Acknowledgments

This volume originated in a session we organized at the 77th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, held in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2012. Our goal was to bring together archaeologists working throughout Mesoamerica to discuss and debate the processes associated with the creation, perpetuation, and negation of politically authoritative relationships.

We would like to thank the authors for their thoughtful chapters, as well as those who presented a paper at the SAAs but were unable to contribute to the volume: David Anderson, Susan Evans, Federico Paredes, Nancy Peniche, Adam Smith, Timothy Sullivan, and Lorraine Williams-Beck. It has been a pleasure to work with each of these scholars.

The University Press of Colorado has supported this volume from the outset, and we are gratified to have worked with Acquisitions Editor Jessica d’Arbonne, whose assistance and advice have proven invaluable, and with Director Darrin Pratt. We are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticisms on the first draft of the manuscript and their insightful suggestions for improvement. This volume is better because of their comments.

Finally, we have benefited from the support of colleagues, friends, and family. To them, we say thank you.