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1 results

  • Nine - Conflict

  • from Part II - Epigraphic Data on Classic Maya Politics
  • Simon Martin, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    Ancient Maya Politics
    Published online:
    13 July 2020
    Print publication:
    18 June 2020, pp 196-236

  • Summary

    Divided political landscapes such as that of the Classic Maya are, with a relentless regularity, filled with competing ambitions and deeply felt animosities. The periodic rupture of hidden fault-lines exposes where the pressure points and conflicting interests lay at any one time. War is one of the most complex of all social phenomena. While violent conduct may seem chaotic and emotionally driven it is, in the end, grounded in a calculation between the risks and rewards sufficient to motivate a life-threatening activity. Nonetheless, wherever we find it, warfare is shaped by powerful cultural understandings that dictate its form and meaning and these comprise an equal part with any pragmatic understanding.