Papers by Mikael Haller
Mucho más que un puente terrestre: Avances de la arqueología en Panamá, 2021
Un cambio clave en la historia de la humanidad es la aparición y el desarrollo de la desigualdad ... more Un cambio clave en la historia de la humanidad es la aparición y el desarrollo de la desigualdad social; por eso, ha sido un tema central en la literatura antropológica (Flannery y Marcus 2012). A lo largo de Costa Rica y Panamá, el periodo Formativo tardío (300-600 d. C.) corresponde a una época de rápido cambio social y tecnológico (Hoopes 2005) que incluye transformaciones de los patrones de asentamiento, la aparición de grandes construcciones arquitectónicas y el desarrollo de industrias artísticas formales (Frost y Quilter 2012). En la región central de Panamá, durante el desarrollo del estilo Cubitá (500-700 d. C.), se produjo un momento decisivo, con un cambio radical que condujo a una mayor interacción grupal y desigualdad socioeconómica. El apogeo del estilo Cubitá comienza a consolidar los cacicazgos, ya que las redes socioeconómicas estaban enfocadas en «obtener, producir y distribuir bienes que eran emblemas de poder» (Sánchez y Cooke 2000:7). Este intercambio, que incluye a la mayoría de grupos sociales en la bahía de Parita, es lo que genera una zona de interacción Cubitá. Por supuesto, aún se necesita claridad sobre quién creó estas artesanías y cómo se intercambiaron.
Hay una gran diversidad en la organización
Cuadernos de Antropología, Universidad de Costa Rica , 2019
Many of the characteristics of Panamanian societies described by the Spanish during the conquest,... more Many of the characteristics of Panamanian societies described by the Spanish during the conquest, had been established much earlier. In the Central Region of Panama, social change was usually not a radical departure from dominant socioeconomic patterns but was incorporated into existing strategies. In this paper, I examine change and continuity through the archaeological record in the Parita River Valley focusing on the early occupational sequence (9200-100 BC). More specifically, I examine how general patterns, such as regional exchange, techno-ecological adaptation of the subsistence economy, and increasing social identity and differentiation were established in the Preceramic and Early Ceramic Periods and endured, albeit transformed, into the Late Ceramic Period. The continuity of these trends supports the long cultural development in the Central Region of Panama without the need of explaining social change as the result of migration.
Canto Rodado , 2017
Muchas de las sociedades prehispánicas de Panamá
se han caracterizado por una autoridad centraliz... more Muchas de las sociedades prehispánicas de Panamá
se han caracterizado por una autoridad centralizada
que ejercía mucho poder y la capacidad de amasar muchas
riquezas. Esto ha sido detallado por los cronistas
españoles y apoyado por las excavaciones de entierros
elaborados. Los resultados del Proyecto Arqueológico
Río Parita (PARP), por el contrario, sugieren que hubo
más autonomía socioeconómica de la que se pensaba.
Reconozco que la desigualdad social existía, claramente,
y que la ideología de élite, expresada a través de fiestas y
ritos funerarios en los bohíos cacicales, tuvo algún papel
en la integración del grupo. En base a nuestros estudios
me pregunto si las relaciones sociales y la identidad se
explican mejor usando otros modelos que aquellos que
se centran en la integración sancionada por las élites. Estoy
a favor de que la identidad era más un producto de la
negociación constante de la tensión social entre los grupos
en el valle y que la ideología de élite fue un intento de
enmascarar el conflicto social inherente. Esta discusión se
centra en cómo el espacio, tanto residencial como sagrado,
fue un elemento clave en la creación y la expresión
de la identidad social en escalas diferentes de análisis
dentro de un sistema social de un cacicazgo “unificado”.
