5 Maintaining Social Bonds during the Preclassic: An Incipient Urban Landscape

In this paper I utilize the perspective of political ecology to guide the study of incipient urbanization in the Preclassic site of Noh K'uh in Chiapas, Mexico. In my analysis of landscape formation and local settlement patterns, I demonstrate how the relationship between people and the environment was particularly intimate within the valley that is home to Noh K'uh. In this case, orientation, architecture, and natural landmarks demonstrate the physical manifestation of political, social, and ritual organization in this Late Preclassic community. By emphasizing the political ecology perspective, I am able to outline how ritual and politics used features of a sacred world to create and organize an incipient urban community in the New World.