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During his long, prolific career, Henri J. M. Claessen was a major contributor to the comparative study of political organizational change. Starting with The Early State (1978), edited with Peter Skalník, Claessen's writings served to broaden and enrich evolutionary approaches in anthropology by recognizing key axes of diversity in political forms and variation in temporal sequences. Furthermore, he recognized that studies of long-term political change required multiscalar concepts that included analytical lenses larger in size than single polities. Claessen drew on his encyclopedic knowledge of ethnographic and historical cases in challenging and expanding the mid-twentieth century approaches to social evolution. With his passing, now is an appropriate time to build on the theoretical advances that Claessen forged, most specifically by taking fuller account of what archaeological research has discovered during the years coincident with his academic career. Grounded in these findings, further steps toward a comparative framing aimed at understanding diversity and change in human political organization and cooperation are advanced.

The principal conceptual axes for explaining variation in prehispanic Mesoamerican political organization (states and empires) have shifted over time. Current perspectives build on and extend beyond the important dimensions of scale and hierarchical complexity and have begun to probe the nature of leadership and governance, drawing on collective action theory and incorporating recent findings that challenge long-held statist vantages on preindustrial economies. Recent results from and archaeological correlates for the application of this approach are outlined, offering opportunities for more comparative analyses of variation and change in the practice of governance within prehispanic Mesoamerican world and more globally.

The principal conceptual axes for explaining variation in prehispanic Mesoamerican political organization (states and empires) have shifted over time. Current perspectives build on and extend beyond the important dimensions of scale and hierarchical complexity and have begun to probe the nature of leadership and governance, drawing on collective action theory and incorporating recent findings that challenge long-held statist vantages on preindustrial economies. Recent results from and archaeological correlates for the application of this approach are outlined, offering opportunities for more comparative analyses of variation and change in the practice of governance within prehispanic Mesoamerican world and more globally.

This essay reviews the following works:
Maya Gods of War. By Karen Bassie-Sweet. Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2021. Pp. viii + 324. $66.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-64642-131-2.
Maya Ruins Revisited: In the Footsteps of Teobert Maler. By William Frej. Santa Fe, NM: Peyton Wright Gallery Press, 2020. Pp. 291. $55.17 hardcover. ISBN: 978-0-578-63921-5.
Archaeology and Identity on the Pacific Coast and Southern Highlands of Meso-America. Edited by Claudia García-Des Lauriers and Michael W. Love. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016. Pp. ix + 226. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-60781-504-4.
Life and Politics at the Royal Court of Aguateca: Artifacts, Analytical Data, and Synthesis. Edited by Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2014. Pp. vii + 356. $30.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-60781-318-7.
Miscellaneous Investigations in Central Tikal: Structures in and around the Lost World Plaza. By H. Stanley Loten. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2018. Pp. xvii + 36. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-934536-97-1.
Miscellaneous Investigations in Central Tikal: Great Temples III, IV, V, and VI. By H. Stanley Loten. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2017. Pp. xix + 61. $59.95 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-934536-93-3.
The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies: From Farmers' Fields to Rulers' Realms. Edited by Marilyn A. Masson, David A. Freidel, and Arthur A. Demarest. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2020. Pp. xvii + 631. $125.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-0813066-29-5.
The Origins of Maya States. Edited by Loa P. Traxler and Robert J. Sharer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2016. Pp. ix + 681. $69.95 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-934536-86-5.

In archaeology, along with a large sector of other social sciences, comparative approaches to long-term political change over the last two centuries have been underpinned by two big ideas, classification and evolution, which often have been manifest as cultural history and progress. Despite comparative archaeology's agenda to explain change, the conceptual core of these frames was grounded in the building of stepped sequences of transformation with expectations drawn from synchronic empirical snapshots in time. Nevertheless, especially over the last 70 years, archaeology has seen the generation and analysis of unprecedented volumes of data collected along multiple dimensions and a range of spatial scales. Compilation and comparison of these data reveal significant diversity along various dimensions, which have begun to create dissonance with key tenets, assumptions, and even the aims of extant, long-held approaches. Expanded conceptual framing with a shift toward a focus on explaining variation and change is necessary.

A Review of Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States, edited by Andrew Monson and Walter Scheidel (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and Ancient Taxation: The Mechanics of Extraction in Comparative Perspective, edited by Jonathan Valk and Irene Soto Marín (New York University Press, 2021)

This essay reviews the following works:Ancient Maya Pottery: Classification, Analysis, and Interpretation. Edited by James John Aimers. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. Pp. vii + 293. $79.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780813042367.The Huasteca: Culture, History, and Interregional Exchange. Edited by Katherine A. Faust and Kim N. Richter. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 241. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780806147048.Excavations in Residential Areas of Tikal: Group 7F-1. By William A. Haviland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2015. Pp. xi + 133. $65.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781934536810.Politics of the Maya Court: Hierarchy and Change in the Late Classic Period. By Sarah E. Jackson. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 248. $29.95 hardback. ISBN: 9780806143415.The Ancient Maya Marketplace: The Archaeology of Transient Space. Edited by Eleanor M. King. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 325. $60.54 cloth. ISBN: 9780816500413.The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak. By Mary Miller and Claudia Brittenham. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 285. $54.05 cloth. ISBN: 9780292744363.Maya Lords and Lordship: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350–1600. By Sergio Quezada. Translated by Terry Rugeley. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Pp. ix + 248. $34.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780806144221.Place and Identity in Classic Maya Narratives. By Alexandre Tokovinine. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection/Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 180. $39.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780884023920.