Communal Government and Forms of Dependency in the K’iche’ State

Join us as the AIA Societies Committee presents a virtual presentation and Q&A with Iyaxel Cojtí Ren. This presentation will also be available in American Sign Language.

In the Maya highlands during the Late Postclassic period (1250-1524 CE), the K’iche’ created an expansive state able to subdue various nations and form a network of dependent polities. Join archaeologist Iyaxel Cojtí Ren as she explains how the key to this lies in the K’iche’ forms of local community organization and how they were integrated into the larger K’iche’ political unit.

Learn about the most common forms of community organization: chinamit and amaq’. Their members practiced communal solidarity and forms of communal government, which were vital for reproduction, problem-solving, and territorial defense. The K’iche’ state’s strength resulted from incorporating these communities, chinamit and amaq’, and adopting some of their values and forms of government. For example, in the Colonial-period K’iche’ texts, the term tzuq “to sustain, to feed” appears frequently to describe the relationship of mutual dependence that existed between rulers and K’iche’ communities. This means that the rulers also had obligations to take care of the population under their authority. And while reciprocity between rulers and those they ruled was far from equal, the communal form of government employed by the K’iche’ allowed representatives of the people to exert sufficient influence to prevent oppressive rulers and defend the people’s interests.

Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, originally from Chichicastenango, Guatemala, is a K’iche’ cultural archaeologist. Iyaxel completed her PhD in the department of anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. Since 2021, she has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She serves as director of the Baja Verapaz Regional Archaeological Project (PARBEZ) and as co-investigator of the Mayalex Project. Her research and publications focus primarily on the archaeology, history, and culture of the Maya highland nations of Guatemala, especially from the Postclassic period. Cojtí Ren received a fellowship from the Newberry Library in Chicago for 2024-2025 to focus on her forthcoming publications.

The lecture will also be available in American Sign Language and we will also enable auto captioning on Zoom. Due to Zoom limitations on mobile devices and tablets, participants interested in accessing ASL interpretation should log in using the desktop version of Zoom.