The Ancient Mayans and Political Legitimacy

I've already talked about Mayans and International Relations, so it's
time for and "Ancient Mayans meet Comparative Politics" post.

The Ancient Mayan city states were amazing--huge temples, remarkably
well-developed mathematics, the world's most accurate calendar, etc.
Freakin' brilliant. And, unlike the Incas, they had a writing
system--didn't keep all of their knowledge tied up in knots (literally).

However, when you get past all the glitz and hype (I know that's a
strange way to put it, but you know what I mean) the whole system was an
elaborate way for the noble classes to live off the backs of the
peasants. There was, of course, no democracy, and my interpretation of
the Mayan system is that all of this stuff--the temples, the human
sacrifice, the ritual torture and self-torture--was aimed at generating
a sense of legitimacy for the regime. If they could use ceremony to
convince the population that they could communicate with the gods to,
among other things, make it rain on a regular basis, they could keep
getting the poor people to feed them.

This gets to something of a cognitive model of politics--as opposed to
the rational choice model that Zane and I were arguing about a couple of
weeks ago.

A rational assessment of costs and benefits is an important part of the
system, but it's important to recognize that the reason this system
worked for so long was that people _weren't_ always rational, at least
in an economic sense. The reason is that their belief systems were not
a reflection of the way the world really works.

In other words, the rulers really couldn't start the rain, so it wasn't
rational for the peasants to keep feeding them. However, the peasants
didn't know that until the climate started to dry out--one of the forces
that Mayanists apparently believe brought about an end to many of the
Mayan city states.

On the other hand, there are some interesting interpretations about a
rational choice interpretation of the way the Mayans did believe.

For example, why on earth would the Mayan ruler pierce his penis with
the spine of a stingray if not to provide a very dramatic signal to the
people that their belief system was accurate: "If I do this really
painful thing, and say it's for the purpose of religion, people will be
more likely to believe me than if I do something really pleasant and say
that I'm bringing the rain."?

Personally, I would much rather be the ruler that says that he needs to
eat a big plate of pancakes every day to make sure the corn grows, but
since you already know that I love pancakes, that might be a hard sell...