ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Justin and Barbara Kerr graciously allowed us to do the renderings of royal weaving bones. Maya royalty and nobility must first be viewed according to the problem of power and power relations. Power can be conventionally defined as an absolute term that helps to isolate and refine comparative patterns of coercion and obedience. For all the negative or positive tactical consequences, such contacts with major centers, either through court service or intermarriage, likely operated as the very engine that disseminated Maya courtly practice and tempered a tendency to local idiosyncrasy. That power has to be understood in part through local idioms raises another issue. A difficult problem for understanding the Classic court is the evidence for polygamy. The royal court encompassed many other kinds of people, most, one presumes, in a service or productive capacity that would leave few vestiges in art and writing.
