ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that by concentrating on the economy, and more specifically on the role of subsistence and trade in complex societies, important contributions can be expected in understanding the development of sociopolitical organization in the Maya culture area. It explores the hypothesis whether it is possible to analyze the role of subsistence and trade in terms of "divide and pool". The production of subsistence goods and trade, developing in a heterogeneous resource rich environment, thus gave a specific dynamic impulse to the economic and political processes in Maya society. The agricultural surplus was invested mainly in the development of sociopolitical organization. A closer consideration of the role of pre-Hispanic Maya trade in food is imperative in view of the enthnohistorical evidence of Maya interest in commercial agricultural production. In Maya studies major efforts were recently initiated to explore subsistence potentials in relation to trade in order to gain a more realistic perspective on the development of sociopolitical organization.
