Kuchkabal

[3][note 4] The provinces thereby encompassed all six districts of Belize, the Guatemalan department of Peten, and the Mexican states of Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán.

Some recent scholarship, employing a revised understanding of the provinces, has proposed to situate the latter only within those portions of the Peninsula predominated by Yucatecan Mayan speakers.

[7] The former claim has been described as 'more or less true of most of northern Yucatán [Peninsula],' while the last claim has been deemed partially accurate, as there is 'some evidence that northern Yucatán from the Gulf of Mexico east to Cupul was, for a time at least, subject to a joint government located at [Mayapan, though] it is doubtful that its hegemony included Campeche and Champoton [and, further,] it appears possible that it did not extend to the east coast of the peninsula.

'[8][note 7] In case such a centralised government existed at Mayapan, its rule would have been disrupted upon the city's destruction 'about a century before the final Spanish conquest.

[18][note 12] The officeholder is thought to have been entitled to an allotment of slaves, annual tribute from each town and household (typically produce or other merchantable goods), and court fees when acting as chief justice.

'[20] Notably, the office was responsible for military defence, the building code, farming regulations, non-serious or intra-municipal civil and criminal court cases, and for executing provincial home policy.

The ah kuch kab, 'alderman or councillor,' present in all provinces, was a member of the town council who reviewed mayoral instructions or decisions for either assent or dissent, with the former thought constitutionally necessary for the execution of any such.

[31][32] The tupil, 'bailiff or constable,' present in at least some provinces, is thought to have exercised law enforcement authority, similar to that of a Spanish alguacil or 'minor peace officer.

'[31] At least some officeholders are known to have rendered menial service to senior civil servants, for instance, by serving as provision carriers during trips by the governor, or by maintaining the town's grain stores.

[34] For instance, while in office, the captain was required to '[eat] no meat but the flesh of fish and inguanas, [...] never [be] intoxicated, remai[n] continent, and [have] little intercourse with his fellow townsmen.

'[34] Notably, Nacahun Noh, a captain of Saci, is known to have 'received gifts of shell beads from people living as far away as Tizimin who wished to conciliate him and avoid war with his town.

'[37] For instance, the prophecies or interpretations of the ah chila'no'ob, 'prophetic or divinatory priests,' were routinely used to determine matters of state and economics, are further deemed to have 'evidently [been] an important factor in the reception accorded to the Spaniards in the various [provinces].

'[38][note 21] Furthermore, in colonial times, when the Franciscans, Inquisition, and Provisorato de Indios, had 'more or less broken down' the pre-Columbian priesthood, caciques (i.e. mayors) and 'other important men' are known to have assumed the duties of divination or prophecy.

[44] Notably, court proceedings seem to have included only oral arguments, judgments seem to have been final in all cases, and oaths for sworn testimony seem to have 'consisted in calling down misfortunes on one's own head if a [given] statement were false.

'[45] Civil claims were brought 'for injuries committed without malice,' including, for instance, manslaughter, negligence, and 'the provocation by a husband or wife resulting in the suicide of the other spouse.

'[44] At least for cases of manslaughter, if court-awarded compensation were not settled, it seems that the claimant's family were authorised to summarily execute the defaulting defendant by ambush, though this is thought to have been rarely necessary.

[citation needed][note 24] These were organised according to their town of origin, with the corresponding mayor and captain as joint commanding officers, and the specialists as special forces.

'[36] The battle's primary aim was usually the enemy's captivity, with prisoners being 'bound to a wooden collar or yoke, to which a longer rope was attached,' and thereby lead to their captors' townsmen.

[54] For instance, both office-holding nobles and priests presided over a pan-regional, annual, five-day festival to Kukulkan at Mani, where the god was worshipped 'with unusual pomp and ceremony, since he was the special patron of these warlike rulers.

For instance, year's-end ceremonies for the coming year, presided over by clergy at temples, and described as 'perhaps the most important [of the various recurring religious rites],' are known to have involved '[e]laborate formalities [...] in dismissing the old [civil service] incumbents and installing the new in office.

[67] The almeheno'ob, 'nobility,' 'constituted the ruling class, filled the more important political offices, and were not only the most valiant warriors and members of the military orders but also the wealthiest farmers and merchants.

[63] Such families were further thought to have 'had a secret lore handed down from father to son, a sort of ritual in which many words had a concealed meaning not understood by any except the initiates[, the knowledge of which] was an important evidence of noble descent.

'[66] For instance, skeletal remains of several sacrificial victims recovered from the Sacred Cenote 'revealed some indications of malnutrition and definite evidence of abuse for a considerable period prior to death.

'[66] The province's merchants are commonly thought to have been 'central participants' in the flourishing Mesoamerican maritime and overland commerce, providing both goods and shipping facilities to a trade network stretching from the Aztec Triple Alliance to northern Honduras (at least) or Panama (at most).

[68] The coastal capitals of the Ecab, Chikinchel, Cozumel, and Chetumal provinces are thought to have served as principal trans-shipment hubs for 'immense canoes' loaded with salt, textiles, honey, flint, and feathers for export, or metals, cacao, precious stones, obsidian, and pelts for import.

Upon conquest, the newly established province of Yucatán 'not only allowed [the provincial nobility] to survive, but gave it definite and even liberal encouragement,' at least within encomienda, reducción, and misión settlements.

[73][74][note 55] For instance, the noble house of Xiu, of Mani, were routinely confirmed 'the rights, privileges, and exemptions hereditary in the [Xiu] family' by Spanish governors, and furthermore, kept their municipal offices (now as gobernadores or caciques), held special status as señores naturales, and often held special licences or commissions (e.g. to lead the native militia, or to bear arms).

[82][80][59][note 57] Consequently, competing senses of the term kuchkabal are employed in recent literature, namely, the traditional kuchkabal-as-a-territory, and the innovative kuchkabal-as-a-jurisdiction, with the former emphasising a province's fixed extent or footprint, and the latter its dynamic networks or relations of authority.

A.D. 1250-1441) was made up of a "joint government" (multepal) of several of the provinces in the western region of the peninsula, and did not include many of the kuchkabalo'ob to the east and south, which were undoubtedly autonomous polities during the Late Postclassic period (ca.

They may have evolved out of earlier polities of the Classic period.These (the batabs [mayors]) divided the town into its wards like the districts of a parish (colaciones) and appointed a rich and capable man to take charge of each.