ANTH 1031 Spring 2017 Classic 10:30 pm - 11:50 pm TR

Instructor: Prof. Stephen Houston, [email protected] Classroom: List 210 Office Hours: Tue 4:00 - 6:00, Giddings 103 Phone: 401-270-6195, until 9 pm

From AD 250 until 850 the Maya of the Yucatan peninsula developed one of the world’s great civilizations, with a sophisticated writing system, urban dwellings, courtly society, and an historical record that is unmatched anywhere else in ancient America. Classic Maya Civilization explores this lost world in detail, from the perspective of ancient politics, economy, political organization, and worldview. By the end of the course, students should have an in-depth familiarity with present evidence of this civilization, and with the latest interpretations of how the world of the Classic Maya developed, flourished, and collapsed. The organizing principle of the course will be a concern with categories, activities, and mentalities of people, including supernatural beings that were felt to be part of their communities.

Course Structure

Classic Maya Civilization is an introductory course that draws on lectures, review of readings and class materials, and a rich web component. Students should always come to class prepared. Faithful and punctual attendance by all! The class will begin with an Orientation to the region, its natural setting, plant and wildlife population, a sense of the Maya today. It continues by examining the tools of our trade as : when we began to explore, how we investigate this distant people, the time periods and their attributes, and the hieroglyphic and conceptual tools used to plumb their beliefs. The second section, Precursors, examines the poorly understood beginnings of the Classic Maya in the so-called “Preclassic period,” itself a time of signal achievements, including many associated with the Classic Maya. Subsequent sections, Encountering the Classic Maya, looks at categories of ancient Maya, and what the latest research says about them and their ways of life. Finally, we investigate one of the signal events in humanity, Coda, when the Classic Maya civilization and its people experienced catastrophic decline, in lessons for us all.

Readings

All readings are indicated by a code that keys into the syllabus (see below). Readings should always be done prior to class, please!

-- (HI) The Classic Maya, Houston and Inomata, 2009. Cambridge U Press, Cambridge. -- (M) The Maya, Michael Coe and Houston, 2015. Thames and Hudson, New York.

-- (PV) Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya, tr. Allen Christenson, 2007. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

-- Other readings (on web, designated by boldface name, i.e., Brady)

Requirements

n Students will prepare three short papers, of 3 pages (750-900 words) single-spaced, exclusive of figures; due on Feb. 16 (Thu), March 9 (Thu), and April 6 (Thu). Topics will be set on the web, with supporting images and information. -- Paper 1: you will be given a map of the Classic of Piedras Negras, . Derive a population estimate based on parameters to be explained. -- Paper 2: you will be given a short text in Maya writing; read on basis of information given to you in class, describe the attendant iconography. -- Paper 3: you will be given information about Maya ceramics, and then look at actual potsherds in the Giddings lab; draw, describe, and date them, explain what they were. n The (Classic) City of (Your) Dreams (due April 20): you will be asked to create the plan of a Maya city from Preclassic, Classic or Postclassic periods, explaining why you have selected its features, how it functioned, who lived where, how it related to the environment and the landscape. n There will be 4 quizzes throughout the semester: (1)Feb. 23; (2) March 16; (4) April 13; April 28 (n.b., a Friday!). These will be timed, on-line exams that you will take within a 24-hr span, on an honor-code principle (do them on your own, please!). The quiz shuts down after an hour, so be sure to focus and prepare. They will only cover material between the quizzes, although I reserve the right to throw in an odd question from another section. This will help you review and acquire a sense of cumulative knowledge throughout the term.

Grading

Short papers = 3 x 15 pts. = 45 points Imagined City project = 15 points Quizzes = 4 x 10 = 40 points

TOTAL = 100 points

Short Paper 1: Estimating Population (due Feb. 16)

n This involves a study of Piedras Negras, Guatemala. You will read a technical article, “Historical Contexts for Population Reconstruction in the Maya Lowlands,” by D. S. Rice and T. P. Culbert, and attempt to estimate the population of this part of the site. Explain what you could do, what you couldn’t, and why. What are you looking at in this image, what are the features, the rectangles? (Hint: they are the platforms of agricultural terraces and rectangular bases of house mounds around small open plazas for reach group.) Think of this in terms of possibilities and imponderables – how precise can one be, what do these numbers tell us about the city? How did the settlement cluster? What is likely to be residential, what isn’t? And, of course, what is likely to be a plausible range of population? Is this exercise worth doing or too imprecise? Welcome to the challenges of nitty-gritty archaeology!

