DOCSLIB.ORG

Political Theaters of the Classic Maya Author(S): Takeshi Inomata Source: Current Anthropology, Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Political Theaters of the Classic Maya Author(S): Takeshi Inomata Source: Current Anthropology, Vol Plazas, Performers, and Spectators: Political Theaters of the Classic Maya Author(s): Takeshi Inomata Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 47, No. 5 (October 2006), pp. 805-842 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/506279 . Accessed: 18/01/2015 16:49 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Current Anthropology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.148.252.35 on Sun, 18 Jan 2015 16:49:17 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 5, October 2006 805 Plazas, Performers, and Spectators Political Theaters of the Classic Maya by Takeshi Inomata Theatrical performances not only communicate preexisting ideas but also define political reality as it is experienced by participants. Theatrical events thus constitute a critical process of integration and conflict in a wide range of societies and have particularly significant effects on the maintenance and transformation of premodern centralized polities. The study of performances allows archaeol- ogists to explore the interrelations between political, social, and cultural factors and provides an approach to action and meaning different from the one that views the material record as text. The analysis of plazas in Classic Maya society (AD 250–900) suggests that the performances of rulers depicted on stone monuments involved a large audience and that securing theatrical spaces for mass spectacles was a primary concern in the design of Maya cities. Such events gave physical reality to a Maya community and counteracted the centrifugal tendency of nonelite populations. How did large societies of the past achieve a certain degree entities in the premodern world. The way ancient people ex- of cohesion underscored by collectively held cultural and perienced the presence of such political organization was not moral values? Anderson (1991, 6) has argued that “all com- always the same as ours. Whereas today the notion of the munities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact state is internalized in the political consciousness of numerous (and perhaps even these) are imagined” in the sense that individuals, many early states may not have had resources and individuals never know most of their fellow members or meet mechanisms to assert their constant presence in the minds them but nevertheless bear the image of their communion and daily lives of their subject populations. Foucault (1977 (see Canuto and Yaeger 2000). There is, however, a vast gap [1975], 187) noted that, in premodern Europe before the between “primordial villages” and the modern nation-states technologies of discipline were developed, state power was for which Anderson developed his concept. Whereas he has what was seen. Likewise, before the rise of modern nation- emphasized the role of the written media in the creation of alism, individuals’ identities as members of states may often imagined communities, many large communities in the past have been weaker than their identities as members of smaller emerged without much benefit of writing. While avoiding social groups such as kin groups and local communities (An- naı¨ve concepts of a true or natural community, we need to derson 1991). In certain historical contexts, then, subject pop- recognize that human sociality and identity are rooted in our ulations’ perception and experience of authorities and na- sensory perceptions of the presence and actions of others. tional unity were highly uneven, accentuated in the specific Many communities in antiquity were probably not totally temporal and spatial contexts of state-sponsored events such imagined but groups based to some degree on direct inter- as ceremonies and construction projects but diluted or even actions between individuals. In addition, no organization can nonexistent in the routines of daily lives. In those cases, what exist without symbols that give concrete, sensible forms to many individuals consciously recognized and thought about group identities (Kertzer 1988, 15). The values, traditions, may have been the tangible images of the ruler’s body, state and identities of a community are not timeless, transcendent buildings, and collective acts but probably not the abstract entities but anchored in the tangible images and acts that each notion of a state. individual can directly sense. These considerations call attention to the political impli- The relation between the tangible and the imagined aspects cations and consequences of theatrical performances in public of society is particularly important when we examine political events in which many individuals sense and witness the bodily existence and participation of other members and the cultural Takeshi Inomata is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the and moral values of the community are objectified and em- University of Arizona (P.O. Box 210030, Tucson, AZ 85721, U.S.A. bodied. In particular, I argue that the development of large [[email protected]]). The present paper was submitted 21 IX centralized polities would have been impossible in any his- 04 and accepted 14 II 06. torical context without heavy reliance on public events. Classic ᭧ 2006 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved 0011-3204/2006/4705-0004$10.00 This content downloaded from 128.148.252.35 