Canto Rodado, 2013
La aparición y el desarrollo de la desigualdad social en el mundo ha sido un tema central en la l... more La aparición y el desarrollo de la desigualdad social en el mundo ha sido un tema central en la literatura antropológica, ya que aborda un cambio fundamental en la historia de la humanidad. Utilizando la misma línea de investigación, examinamos el cambio social en el valle del río Parita y cómo ciertas actividades socioeconómicas influyeron en la aparición de una jerarquía social en dicho valle. En concreto, se analiza la relación entre los episodios de cambio social y los siguientes factores: la organización sociopolítica, la especialización artesanal e interdependencia económica, y el control y la movilización de recursos de subsistencia. Los resultados de este proyecto sugieren que la existencia de cacicazgos con grandes disparidades en la riqueza y el poder, como fue detallado por los cronistas en el siglo dieciséis en Panamá, no era exactamente el caso del valle del río Parita. Por otro lado, encontramos más autonomía socioeconómica de la que se pensaba. La desigualdad social existió, claramente, pero el estatus de las élites no se basó particularmente en el control de la economía local, sino que se basó en la política y la manipulación de las relaciones socioeconómicas. De hecho, no se debe asumir la existencia de un poder de élite como tal, sino que las relaciones sociales se entienden mejor como una constante negociación entre los diferentes grupos sociales del valle.
The emergence and development of social inequality around the world has been a central theme in the anthropological literature as it addresses a key change in human history. Using similar lines of inquiry, we have investigated social change in the Parita river valley using several different scales of analysis. Within the Parita river valley research zone, there is evidence of human settlement spanning the Paleoindian Period continuously up to Spanish colonization. This research zone, therefore, provides an excellent opportunity to examine societal development over long periods of time. Through a program of surface collections and small-scale excavations at several second and third-order archaeological sites, we compare our results to previous works at the valley’s chiefly center and information from a systematic regional survey. Here, we examine how certain socioeconomic activities influenced the emergence of a social hierarchy in the Parita river valley. More specifically, we examine the relationship between episodes of social change and the following factors: sociopolitical organization, craft specialization and economic interdependence, and control and mobilization of subsistence resources. The results of this project suggest that the existence of chiefdoms with great disparities in wealth and power, as detailed by the chroniclers in the sixteenth century for Panama, was not exactly the case for the Parita river valley. On the other hand, we have found that there was more socioeconomic autonomy than previously thought. Social inequality did exist, but elite status was not based securely in the control of the local economy, but relied on politicking and manipulating elite socioeconomic relationships. In fact, elite power should not be assumed, and social relations are best understood as a constant negotiation among the valley’s different social groups. This research project addresses similar concerns to those regional specialists investigating the formation of complex societies from other parts of the world. Therefore, in examining our database of archaeological information from Panama, we address important anthropological questions in understanding the relationship between social complexity and the control and manipulation of socioeconomic status.
Latin American Antiquity, Dec 2012
Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 2012
Investigation into the production and distribution of craft goods has long been an important focu... more Investigation into the production and distribution of craft goods has long been an important focus in archaeological research. This is partly due to the pattern of increasing labour specialization correlated with increasing disparities in socioeconomic inequality—an important transition in human history. This paper focuses on existing systems of social hierarchy and how craft specialization shaped domestic activities and social position. More specifically, we examine embedded production at the late pre-Columbian center of He-4 in the Central Region of Panama and argue that it played an important role in maintaining elite access to prestige goods. Through a consideration of the social context of production in elite households, it is argued that embedded specialization is more likely to develop during periods of intense sociopolitical competition.