Short Paper 2: Reading a Maya inscription, Interpreting Imagery (due March 9)

n This is the real deal: a glyphic and iconographic carving. Using the course/web- resources, (1) how is the text structured, can you see names or dates?; (2) tell me where you think it came from; and (3) explain what the image (the iconography) seems to show. I will give you a list of Emblem glyphs (dynastic names) to help. I do not expect full literacy from you, no worries! But I do wish to see an attempt to grapple with content and to begin to exercise your eyes.

Short Paper 3: Understanding Classic Maya pottery (due April 6)

n The Maya made tremendous quantities of pottery, for a variety of functions. Being human, they also broke a lot of pottery and place it in fill or trash heaps, or, being spiritual, they incorporated ceramics into tombs and caches. This pottery is celebrated for its beauty, surface finish, and rapid changes in form and color, all of which are temporally diagnostic. A set of sherds (smashed pottery) are your data. Examine the actual sherds in the lab; tell me what the ceramics looked like originally, in unbroken form, what period they date to, what they seem to show, and how the ceramics might have been used. Try to draw, date, and explain these objects. How does one show, as with sherds, the wall thickness? What are the details an archaeologist would want to look at? Who would have made and used these objects, and for what purpose?

An Imagined City (due April 20)

§ Understanding the features of a Maya city, what generates it, who lives and does what where, what varies, what does not vary–these demand close attention. I summon your powers of imagination and empirical knowledge by asking you to create (in plan, model, whatever form you wish as long as it is carefully produced, lucid, and explanatory) a city from a slice of time. Pick a century or two. Justify in prose why you have picked what you have. Put it in a particular region of the Maya world, too. Think of topography, where people live, what ritual and practical needs would need to be satisfied. What is the flow within this city of yours, what would be seen from what? Justify what you’ve included on the basis of information from other Maya cities.

Work Load + Textbooks

We are now obliged by the university administration to give you some idea of the work load in classes at Brown. Each student varies enormously, of course. But we estimate that, each week, students will spend some 2 hrs + 20 min attending both classes and 4 hours on the reading. Moreover, each of the three projects will take about 5-10 hrs, the imagining and presentation of a Classic Maya city about 10 hrs. The quizzes will be 1 hr in duration, with 10 questions taken from lectures and reading.

Also, of course, the texts cost money! (…rather strangely, the University obliges us to state this.) Costs for the three texts will be under $100, as all are in paperback. The Maya, my book with Michael Coe, exists in the multiple editions. You must acquire or access the 9th edition.

Disabilities

Brown University is committed to full inclusion of all students. Please inform us if you have a disability or other condition that might require accommodations or modification of any of these course procedures. You may speak with us after class or during office hours. For more information, contact Student and Employee Accessibility Services at 401-863- 9588 or [email protected]. Course Syllabus

Key: The Classic Maya (HI) The Maya (M) Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya (PV) Boldface names (e.g., Brady) are Canvas on-line

Part 1: Orientation

Jan. 26 (Th) - Orientation

Jan. 31 (T) - Classic Maya + their World, I Readings: HI xiii-27, PV14-56 – to be done over next two weeks!

Mandatory talk: Takeshi Inomata, “Origins of Maya Civilization Reconsidered: Ritual, Sedentism, and Olmec Connection.” Tuesday, 5:00 6:30 p.m., Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute

Feb. 2 (Th) - Classic Maya + their World, II Readings: M 10-32

Feb. 7 (T) - Finding the Classic Maya

Feb. 9 (Th) - Time among the Maya Readings: M 259-263; Houston, “Chronosophy,” on Canvas

Feb. 14 (T) - Rhetoric + Past Reality, I Readings: HI 257-270; M 263-277; Miller and Martin, “Word and Image,” on Canvas (https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Breaking-the-Maya-Code/70103857)

Feb. 16 (Th) - Rhetoric + Past Reality, II Paper 1 due

Feb. 21 (T) - no class

Feb. 23 (Th) - Review of Paper 1 + Imagining the Land, I Readings: HI 65-77; Brady, “Role of Caves,” on Canvas Quiz 1

Feb. 28 (T) - Imagining the Land, II Readings: Houston, “Living Waters,” on Canvas

Part 2: Precursors

March 2 (Th) - The First Maya Readings: M 40-61

March 7 (T) - Beginnings: Preclassic civilization, I Readings: HI65-77; Inomata et al., “Ceibal,” on Canvas View Dawn of the Maya

March 9 (Th) - Beginnings: Preclassic civilization, II Readings: HI 77-104, Preclassic Readings, Lords of Creation, on Canvas Paper 2 due