on Sun, 18 Jan 2015 16:49:17 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 806 Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 5, October 2006 Maya society (AD 250–900), in which rulers and elites actively sponsored and participated in public rituals and festivals, pro- vides fertile ground for an exploration of the intersection of theatrical performances and politics (fig. 1). By analyzing the spatial contexts of public performances at Maya centers, I examine how public events facilitated and conditioned the integration and identity formation of a community and set the stage for the imposition and negotiation of asymmetrical power relations. Theater, Community, and Power Theory of Performance Recent developments in performance theory, theater studies, and dramaturgic analysis provide a theoretical basis for this study. The concepts of performance used by social scientists have a wide range of meanings. On one end of this continuum is a prescribed act in modern theater. Schechner (1977, 75; 1988, 6–16; 1994) distinguishes theater from other types of performances such as rituals, sports, and games by noting that it requires the physical presence of an audience that observes and evaluates it with an emphasis on entertainment. Beeman (1993, 379) stresses the symbolic reality of theater, in which the performers represent themselves in roles de- tached from their lives outside the performance. On the other end of the continuum is a broad definition of performance as an enactment of what it refers to (Pearson and Shanks 2001). In this view, the emphasis is on what human beings Figure 1. The Maya area, showing the locations of the centers do as opposed to thoughts and abstract structures. An explicit mentioned in the text. theoretical formulation of this perspective is found in the concept of the performative utterance in speech-act theory. Certain utterances do not simply describe social relations but Theatricality is defined in terms of the emotional—including effect them (Austin 1962). Goffman (1959, 22; 1967) has also both positive and negative—responses that the performance proposed a broad definition of performance: “all the activity produces in participants and its symbolic reality, with a se- of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his miotic system distinct from that of unconscious, routine acts continuous presence before a particular set of observers and (Fischer-Lichte 1992, 139–40; 1995; Pavis 1998[1980], 395). which has some effect on the observers.” He has emphasized In addition, theatricality involves the use of material images the theatricality that is present even in everyday activities and in dynamic motion as media of expression and communi- has examined their communicative and expressive qualities, cation in which the human body takes a central role (Grimes through which people project different identities and images 1987; Read 1993, 10). In this sense, theatricality is present in under different circumstances. many contexts outside of the modern formal theater. Al- The present study builds on these diverse theoretical views. though many of the events that I discuss may be called rituals, Nonetheless, the purpose of my research requires a definition I often use the term “theatrical performance” to make my of performance that is tighter than those of Austin and Goff- theoretical approach explicit (see Moore and Myerhoff 1977). man yet broad enough to include various activities which take The significance of these theoretical developments con- place outside of formal theaters (see MacAloon 1984a, 6). cerning performance can be situated in a broader trend in Following Hymes (1975, 13–19), I define performance as cre- archaeology and other social sciences which, inspired by prac- ative, realized, achieved acts which are interpretable, report- tice theory and agency theory, calls attention to what people able, and repeatable within a domain of cultural intelligibility. do (Bourdieu 1977[1972]; Giddens 1984). This view is ac- What distinguishes it is the qualities that are consciously rec- companied by a conceptualization of political processes as ognized by performers and an audience.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • With the Protection of the Gods: an Interpretation of the Protector Figure in Classic Maya Iconography
    University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2012 With The Protection Of The Gods: An Interpretation Of The Protector Figure In Classic Maya Iconography Tiffany M. Lindley University of Central Florida Part of the Anthropology Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Lindley, Tiffany M., "With The Protection Of The Gods: An Interpretation Of The Protector Figure In Classic Maya Iconography" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 2148. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2148 WITH THE PROTECTION OF THE GODS: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE PROTECTOR FIGURE IN CLASSIC MAYA ICONOGRAPHY by TIFFANY M. LINDLEY B.A. University of Alabama, 2009 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2012 © 2012 Tiffany M. Lindley ii ABSTRACT Iconography encapsulates the cultural knowledge of a civilization. The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica utilized iconography to express ideological beliefs, as well as political events and histories. An ideology heavily based on the presence of an Otherworld is visible in elaborate Maya iconography. Motifs and themes can be manipulated to convey different meanings based on context.