La Revista de la Arqueologia del Area Intermedia, 2010
La arqueología panameña está llena de información importante influida de investigaciones y activi... more La arqueología panameña está llena de información importante influida de investigaciones y actividades inmorales. Para empezar, los documentos españoles del siglo XVI, al igual que las observaciones e interpretaciones de los primeros cronistas de Latinoamérica, que han sido instrumentales en la interpretación del registro arqueológico de Panamá, han sido influenciados por prejuicios coloniales y reflejan el maltrato hacia el pueblo indígena. Aunque hubo grandes proyectos de instituciones extranjeras, la mayoría de la arqueología que se realizó en Panamá hasta los años setenta estaba operada por la Sociedad de la Arqueología Panameña (SAP)—básicamente una asociación de huaqueros profesionales establecidos en la zona del Canal de los EE.UU. Adicionalmente, algunos arqueólogos que trabajaban en Suramérica y América Central (incluyendo Panamá) han sido acusados de utilizar la arqueología como un medio para el espionaje. En este ensayo se examinará cómo las excavaciones ilegales y las prácticas inmorales han influido en la arqueología panameña mientras se expone cómo los más recientes investigadores han emendado estas relaciones del pasado y han formulado nuevos puntos de vista.
Journal of Archaeology from the Intermediate Area, 2010
Panamanian archaeology has had a tumultuous past. Foremost, sixteenth-century Spanish documents h... more Panamanian archaeology has had a tumultuous past. Foremost, sixteenth-century Spanish documents have been instrumental in interpreting the archaeological record; however, as with many early chroniclers in Latin America, those in Panama were heavily biased in their observations and interpretations and reflect the mistreating of indigenous populations. Although several major institutional projects occurred, the majority of archaeology conducted in Panama up to the 1970s was carried out under the auspices of the Panamanian Archaeology Association—more or less, a professional looting club based in the U.S.A. Canal Zone. Additionally, some archaeologists working in South and Central America (including Panama) have been accused of using archaeology as a front for conducting espionage. This paper will examine how archaeology in Panama has been shaped by suspect excavations and unethical practices while illustrating how recent investigators are dealing with these past relationships and forging new inroads.
The Political Economy of Ancient Mesoamerica: Transformations during the Formative and Classic Periods, 2007
The general trajectory of social change in Mesoamerica through the Formative and Classic was towa... more The general trajectory of social change in Mesoamerica through the Formative and Classic was toward larger scale sociopolitical organization, greater centralization, increasing complexity, and stronger hierarchy. The change culminated in the states and even empires of the Classic period that lie at the heart of the definition of Mesoamerica as a culture area. This general Mesoamerican growth pattern is formed by broad parallels between the developmental trajectories of a number of smaller regions—trajectories that, when examined close-up, show considerable variability in scale, nature, and pacing. Explicit comparison of what happened in different regions has long been seen as enlightening, and such comparisons have quite naturally focused on those regions experiencing the most spectacular or precocious development (e.g., Blanton et al. 1993; Sanders and Santley 1983; Sanders and Webster 1978). Regions not showing such development, or showing it in only very attenuated form, do not typically receive much attention in these comparative contexts. The Tehuacán Valley, for example, as famous as it is for its evidence relating to the establishment of sedentary agricultural living, has played little role in studies of Mesoamerican state development because by the Late Formative it was vastly overshadowed by the social development of neighbors in practically every direction. While the Tehuacán trajectory does show the general trend of increasing scale and organizational complexity, the region clearly did not finish in the money in the Mesoamerican Classic state sweepstakes. Our aim here is to look at some aspects of the archaeological evidence for social change in Tehuacán during the Formative and Classic, seeking to understand better to what extent the Tehuacán trajectory parallels those of its more developed neighbors, including when and how it diverges from them. We will focus in particular on patterns of community interaction as these relate to the emergence of increasingly centralized sociopolitical formations.
Parita: 450 Años de Cultura y Tradición, 2008
El propósito de las investigaciones fue determinar en que medida la producción de bienes se const... more El propósito de las investigaciones fue determinar en que medida la producción de bienes se constituyó en un factor significativo en el desarrollo de los cacicazgos en el valle del Río Parita. El sitio He-4 (El Hatillo, Finca Juan Calderón), ubicado en Palo Grande, brindó una excelente oportunidad de investigar el papel de la producción artesanal en el desarrollo de dicho sistema de organización social debido a su posición como asentamiento principal entre los asentamientos en el Valle del río Parita. Asumiendo que la producción de bienes fue importante para la economía política de esta jefatura, se espera que aquellas actividades hayan sido realizadas en He-4. Dado que el sitio fue ocupado continuamente desde 250 a.C. hasta el siglo 16, se tiene una secuencia de ocupación lo suficientemente prolongada como para rastrear la trayectoria de una jefatura incluyendo sus orígenes, establecimiento y desarrollo subsiguiente.
