were also considered oficios and
would have been a principal identifier of a person’ particular achievement. In
short, one became a full person by carrying out one’s station or oficio.
During the ceremony of the month of Mol, Landa noted that children were ritually
beaten “so that they might become skillful workmen in the professions of their fathers
and mothers” (see Tozzer 1941:159). Hence, craft production was the bridge between
ritualized mythological reenactment and the individual in society, whereby individuals
from different economic spheres formed social bonds and reaffirmed their world view.
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