<p> Houston/Inomata Chapter 6</p><p>Study questions</p><p>1. If nobility is an inherent quality, where does it come from?</p><p>2. What is a “system of deference?”</p><p>3. Why is having too many nobles in the population a problem?</p><p>4. What are “magnates” and why are they dangerous to the ruler?</p><p>5. What functions do the nobles serve (I.e., why have them at all)?</p><p>6. In what way is wealth a two-way street for nobles?</p><p>7. Why do Maya nobility titles cluster during the Late Classic?</p><p>8. Why would Palenque and Copán show greater evidence of lesser nobles?</p><p>9. How do the panels at Piedras Negras differ from those at Yaxchilán in terms of representing non-royal nobility.</p><p>10. What is the apparent role of the aj-k’uhuun?</p><p>11. What is a tz’ulb’a and how does one get one?</p><p>12. Why do sajalo’ob and other secondary nobles not show up in the written record as much as one might expect?</p><p>13. What do anthropologists mean by a “house?”</p><p>14. How does the story of Mo’ Chahk’s victory differ from La Mar to Piedras Negras?</p><p>15. In what rituals did nobles participate?</p><p>16. From where would foreign visitors (ebeet) have come?</p><p>17. Why might the Bonampak artist have left the name bubbles for the emissaries blank?</p><p>18. What good is polygyny (besides the obvious, guys)?</p><p>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)?</p><p>20. How was courtly knowledge passed down through the generations?</p><p>21. Look at Figure 6.15. Use your syllabary and work out which glyph reads “y-anab.”</p><p>22. How are scribes and calligraphers portrayed? 23. What were the physically dangerous sides of being an ajaw?</p><p>24. What is the most important “box score” for an ajaw?</p>