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2006
Books/Manuscripts by Mikael Haller
University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology, 2008
Having contributed to early definitions of chiefdoms, the pre-Columbian societies that developed ... more Having contributed to early definitions of chiefdoms, the pre-Columbian societies that developed in the Central Region of Panama during the last millennium before Spanish contact in A.D. 1515 have been considered by many specialists in cultural evolution to be archetypes of ranked societies. This investigation was designed to examine the emergence of chiefly societies and evaluate current models used for interpreting the development of social complexity in Panama. It was necessary, first, to determine when social ranking emerged and then to explore how specific sociopolitical and economic factors influenced the development and operation of pre-Columbian chiefly societies up to the time of European contact. The strategy adopted in this study focused on a regional settlement survey, documenting 1700 years of social change in a 104 km2 area of the Río Parita Valley of central Panama.
At no time during the pre-Columbian occupation in the valley did population levels come even close to carrying capacity, so demographic stress on subsistence resources, or leading to conflict, does not appear to have been an important factor in chiefly emergence. Although the presence of warfare could not be substantiated from the survey data, status rivalry and warfare is mentioned with some regularity in the ethnohistoric accounts and was most likely present during the pre-Columbian period. The location of the main chiefly center 14 km from the coast in low fertility land does not support the idea that controlling subsistence production was crucial to elite power. On the other hand, ethnohistoric accounts describe chiefly larders full of subsistence goods, suggesting that mobilizing these goods was important to the development of social ranking. By A.D. 550, the standardization of craft goods and their wide distribution throughout the Central Region implies the existence of macro-regional exchange networks. Settlement changes in the Río Parita Valley at the same time suggest that local, regional, and macro-regional exchange was most likely involved in the emergence of chiefly societies; however, the lack of long-distance trade goods found in the Río Parita and other valleys in the Central Region does not indicate that long-distance trading was a foundation of elite power.
Early Formative sites (1800-1000 B.C.) from the Mazatán zone in Chiapas, Mexico have the potentia... more Early Formative sites (1800-1000 B.C.) from the Mazatán zone in Chiapas, Mexico have the potential to address important questions concerning the nature of hereditary ranking in the archaeological record. Using an agency based approach, Clark and Blake (1994) develop a model to explain processes of social change from the Mazatán zone. They argue that certain archaeological indicators support the hypothesis that hereditary inequality existed by the Locona phase (1400-1250 B.C.). In this thesis, I evaluate the specific lines of evidence used by Clark and Blake to support their hypothesis and offer an alternate. From this examination, I argue that the archaeological evidence cannot defend this model and their hypothesis is rejected. The data from Early Formative societies in the Mazatán zone better supports the existence of achieved, but not ascribed status. As more information is made available, the nature of sociocultural change from the Mazatán will become clearer.
Book Reviews by Mikael Haller
The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History, 2021
Latin American Antiquity, 2017
The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History , 2021
Books by Mikael Haller
Cacicazgos en las Américas Estudios en homenaje a Robert D. Drennan, 2023
La presente obra es un reconocimiento al aporte que Robert D. Drennan ha hecho en diferentes ámbi... more La presente obra es un reconocimiento al aporte que Robert D. Drennan ha hecho en diferentes ámbitos de la arqueología en las Américas, no solo a través de sus investigaciones y publicaciones sino también como tutor de un considerable número de arqueólogos formados en el programa de doctorado de la Universidad de Pittsburgh, EUA. Los once artículos que se incluyen en este volumen abordan diversos tópicos relacionados con las trayectorias de cambio de distintas sociedades complejas prehispánicas en Latinoamérica, especialmente los denominados cacicazgos.
