“In the Early Preclassic, prior to the emergence of civilization, Maya society was basically egalitarian. As ethnographic studies of the Chiapas highlands have shown, contemporary Maya communities usually are organized along similar lines. The community of Zinacantan, for instance, is organized around an egalitarian cargo system, whereby the positions of political and religious authority are held for one-year terms by male officeholders accompanied by their wives (who also share duties), and the officeholders rotate from one position to another. By taking office once every few years, each individual advances in the community hierarchy with age, and the positions of highest authority are thus held by the elders of society. In such a system all levels of power are shared, and there is no permanent ruling class. A similar system may have operated among the ancient Maya, perhaps during the earliest time periods, perhaps also as a basic organizational framework for small communities in later centuries. In either case, one may assume that beyond the basic lineage organization, people in rural residential clusters held rotating political and religious offices in the local agricultural villages.”

The Ancient Maya, Robert J. Sharer