Sr and O Isotopes in the Classic and Postclassic Maya Northern Lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula: A Metadata Analysis of Social and Gender-Related Reasons for Residential Mobility

Abstract

Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial changes during Classic and Postclassic periods. Such changes rested upon migratory events - among others – and isotopic analyses permit to quantify the extent of residential mobility and the potential places of origin by sex, age and other social determinants. The purpose of the present metadata analysis is to summarize the currently available studies, looking at their results all together in order to identify and discuss potential patterns of residential mobility that may be highlighted in terms of places of origin, sex and age at death in this specific region of the Maya realm. The overall picture that emerges is that mobility in the region was not limited to one sex and one specific age group, nor that it was prerogative of any social level. A variety of reasons lays behind residential mobility, including trade, kinship, marital residence, and elite marriage alliances to reinforce power or establish new outposts. Further and more detailed analyses will permit to shed new light on this complex and entangled process that shaped the peninsula’s society during the times preceding the colonial era.

Keywords: Isotopic analysis, Maya Prehispanic, Residential mobility, Interregional migration