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- Title
Gini coefficient at La Corona: The impacts of variation in analytical unit and aggregation scale.
- Authors
Canuto, Marcello A.; Auld-Thomas, Luke; Yagi, Hiroaki; Barrientos Q., Tomás
- Abstract
Measurements of inequality, like many other analytical phenomena, are affected by the definition of analytical units (for example, buildings or residential groups) and the spatial unit within which those units are aggregated (for example, sites or polities). We begin by considering the impact of secondary or seasonal residences on the calculation of Gini scores when dealing with regional-scale settlement data, which is a common consideration in regional-scale population estimates. We then use LiDAR-derived settlement data from northwestern Guatemala to calculate Gini coefficients for two ancient Maya sites: Late Classic La Corona and Late Preclassic Achiotal. We investigate how the scale of the spatial unit of aggregation affects our interpretations of inequality using various architecture-based indices. Finally, we provide some preliminary interpretations for the differences calculated between these two centers. Archaeology has long regarded the development of inequality as an important indicator of ancient complexity. However, the topic of inequality has been integral to the study of every branch of the social sciences since the mid-eighteenth century. However, with the rise of bureaucratic states using statistics to identify and "solve" sociological problems, such as poverty and criminality, this topic took a quantitative turn with the development of the Gini coefficient. Meant to provide an empirical estimate of inequalities rather than to propose causes for or functional relations between them, this coefficient has provided archaeology with a method to evaluate degrees of differentiation in ancient populations, using indices such as (among others) architecture, material goods, or burials (see Kohler and Smith 2018). While we are aware that most material indices represent, at best, indirect proxies for differentiation in the ancient world, in this article, we develop several Gini coefficients for two ancient Maya settlements located in the northwest Peten of Guatemala: Late Classic La Corona and Late Preclassic Achiotal. Relying on different architecture-based indices, we use these coefficients to suggest methodological refinements to the application of Gini coefficients in Maya studies, but also to offer some preliminary interpretations for the differences we calculated between these two centers.
- Subjects
GUATEMALA; GINI coefficient; MAYAS; ARCHAEOLOGY; POPULATION differentiation; CRIME
- Publication
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2023, Vol 34, Issue 3, p1
- ISSN
0956-5361
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0956536123000111