    [Show full text]
  • The Toltec Invasion and Chichen Itza
    Other titles of interest published by Thames & Hudson include: Breaking the Maya Code Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs Angkor and the Khmer Civilization India: A Short History The Incas The Aztecs See our websites www.thamesandhudson.com www.thamesandhudsonusa.com 7 THE POSTCLASSIC By the close of the tenth century AD the destiny of the once proud and independent Maya had, at least in northern Yucatan, fallen into the hands of grim warriors from the highlands of central Mexico, where a new order of men had replaced the supposedly more intellectual rulers of Classic times. We know a good deal about the events that led to the conquest of Yucatan by these foreigners, and the subsequent replacement of their state by a resurgent but already decadent Maya culture, for we have entered into a kind of history, albeit far more shaky than that which was recorded on the monuments of the Classic Period. The traditional annals of the peoples of Yucatan, and also of the Guatemalan highlanders, transcribed into Spanish letters early in Colonial times, apparently reach back as far as the beginning of the Postclassic era and are very important sources. But such annals should be used with much caution, whether they come to us from Bishop Landa himself, from statements made by the native nobility, or from native lawsuits and land claims. These are often confused and often self-contradictory, not least because native lineages seem to have deliberately falsified their own histories for political reasons. Our richest (and most treacherous) sources are the K’atun Prophecies of Yucatan, contained in the “Books of Chilam Balam,” which derive their name from a Maya savant said to have predicted the arrival of the Spaniards from the east.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography
    Bibliography Many books were read and researched in the compilation of Binford, L. R, 1983, Working at Archaeology. Academic Press, The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology: New York. Binford, L. R, and Binford, S. R (eds.), 1968, New Perspectives in American Museum of Natural History, 1993, The First Humans. Archaeology. Aldine, Chicago. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Braidwood, R 1.,1960, Archaeologists and What They Do. Franklin American Museum of Natural History, 1993, People of the Stone Watts, New York. Age. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Branigan, Keith (ed.), 1982, The Atlas ofArchaeology. St. Martin's, American Museum of Natural History, 1994, New World and Pacific New York. Civilizations. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Bray, w., and Tump, D., 1972, Penguin Dictionary ofArchaeology. American Museum of Natural History, 1994, Old World Civiliza­ Penguin, New York. tions. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Brennan, L., 1973, Beginner's Guide to Archaeology. Stackpole Ashmore, w., and Sharer, R. J., 1988, Discovering Our Past: A Brief Books, Harrisburg, PA. Introduction to Archaeology. Mayfield, Mountain View, CA. Broderick, M., and Morton, A. A., 1924, A Concise Dictionary of Atkinson, R J. C., 1985, Field Archaeology, 2d ed. Hyperion, New Egyptian Archaeology. Ares Publishers, Chicago. York. Brothwell, D., 1963, Digging Up Bones: The Excavation, Treatment Bacon, E. (ed.), 1976, The Great Archaeologists. Bobbs-Merrill, and Study ofHuman Skeletal Remains. British Museum, London. New York. Brothwell, D., and Higgs, E. (eds.), 1969, Science in Archaeology, Bahn, P., 1993, Collins Dictionary of Archaeology. ABC-CLIO, 2d ed. Thames and Hudson, London. Santa Barbara, CA. Budge, E. A. Wallis, 1929, The Rosetta Stone. Dover, New York. Bahn, P.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rulers of Palenque a Beginner’S Guide
