An Issue of the Urbanism at the Ancient Maya Society in the Modern Western Historiography
Abstract
The article is dedicated to the historiographical analysis of Mesoamerican urbanism which was the center of researchers’ theoretical debate at the turn of XX-XXI centuries. The debate about the existence of a city in Mesoamerica turned in the 1990s into a search for the distinctive features of urban centers. Different criteria for distinction of the city from the rural hinterland were proposed as part of the structural and functional approaches. In general, proposed criteria were focusing on the presence of specific institutions and specific types of residents’ training. Low population density in Mesoamerica determined the agrarian nature of urbanism. Overall, a breakaway from universal definitions of the city and urbanism towards recognition of cities’ diversity was made during a quarter of a century of fruitful discussions. This diversion opened up a new perspective in the study of Mayan cities.
Keywords
Мезоамерика,
майя,
город,
аграрный урбанизм,
археология,
Mesoamerica,
maya,
city,
agrarianurbanism,
archaeology,
historiography
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Review
For citations:
Bernatskay Yu. An Issue of the Urbanism at the Ancient Maya Society in the Modern Western Historiography. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin Series "Political Science. History. International Relations". 2015;(2):123-132. (In Russ.)
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