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Papers by Mikael Haller
Hay una gran diversidad en la organización
se han caracterizado por una autoridad centralizada
que ejercía mucho poder y la capacidad de amasar muchas
riquezas. Esto ha sido detallado por los cronistas
españoles y apoyado por las excavaciones de entierros
elaborados. Los resultados del Proyecto Arqueológico
Río Parita (PARP), por el contrario, sugieren que hubo
más autonomía socioeconómica de la que se pensaba.
Reconozco que la desigualdad social existía, claramente,
y que la ideología de élite, expresada a través de fiestas y
ritos funerarios en los bohíos cacicales, tuvo algún papel
en la integración del grupo. En base a nuestros estudios
me pregunto si las relaciones sociales y la identidad se
explican mejor usando otros modelos que aquellos que
se centran en la integración sancionada por las élites. Estoy
a favor de que la identidad era más un producto de la
negociación constante de la tensión social entre los grupos
en el valle y que la ideología de élite fue un intento de
enmascarar el conflicto social inherente. Esta discusión se
centra en cómo el espacio, tanto residencial como sagrado,
fue un elemento clave en la creación y la expresión
de la identidad social en escalas diferentes de análisis
dentro de un sistema social de un cacicazgo “unificado”.
The emergence and development of social inequality around the world has been a central theme in the anthropological literature as it addresses a key change in human history. Using similar lines of inquiry, we have investigated social change in the Parita river valley using several different scales of analysis. Within the Parita river valley research zone, there is evidence of human settlement spanning the Paleoindian Period continuously up to Spanish colonization. This research zone, therefore, provides an excellent opportunity to examine societal development over long periods of time. Through a program of surface collections and small-scale excavations at several second and third-order archaeological sites, we compare our results to previous works at the valley’s chiefly center and information from a systematic regional survey. Here, we examine how certain socioeconomic activities influenced the emergence of a social hierarchy in the Parita river valley. More specifically, we examine the relationship between episodes of social change and the following factors: sociopolitical organization, craft specialization and economic interdependence, and control and mobilization of subsistence resources. The results of this project suggest that the existence of chiefdoms with great disparities in wealth and power, as detailed by the chroniclers in the sixteenth century for Panama, was not exactly the case for the Parita river valley. On the other hand, we have found that there was more socioeconomic autonomy than previously thought. Social inequality did exist, but elite status was not based securely in the control of the local economy, but relied on politicking and manipulating elite socioeconomic relationships. In fact, elite power should not be assumed, and social relations are best understood as a constant negotiation among the valley’s different social groups. This research project addresses similar concerns to those regional specialists investigating the formation of complex societies from other parts of the world. Therefore, in examining our database of archaeological information from Panama, we address important anthropological questions in understanding the relationship between social complexity and the control and manipulation of socioeconomic status.
Books/Manuscripts by Mikael Haller
At no time during the pre-Columbian occupation in the valley did population levels come even close to carrying capacity, so demographic stress on subsistence resources, or leading to conflict, does not appear to have been an important factor in chiefly emergence. Although the presence of warfare could not be substantiated from the survey data, status rivalry and warfare is mentioned with some regularity in the ethnohistoric accounts and was most likely present during the pre-Columbian period. The location of the main chiefly center 14 km from the coast in low fertility land does not support the idea that controlling subsistence production was crucial to elite power. On the other hand, ethnohistoric accounts describe chiefly larders full of subsistence goods, suggesting that mobilizing these goods was important to the development of social ranking. By A.D. 550, the standardization of craft goods and their wide distribution throughout the Central Region implies the existence of macro-regional exchange networks. Settlement changes in the Río Parita Valley at the same time suggest that local, regional, and macro-regional exchange was most likely involved in the emergence of chiefly societies; however, the lack of long-distance trade goods found in the Río Parita and other valleys in the Central Region does not indicate that long-distance trading was a foundation of elite power.
