1. If Nobility Is an Inherent Quality, Where Does It Come From?

Houston/Inomata Chapter 6

Study questions

1. If nobility is an inherent quality, where does it come from?

2. What is a “system of deference?”

3. Why is having too many nobles in the population a problem?

4. What are “magnates” and why are they dangerous to the ruler?

5. What functions do the nobles serve (I.e., why have them at all)?

6. In what way is wealth a two-way street for nobles?

7. Why do Maya nobility titles cluster during the Late Classic?

8. Why would Palenque and Copán show greater evidence of lesser nobles?

9. How do the panels at Piedras Negras differ from those at Yaxchilán in terms of representing non-royal nobility.

10. What is the apparent role of the aj-k’uhuun?

11. What is a tz’ulb’a and how does one get one?

12. Why do sajalo’ob and other secondary nobles not show up in the written record as much as one might expect?

13. What do anthropologists mean by a “house?”

14. How does the story of Mo’ Chahk’s victory differ from La Mar to Piedras Negras?

15. In what rituals did nobles participate?

16. From where would foreign visitors (ebeet) have come?

17. Why might the Bonampak artist have left the name bubbles for the emissaries blank?

18. What good is polygyny (besides the obvious, guys)?

19. Go to famsi.org and find the vase K1453 [remember that K stands for Kerr]. Do you buy Houston’s description of the musical instruments (p.187)?

20. How was courtly knowledge passed down through the generations?

21. Look at Figure 6.15. Use your syllabary and work out which glyph reads “y-anab.”

22. How are scribes and calligraphers portrayed? 23. What were the physically dangerous sides of being an ajaw?

24. What is the most important “box score” for an ajaw?