    The Rulers of Palenque A Beginner’s Guide By Joel Skidmore With illustrations by Merle Greene Robertson Citation: 2008 The Rulers of Palenque: A Beginner’s Guide. Third edition. Mesoweb: www. mesoweb.com/palenque/resources/rulers/PalenqueRulers-03.pdf. Publication history: The first edition of this work, in html format, was published in 2000. The second was published in 2007, when the revised edition of Martin and Grube’s Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens was still in press, and this third conforms to the final publica- tion (Martin and Grube 2008). To check for a more recent edition, see: www.mesoweb.com/palenque/resources/rulers/rulers.html. Copyright notice: All drawings by Merle Greene Robertson unless otherwise noted. Mesoweb Publications The Rulers of Palenque INTRODUCTION The unsung pioneer in the study of Palenque’s dynastic history is Heinrich Berlin, who in three seminal studies (Berlin 1959, 1965, 1968) provided the essential outline of the dynasty and explicitly identified the name glyphs and likely accession dates of the major Early and Late Classic rulers (Stuart 2005:148-149). More prominent and well deserved credit has gone to Linda Schele and Peter Mathews (1974), who summarized the rulers of Palenque’s Late Classic and gave them working names in Ch’ol Mayan (Stuart 2005:149). The present work is partly based on the transcript by Phil Wanyerka of a hieroglyphic workshop presented by Schele and Mathews at the 1993 Maya Meet- ings at Texas (Schele and Mathews 1993). Essential recourse has also been made to the insights and decipherments of David Stuart, who made his first Palenque Round Table presentation in 1978 at the age of twelve (Stuart 1979) and has recently advanced our understanding of Palenque and its rulers immeasurably (Stuart 2005).
    [Show full text]
  • The Significance of Copper Bells in the Maya Lowlands from Their
    The significance of Copper bells in the Maya Lowlands On the cover: 12 bells unearthed at Lamanai, including complete, flattened and miscast specimens. From Simmons and Shugar 2013: 141 The significance of Copper bells in the Maya Lowlands - from their appearance in the Late Terminal Classic period to the current day - Arthur Heimann Master Thesis S2468077 Prof. Dr. P.A.I.H. Degryse Archaeology of the Americas Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology (1084TCTY-F-1920ARCH) Leiden, 16/12/2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. Subject of The Thesis ................................................................................................................... 6 1.2. Research Question........................................................................................................................ 7 2. MAYA SOCIETY ........................................................................................................................... 10 2.1. Maya Geography.......................................................................................................................... 10 2.2. Maya Chronology ........................................................................................................................ 13 2.2.1. Preclassic ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 2.2.2.
    [Show full text]
  • CRÓNICAS Mesoamericanas Tomo I CRONICAS MESOAMERICANAS (TOMO I) © 2008 Universidad Mesoamericana ISBN: 978-99922-846-9-8 Primera Edición, 2008