Book Reviews by Mikael Haller
Books by Mikael Haller
Hay una gran diversidad en la organización
se han caracterizado por una autoridad centralizada
que ejercía mucho poder y la capacidad de amasar muchas
riquezas. Esto ha sido detallado por los cronistas
españoles y apoyado por las excavaciones de entierros
elaborados. Los resultados del Proyecto Arqueológico
Río Parita (PARP), por el contrario, sugieren que hubo
más autonomía socioeconómica de la que se pensaba.
Reconozco que la desigualdad social existía, claramente,
y que la ideología de élite, expresada a través de fiestas y
ritos funerarios en los bohíos cacicales, tuvo algún papel
en la integración del grupo. En base a nuestros estudios
me pregunto si las relaciones sociales y la identidad se
explican mejor usando otros modelos que aquellos que
se centran en la integración sancionada por las élites. Estoy
a favor de que la identidad era más un producto de la
negociación constante de la tensión social entre los grupos
en el valle y que la ideología de élite fue un intento de
enmascarar el conflicto social inherente. Esta discusión se
centra en cómo el espacio, tanto residencial como sagrado,
fue un elemento clave en la creación y la expresión
de la identidad social en escalas diferentes de análisis
dentro de un sistema social de un cacicazgo “unificado”.
The emergence and development of social inequality around the world has been a central theme in the anthropological literature as it addresses a key change in human history. Using similar lines of inquiry, we have investigated social change in the Parita river valley using several different scales of analysis. Within the Parita river valley research zone, there is evidence of human settlement spanning the Paleoindian Period continuously up to Spanish colonization. This research zone, therefore, provides an excellent opportunity to examine societal development over long periods of time. Through a program of surface collections and small-scale excavations at several second and third-order archaeological sites, we compare our results to previous works at the valley’s chiefly center and information from a systematic regional survey. Here, we examine how certain socioeconomic activities influenced the emergence of a social hierarchy in the Parita river valley. More specifically, we examine the relationship between episodes of social change and the following factors: sociopolitical organization, craft specialization and economic interdependence, and control and mobilization of subsistence resources. The results of this project suggest that the existence of chiefdoms with great disparities in wealth and power, as detailed by the chroniclers in the sixteenth century for Panama, was not exactly the case for the Parita river valley. On the other hand, we have found that there was more socioeconomic autonomy than previously thought. Social inequality did exist, but elite status was not based securely in the control of the local economy, but relied on politicking and manipulating elite socioeconomic relationships. In fact, elite power should not be assumed, and social relations are best understood as a constant negotiation among the valley’s different social groups. This research project addresses similar concerns to those regional specialists investigating the formation of complex societies from other parts of the world. Therefore, in examining our database of archaeological information from Panama, we address important anthropological questions in understanding the relationship between social complexity and the control and manipulation of socioeconomic status.
At no time during the pre-Columbian occupation in the valley did population levels come even close to carrying capacity, so demographic stress on subsistence resources, or leading to conflict, does not appear to have been an important factor in chiefly emergence. Although the presence of warfare could not be substantiated from the survey data, status rivalry and warfare is mentioned with some regularity in the ethnohistoric accounts and was most likely present during the pre-Columbian period. The location of the main chiefly center 14 km from the coast in low fertility land does not support the idea that controlling subsistence production was crucial to elite power. On the other hand, ethnohistoric accounts describe chiefly larders full of subsistence goods, suggesting that mobilizing these goods was important to the development of social ranking. By A.D. 550, the standardization of craft goods and their wide distribution throughout the Central Region implies the existence of macro-regional exchange networks. Settlement changes in the Río Parita Valley at the same time suggest that local, regional, and macro-regional exchange was most likely involved in the emergence of chiefly societies; however, the lack of long-distance trade goods found in the Río Parita and other valleys in the Central Region does not indicate that long-distance trading was a foundation of elite power.