Speaker:Dr. Michael W. LoveProfessorDepartment of AnthropologyCSU NorthridgeAbstract:The Preclassic Period on the Pacific coast of Guatemala and Chiapas was a dynamic time, beginning with the establishment of the first sedentary villages and ending with the large city-states of the Late Preclassic.  Although royal tombs and stelae with portraits of rulers capture the headlines, household archaeology offers the best route to understand changes in social relationships and the basis of political power.  Excavations at La Blanca, as one of the largest settlements of Middle Preclassic Mesoamerica, have recovered one of the largest samples of Preclassic domestic remains.  These data document social differentiation, along with the economic and ritual activities of a cross-section of households dating from 1000-700 BCE.