Part 3: Encountering the Classic Maya

March 14 (T) - Review of Paper 2 + Kings + Courts, I Readings (over next two weeks): HI 28-64, 131-146, 150-162 Martin, “Court and Realm,” on Canvas

March 16 (Th) - Kings + Courts, II Readings: M 124-173; Inomata, “Plazas and Performers,” on Canvas Quiz 2

March 21 (T) - Ancestors + the Dead Readings: HI 201-217

March 23 (Th) - Gods + other Supernaturals Readings: revisit HI 193-210; M 252-258; PV 59-200, Houston and Stuart, “Gods, Glyphs”; Miller and Martin, “Divine Models,” on Canvas (latter to be revisited, April 18)

March 28, 30 — Spring Recess

April 4 (T) - Warriors, Nobleman + Youths Readings: HI 163-192

April 6 (Th) - Queens + Weavers: Ladies Readings: HI 146-150, 270-275, Ardren, on Canvas Paper 3 due

April 11 (T) – Review of Paper 3 + Foreigners Readings: HI 106-109; M 99-123

April 13 (Th) – Hombres de Maiz: Farmers Readings: HI 218-249; M 230-236; Dunning et al, “Kax and Kol”; Gillespie, “Maya Social Organization,” on Canvas Quiz 3

April 18 (T) – Dark Forests, Turquoise Sea: Traders + Craftsmen Readings: HI 250-256, 275-287; Carrasco and Vargas, “Murals of Chiik Nahb”; revisit Miller and Martin, “Divine Models,” on Canvas

Part 4: Coda

April 20 (Th) – Endings Readings: HI 288-317; M 174-229 ‘Imagined City Project’ due

April 25 (T) – Review of Imagined City Project

April 27 (Th) - Survival: The Enduring Maya Readings: HI 320-321; M 279-301; Pugh, “Kowoj,” on Canvas

April 28 (Fri) – Quiz 4

Extra Readings

Ardren, Traci. 2006. “Mending the Past: Ix Chel and the Invention of a Modern Pop Goddess.” Antiquity 80: 25-37.

Brady, James E. 1997, “Settlement Configuration and Cosmology: The Role of Caves at .” American Anthropologist 99(3): 602-618.

Carrasco Vargas, Ramón, and María Cordeiro Baquiero. 2012. “The Murals of Chiik Nahb, Structure, Sub1-4, , .” In Maya Archaeology 2, edited by Charles Golden, Stephen Houston, and Joel Skidmore, pp. 8-59. San Francisco: Precolumbia Mesoweb Press.

Dunning, N.P., Beach, T.P. and Luzzadder-Beach, S., 2012. “Kax and Kol: Collapse and Resilience in Lowland Maya Civilization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(10): 3652-3657

Excerpts, Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship, ed. V. M. Fields and D. Reents-Budet. Los Angeles: LACMA.

Gillespie, Susan. 2001. “Rethinking Ancient Maya Social Organization: Replacing "Lineage" with "House." American Anthropologist 102(3): 467-484.

Houston, Stephen D. 2010. “Living Waters and Wondrous Beasts.” In Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, by Daniel Finamore and Stephen Houston, 66-79. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Houston, Stephen D., and David Stuart. 1996. “Of Gods, Glyphs, and Kings: Divinity and Rulership among the Classic Maya.” Antiquity 70: 289-312.

Houston, Stephen D. 2016. “’Chronosophy’” in Classic Maya Thought.” In The Adventure of the Human Intellect: Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures, ed. By Kurt A. Raaflaub, 198-215. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Inomata, Takeshi. 2006. “Plazas, Performers, and Spectators: Political theatres of the Classic Maya.” Current Anthropology 47(5): 805-842.

Inomata, T., Triadan, D., Aoyama, K., Castillo, V. and Yonenobu, H., 2013. “Early Ceremonial constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the Origins of Lowland Maya civilization.” Science 340(6131): 467-471.

Martin, Simon. 2000. “Court and Realm: Architectural Signatures in the Classic Maya Southern Lowlands.” In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya, Volume 1: Theory, Comparison, and Synthesis, edited by T. Inomata and S. Houston, pp. 168-194. Boulder: Westview Press.

Miller, Mary, and Simon Martin. 2004. “Word and Image in the Maya Court.” from Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, Mary Miller and Simon Martin, 121-131. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art.

Miller, Mary, and Simon Martin. 2004. Excerpt, “Divine Models of Courtly Culture.” from Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, Mary Miller and Simon Martin, 58-63. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art.

Pugh, Timothy W. 2009. “Contagion and Alterity: Kowoj Maya Appropriations of European Objects.” American Anthropologist 111(3): 373-386.