    CRÓNICAS MESOAMEricanas TOMO I CRONICAS MESOAMERICANAS (TOMO I) © 2008 Universidad Mesoamericana ISBN: 978-99922-846-9-8 Primera Edición, 2008 Consejo Directivo: Félix Javier Serrano Ursúa, Jorge Rubén Calderón González, Claudia María Hernández de Dighero, Carlos Enrique Chian Rodríguez, Ana Cristina Estrada Quintero, Luis Roberto Villalobos Quesada, Emilio Enrique Conde Goicolea. Editor: Horacio Cabezas Carcache. Traducción de textos mayas-quichés: Marlini Son, Candelaria Dominga López Ixcoy, Robert Carmack, James L. Mondloch, Ruud van Akkeren y Hugo Fidel Sacor. Revisor de estilo: Pedro Luis Alonso. Editorial responsable: Editorial Galería Guatemala. Consejo Editorial: Estuardo Cuestas Morales, Egemberto Alvergue Oliveros, Carlos Enrique Zea Flores, María Olga Granai de Zoller, Mario Estuardo Montes Granai. Diseño y diagramación: QUELSA. Ilustraciones en acuarela: Victor Manuel Aragón. Fotografía proporcionada por Fundación Herencia Cultural Guatemalteca, Fototeca de Justin Kerr de su catálogo Maya Vase Database y Fototeca de Fundación G&T Continental (páginas 119,134,140). Impresión: Tinta y Papel Derechos reservados. La reproducción total o parcial de esta obra sólo podrá hacerse con autorización escrita de la Universidad Mesoamericana. http://www.umes.edu.gt 40 Calle, 10-01, Zona 8, Guatemala, C. A. CRÓNICAS MESOAMEricanas TOMO I CONTENIDO PRÓLOGO 9 FÉLIX JAVIER SERRANO URSÚA INTRODUCCIÓN 11 HORACIO CABEZAS CARCACHE CÓDICES mayas Y MEXICANOS 17 TOMÁS BARRIENTOS Y MARION POPENOE DE HATCH Crónicas DE YAXKUKUL Y CHAC Xulub CHEN 31 ERNESTO VARGAS PACHECO CRÓNICA DE CHAC XULUB CHEN 44 TÍTULO DE LOS SEÑORES DE Sacapulas 59 RUUD VAN AKKEREN HISTORIA DE SU ORIGEN Y VENIDA DE SUS PADRES EN LAS TIERRAS DEL QUICHÉ. 78 PARTE I. FRAGMENTO QUIChé [K’iChe’] 88 TÍTULO DE CAGCOH [KAQKOJ] 93 ENNIO BOSSÚ TESTAMENTO Y TÍTULO DE LOS ANTECESORES DE 100 LOS SEÑORES DE CAGCOH SAN CRISTÓBAL VERAPAZ.
    [Show full text]
  • Wayeb Notes No. 34
    f No. 34, 2010 WAYEB NOTES ISSN 1379-8286 WHAT COULD HAPPEN IN 2012: A RE-ANALYSIS OF THE 13-BAK’TUN PROPHECY ON TORTUGUERO MONUMENT 6 Sven Gronemeyer and Barbara MacLeod Independent Scholars “…great floods have flown From simple sources; and great seas have dried, When miracles have by the greatest been denied. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises…” Helen in William Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well”, Act II, Scene I Introduction The so-called “end of the world” – scheduled for the winter solstice of 2012 by cer- tain groups of people – is moving rapidly into public focus. The topic receives ever more publicity in the media; Hollywood has even jumped in with Roland Emmerich’s disaster film “2012”. There is a burgeoning fascination with this event in the litera- ture and on the internet – most of it arising outside the scientifically-based field of pre-Columbian studies, instead approaching the topic from an esoteric or New Age point of view. In 2006, Robert Sitler examined the esoteric side of the “2012 Phe- nomenon” and its (pseudo)-religious impact (Sitler 2006), so we will not put further attention on this aspect of the date. But since it is inevitable that our conclusions will find their way into the apocalyptic current, we hope they will not be excessively mis- construed. Apart from the influential prophecies for the K’atun 4 Ajaw in the Chilam Balam of Tizimín (MS pp. 19-20, Edmonson 1982: 168-171) and other sources, the main and most cited source for this “millennial current” (Sitler 2006: 33) in the popular percep- tion is the right panel of Tortuguero Monument 6 (Gronemeyer 2006: 157-161, pl.
