UC Berkeley Anthropology Faculty Publications Title Revealing Ancestral Central America Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9786j9b5 Authors Joyce, RA Luke, C Hoopes, J et al. Publication Date 2013 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Revealing Ancestral Central America Revealing Ancestral Central America Edited by Rosemary A. Joyce JOY C E • SMITHSONI A Smithsonian N Revealing Ancestral Central America w Revealing Ancestral Central America Edited by Rosemary A. Joyce The Smithsonian Latino Center and the National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian Institution 3 CHAPTER TITLE GOES HERE Printed in conjunction with the exhibition Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed, on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, March 29, 2013–February 1, 2015. © 2013 Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved. SMITHSONIAN Latino CENTER and National MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN No part of this book may be reproduced in any man- Director, Smithsonian Latino Center: Eduardo Díaz ner whatsoever without written permission of the Director, National Museum of the American Indian: Smithsonian Institution except in the case of brief Kevin Gover (Pawnee) quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Associate Director for Scholarship, NMAI: The Smithsonian Latino Center ensures that Latino David Penney contributions to the arts, sciences, and humanities Associate Director for Museum Programs, NMAI: are highlighted, understood, and advanced through Tim Johnson (Mohawk) the development and support of public programs, Associate Director for Museum Assets and research, museum collections, and educational Operations, NMAI: Jane Sledge opportunities at the Smithsonian Institution. Exhibitions and Public Programs Director, SLC: For more information about the Smithsonian Latino Ranald Woodaman Center, visit the SLC website at www.latino.si.edu. Lead Curator: Ann McMullen, NMAI Guest Curator: Alexander Benítez The National Museum of the American Indian General Editor: Rosemary A. Joyce (NMAI) is committed to advancing knowledge and Copy Editor: Joan Mentzer understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Editorial Assistance: Ann McMullen and Hemisphere—past, present, and future—through the NMAI Publications Office partnership with Native people and others. The museum works to support the continuance of culture, Design: Studio A traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Alexandria, Virginia Native life. Typeset in Serifa and Locator For more information about the Smithsonian’s Printed in the USA by Four Colour Print Group National Museum of the American Indian, visit the This publication received federal support from NMAI website at www.AmericanIndian.si.edu. the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the FIRST EDITION Smithsonian Latino Center, and additional support The name of the “Smithsonian,” “Smithsonian from the National Council of the National Museum of Institution,” and the sunburst logo are registered the American Indian. trademarks of the Smithsonian Institution. Cover: Fig. 86. Greater Nicoya female figure on a feline-effigy bench. See page 61. Photo by Ernest Smithsonian Institution Amoroso. Back cover: Fig. 56. Classic period Maya male figure. See page 41. Title page: Fig. 10. Greater Coclé animal figure. See page 16. Page 10: Fig. 60. Classic period Maya vessel depict- ing a nobleman carried on a palanquin (detail). See page 44. Page 68: Fig. 112. Greater Coclé (Conté style) footed plate with crocodile design. See page 75. 4 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA 6 Foreword Kevin Gover and Eduardo Díaz 8 Acknowledgments Ancestral Central America 13 Surrounded by Beauty: Central America before 1500 Rosemary A. Joyce 23 Dwelling in the Ancestral Joya de Cerén Village Payson Sheets 33 Artisanry in Motion Contents Christina Luke and Rosemary A. Joyce 45 Authority in Ancestral Central America John W. Hoopes 59 Between Beliefs and Rituals: Material Culture of Ancestral Costa Rica Patricia Fernández Collectors and Collecting 70 A New Dream Museum Ann McMullen 72 Minor Keith and the United Fruit Company Alexander Benítez 74 Adventurers, Dilettantes, and Looters Ann McMullen 76 Accidental Interests Ann McMullen 78 Promoting Heritage Alexander Benítez 80 List of Figures 88 References Cited Foreword Kevin Gover (Pawnee) Director, National Museum of the American Indian Eduardo Díaz Executive Director, Smithsonian Latino Center entroamericanos—they are the realized that the NMAI was quietly caring for backbone of the Latino communi- one of the largest and most significant col- Cties surrounding Washington, D.C., lections of Central American archaeology in the Smithsonian’s