Abstract
This chapter presents an approach to the archaeology of capitalism within Spanish colonial contexts in Guatemala through the archaeology of San Pedro Aguacatepeque, a multicomponent Kaqchikel Maya community occupied from at least 900–1800 AD. I draw on new materialist theories to craft an archaeology of colonial capitalism to challenge trait-based definitions of capitalism as a system of “free” markets. Working from Braudel and De Landa’s conception of capitalism as a system of “antimarkets”—defined as power-manipulated unfree markets and exchanges—I attempt to move beyond the baggage-laden abstract concept of Capitalism by focusing on how unequal power and coerced exchanges structure the changes in market engagement and daily practice that are routinely attributed to an abstract Capitalism, rather than the various actors/actants that catalyze these changes. From this perspective, capitalism, or antimarkets and their effects, are argued to be ever present in human society rather than unique products of the early modern world.
Ceramic analyses and documentary sources provide evidence of a growing dual dependence on markets at Aguacatepeque; as a source of goods needed for daily life and as an outlet for the sugar and alcohol produced at the community that provided income for market-based consumption. These shifts were due, in part, to the effects of Spanish colonial antimarkets, wherein tribute demands dispossessed the community of time and labor for self-sufficient subsistence and led to the emergence of self-organized markets and commerce between Maya communities for sugar and other necessities of daily life. In addition, Crown monopolies on alcohol stimulated potentially lucrative “black” markets for alcoholic beverages creating further market-based opportunities for Aguacatepeque to engage for their subsistence and survival. Evidence is presented that makes clear that these changes came about not through the influence of an abstract capitalism, but rather were the outcome of the (un)intended consequences and effects of colonial antimarkets.
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Pezzarossi, G. (2015). A Spectral Haunting of Society: Longue Durèe Archaeologies of Capitalism and Antimarkets in Colonial Guatemala. In: Leone, M., Knauf, J. (eds) Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12760-6_15
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