    [Show full text]
  • The Classic Maya Palace As a Political Theater
    13 THE CLASSIC MAYA PALACE AS A POLITICAL THEATER Takeshi INOMATA University of Arizona INTRODUCTION Maya archaeologists have long been fascinated by large, elaborate buildings usually called «palaces.» Archaeological evidence indicates that many «pala- ces» were residences of the ruling elite. I argue that palaces were also theatrical spaces where courtly performances took place. These buildings physically and symbolically shaped the forms of interaction and display. Thus, the examination of palace layouts provides important clues concerning patterns of political and ce- remonial interaction and the nature of rulership. In this paper, I examine the Classic Maya royal palace as a political theater through an analysis of data from Aguateca, and discuss its implications for kingship and politics. THE CONCEPTS OF PALACE AND ELITE RESIDENCE I use the following terminology related to the concept of palace. The term pa- lace-type structure is defined in terms of its morphological attributes regardless of its function—a large, elaborate multi-chamber or gallery building (Andrews 1975: 43). The tenn elite residence is based strictly on its function and does not concern its morphological attributes —a building occupied by elites (see Inoma- ta and Triadan n.d. for the concepts of elite and elite residence). The term palace refers to an elite residence or elite residential complex that is large and elaborate. In this use, the term palace overlaps semantically with the terms palace-type structure and elite residence, but they are not synonymous. There may have exis- ted palace-type buildings that were occupied by non-elites or that did not have re- sidential functions.
    [Show full text]
  • Maya Calendars and Writing: 4 Tortuguero Monument 6 and 2012 Graham Atkinson October 2012 Background
    Maya Calendars and Writing: 4 Tortuguero Monument 6 and 2012 Graham Atkinson October 2012 Background • Start date of the Maya long count: – 11 (or 13) August 3114 BC – 13.0.0.0.0 in inscriptions regarding the creation event – Treat as 0.0.0.0.0 if doing arithmetic with the long count • Next 13.0.0.0.0 is 21 (or 23) December 2012 • Is next Baktun ending 1.0.0.0.0 or 14.0.0.0.0? – i.e., Does the Baktun count go to 13 or roll over after 19, like the Katun and Tun. How did the nonsense start? • Impact of well-intentioned epigraphers: – Linda Schele – George Stuart “Mysterious” Maya – David Stuart “prediction” regarding 2012 – Error in first drawing of the monument • Uncertainty due to damage to the monument • Human and American penchant for catastrophism Tortuguero Monument 6 • Has a specific reference to the 13.0.0.0.0 Baktun ending on 4 Ahau 3 Kankin, as opposed to the 4 Ahau 8 Kumku creation date • 3 panels, left one missing, both remaining ones damaged, small right panel is the one of particular interest • Main panel has a regular sort of content about the king (Kinich Kan Bahlam), etc. • See Mark van Stone, 2012, for drawings and photographs of the panels Right hand panel • 4 columns by 5 rows • Damaged on the right hand side, so some key glyphs are largely missing • Parts in 3 different collections • Look at composite photograph • Distance number 3.8.3.9.2 • Leads to 13.0.0.0.0 • “It ends, the 13 th Baktun, 4 Ahau 3 Kankin” • See Mark van Stone for drawings and photographs of the panel End of the text • U to ma “it will happen” • Damaged glyph: – originally translated as “black” or “blackness” – Now thought to be i, a focus marker or i li “see” • “Descend (or appear)” or Adorn • Bolon Yok’te: A god who appeared at the creation event • Ta … “at …” or “in” • Compare with composite photograph Left hand panel • 4 columns by 5 rows, so 20 glyph blocks • Has not been found (to our knowledge) • What is its content (conjecture): – ISIG - occupying 4 blocks? – Tzolkin date – 1 block – Lunar series – 5 or 6 blocks – HAAB date – 1 block – Verb – Subject .