own backyard. They hail existence, with approximately 17,000 objects from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, from the region. Astoundingly, this includes Nicaragua, Belize, Panama, and Costa Rica. more than 10,000 intact vessels, embodying They have a growing presence throughout countless untold stories. the United States, yet representation of The Central American Ceramics Research their cultural and social legacies in Latin Project, or CACRP, is the Latino Center’s American scholarship has remained largely initiative to learn more about these works. marginalized by earlier focus on the politi- Launched in 2009, the CACRP supported cal dominance, riches, and the epic drama of the two-year study, documentation, and Mesoamerican and Andean empires. Through identification of items in the NMAI’s Central a partnership between the Smithsonian Latino American ceramics collections. This initiative Center (SLC) and the National Museum of the has been the catalyst for other research and American Indian (NMAI), we have seized this projects, such as an exhibition, based on a opportunity to connect with our local Latino number of the objects that examine cultural communities, many of which remain rooted diversity, complexity, and change across in their indigenous heritage and history. space and time; a series of public programs Herein we honor the enduring, economically exploring cultural and scientific dimensions and politically stable cultural traditions of of the project; training opportunities for pre-Hispanic Central America through their Central American museum staff; an interac- exceptional material culture. Sharing this cul- tive website; and this publication. tural patrimony and acknowledging its value All of this work springs from unprec- is both our challenge and our responsibility, edented new scholarship related to these and we gladly take up the charge. objects, few of which had been previously The generation of this project occurred studied or publicly exhibited. The objects by accident, with a discovery at the NMAI of a highlighted in this book, largely drawn from vast collection of Central American archaeo- the NMAI’s Central American archaeologi- logical objects by visiting staff researchers cal collection, have much to say to us today. from the Smithsonian Latino Center. They They testify to the complexity of long-lived 6 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA governments and social systems, and to the devoted aficionado familiar with the history importance and sophistication of the art and and cultures of the region, the experience of science in the communities where they were seeing our exhibition or reading this book is made. They speak of the patience, sensitivity, meant to engender new paradigms for under- and innovation of their makers. standing the pre-Hispanic past. The essays that follow reveal the lives of The effort to uncover this ancestral inheri- the ancestors of the indigenous, mestizo, and tance has been a multi-year labor of love. We afromestizo peoples of Central America. Their would like to thank the brilliant and dedicated histories have often been lost or obscured, team of scholars, curators, editors, project but through archaeology, the available managers, conservators, exhibition designers, records, and understandings from contem- web designers, educators, fundraisers, pub- porary indigenous peoples, we can partially licists, and other museum professionals who Ulúa River female figure, reconstruct and begin to glimpse the organi- made all of this possible. We are particularly AD 250–900. Río Ulúa valley, Honduras. Pottery. zation of their daily lives and their ideas about indebted to general editor Rosemary Joyce, Formerly in the collection nature, power, and the supernatural. From the whose exemplary efforts, coupled with the of Marco Aurelio Soto; figurines depicting powerful women in the leading-edge scholarship of the contributing MAI purchase from an Greater Nicoya region to the finely decorated authors, shaped this publication. Joyce not unknown source, 1917. vessels of the wealthy farming hamlets of only contributed her expertise and dedication the Ulúa Valley and the fantastical designs to this project, but was an advocate for creat- on Coclé pottery, we can see that the peoples ing access to this new knowledge. We hope of pre-Hispanic Central America developed that you are moved by these groundbreaking uniquely local identities and cultural tradi- explorations of the Central American past. tions while also engaging in vital exchanges of ideas, goods, and technologies with their neighbors in all directions. By emphasizing notions of heritage and connection to our pre-Hispanic collections, this project has the potential to engage surrounding Central