02/09/2025
🏛️ Remarkable story of Maya resistance uncovered in Mexico! Archaeologists have revealed the incredible tale of Hunacti, a defiant 16th-century mission town in the Yucatan that secretly maintained ancient Maya traditions while appearing to cooperate with Spanish colonizers.
Led by UAlbany anthropologist Marilyn Masson, researchers discovered this fascinating paradox through excavations of the town that existed from 1557 to 1572. While Hunacti looked like a model Spanish settlement with gridded streets, a central plaza, and a T-shaped church, archaeological evidence tells a different story.
Hidden beneath European-style architecture, Maya residents continued practicing their ancestral religion using ceramic incense burners representing ancient deities, found in elite homes and even inside the church itself. The town's leaders initially enjoyed rare privileges like horse ownership and cacao orchards, but their persistent traditional practices drew deadly attention during Diego de Landa's infamous "idolatry trials."
Maya leader Juan Xiu died under torture in 1562 after being accused of human sacrifice, followed by public lashings for other leaders caught practicing idolatry. Despite brutal persecution, residents maintained their cultural autonomy by limiting Spanish trade engagement and preserving local traditions until famine forced abandonment in 1572 🌽
This groundbreaking research, published in Latin American Antiquity, challenges old narratives about Indigenous passivity during colonization, revealing sophisticated strategies of negotiation, adaptation, and quiet defiance.