    [Show full text]
  • Late Classic Maya Political Structure, Polity Size, and Warfare Arenas
    LATE CLASSIC MAYA POLITICAL STRUCTURE, POLITY SIZE, AND WARFARE ARENAS Arlen F. CHASE and Diane Z. CHASE Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Central Florida Studies of the ancient Maya have moved forward at an exceedingly rapid rate. New sites have been discovered and long-term excavations in a series of sites and regions have provided a substantial data base for interpreting ancient Maya civili- zation. New hieroglyphic texts have been found and greater numbers of texts can be read. These data have amplified our understanding of the relationships among subsistence systems, economy, and settlement to such an extent that ancient Maya social and political organization can no longer be viewed as a simple dichoto- mous priest-peasant (elite-commoner) model. Likewise, monumental Maya archi- tecture is no longer viewed as being indicative of an unoccupied ceremonial center, but rather is seen as the locus of substantial economic and political activity. In spite of these advances, substantial discussion still exists concerning the size of Maya polities, whether these polities were centralized or uncentralized, and over the kinds of secular interactions that existed among them. This is espe- cially evident in studies of aggression among Maya political units. The Maya are no longer considered a peaceful people; however, among some modern Maya scholars, the idea still exists that the Maya did not practice real war, that there was little destruction associated with military activity, and that there were no spoils of economic consequence. Instead, the Maya elite are portrayed as engaging predo- minantly in raids or ritual battles (Freidel 1986; Schele and Mathews 1991).
    [Show full text]
  • Who Were the Maya? by Robert Sharer
    Who Were the Maya? BY ROBERT SHARER he ancient maya created one of the Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador until the Spanish Conquest. world’s most brilliant and successful The brutal subjugation of the Maya people by the Spanish ca. 1470 CE civilizations. But 500 years ago, after the extinguished a series of independent Maya states with roots The Kaqchikel Maya establish a new Spaniards “discovered” the Maya, many as far back as 1000 BCE. Over the following 2,500 years scores highland kingdom with a capital at Iximche. could not believe that Native Americans of Maya polities rose and fell, some larger and more powerful had developed cities, writing, art, and than others. Most of these kingdoms existed for hundreds of ca. 1185–1204 CE otherT hallmarks of civilization. Consequently, 16th century years; a few endured for a thousand years or more. K’atun 8 Ajaw Europeans readily accepted the myth that the Maya and other To understand and follow this long development, Maya Founding of the city of Mayapan. indigenous civilizations were transplanted to the Americas by civilization is divided into three periods: the Preclassic, the “lost” Old World migrations before 1492. Of course archaeol- Classic, and the Postclassic. The Preclassic includes the ori- ogy has found no evidence to suggest that Old World intru- gins and apogee of the first Maya kingdoms from about 1000 sions brought civilization to the Maya or to any other Pre- BCE to 250 CE. The Early Preclassic (ca. 2000–1000 BCE) Columbian society. In fact, the evidence clearly shows that pre-dates the rise of the first kingdoms, so the span that civilization evolved in the Americas due to the efforts of the began by ca.
    [Show full text]
  • Shedding New Light on the Maya Stela from Hix Witz in Stuttgart
    Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya Arbeitsstelle der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste an der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn ISSN 2366-5556 RESEARCH NOTE 16 Published 25 May 2020 DOI: 10.20376/IDIOM-23665556.20.rn016.en Shedding New Light on the Maya Stela from Hix Witz in Stuttgart Christian M. Prager1, Sven Gronemeyer1,2, Elisabeth Wagner1 1) Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn 2) La Trobe University, Melbourne Abstract A Maya stela with a hieroglyphic text and a portrayal of a Maya ruler that is now in the collections of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany (inventory no. M 30751), has received scant attention from scholars to date1. This stela is the focus of current research by the authors as members of the project “Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan”, who have been collaborating with Doris Kurella of the Linden Museum since 2018. Using the project’s 3D white light scanner, the authors created a high-resolution digital version and three-dimensional visualization of the stela in the storage facilities of the Linden Museum (Figures 1–2). Digital image processing was employed to render legible text passages that can now barely be read with the naked eye and to clarify aspects of the ruler’s representation. These developments have led to new understanding of the contents and origin of the stela, which we are presenting here in English for the first time. Our analysis concludes that the monument illustrates a previously unknown Maya king of the small polity of Hix Witz (English “Ocelot/Margay Hill”) from the early ninth century CE and most likely originates from Zapote Bobal in Petén, Guatemala, or a neighboring site.
    [Show full text]