Power, Memory, and Prehistory: Constructing and Erasing Political Landscapes in the Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras

摘要

In this article, we explore how research conducted among societies and social segments that are not historically documented can contribute to a comparative study of social memory. Such investigations, it is suggested, might profitably focus on how different population segments strategically used materials of various sorts to create landscapes for the enactment of power and its precedents. By attending to the strategies through which diverse factions in varied times and places yokedmemory and power, we can heighten our appreciation for the ways in which culturally distinct symbols were deployed in broadly comparable processes to centralize control, build hierarchies, and resist both of these effort. This approach is exemplified in the study of the fluid political situation that pertained during the Late Classic (C. E. 600-800) to Terminal Classic (C.E. 800-1000) transition in the Naco Valley, northwestern Honduras.