Latin American Antiquity· 2026Q1
Vibrant Maya Ruins: Community Territorialization in Ake, Yucatán, Mexico
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Short summary
Maya ruins in Ake, Yucatán, were not abandoned after Classic period collapse but transformed into 'vibrant entities' that fostered community life through interactions with plants, animals, deities, and ancestors from AD 1100-1550.
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Key points
- Maya cities in northern Yucatán did not necessarily face abandonment after the Classic period collapse (AD 300-900).
- Ruins in Ake, Yucatán, became 'vibrant entities' from AD 1100-1550, fostering community life.
- These ruins prompted interactions with plants, animals, and materialized deities/ancestors.
- The study presents an ancestral Maya perspective of ruins as lively, more-than-human community members.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract The ruination of many Maya cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula toward the end of the Classic period (AD 300–900) did not necessarily bring about abandonment in those spaces. On the contrary, the transformation of monumental Maya architecture to heaps of rubble fostered new relations among humans, matter, and other-than-human entities in ancestral places. This article examines the formation and dissolution of a community in Ake’s epicenter, an ancestral Maya city located in present-day Yucatán, Mexico, from approximately AD 1100 to 1550. By AD 1000, monumental buildings were transforming into ruins due to human neglect and the action of gravity, erosion, humidity, and vegetation. These ruins were vibrant entities that prompted the growth of plants, attracted animals, materialized deities and ancestors, and generated human affects, conditions that assembled community life after political collapse. This article offers a glimpse into an ancestral Maya perspective on ruins. This Indigenous perspective was relational, nonhuman centered, and conceived of ruins as lively entities in more-than-human communities.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Latin American Antiquity, 2026 · DOI ↗
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