Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings

Maya kings who failed to ensure the prosperity of their kingdoms were subject to various forms of termination, including the ritual defacing and destruction of monuments and even violent death. This is the first comprehensive volume to focus on the varied responses to the failure of Classic period dynasties in the southern lowlands. The contributors offer new insights into the Maya "collapse," evaluating the trope of the scapegoat king and the demise of the traditional institution of kingship in the early ninth century AD--a time of intense environmental, economic, social, political, and even ideological change. Contributors: Palma J. Buttles| Arthur A. Demarest| Hector Escobedo| David Freidel| Charles Golden| Thomas H. Guderjan| C. Colleen Hanratty| Eleanor Harrison-Buck| Brett A. Houk| Stephen D. Houston| Gyles Iannone| Takeshi Inomata| Melanie Kingsley| Olivia C. Navarro-Farr| Claudia Quintanilla| Andrew K. Scherer| Sonja A. Schwake| José Samuel Suasnavar| Christopher Taylor| Fred Valdez Jr. A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Gyles Iannone, professor of anthropology at Trent University, is the editor of The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context.

Brett A. Houk, associate professor of anthropology at Texas Tech University, is the author of Ancient Maya Cities of the Eastern Lowlands.

Sonja A. Schwake is lecturer in anthropology at Pennsylvania State University–Behrend College.