Substance of the Ancient Maya
Substance of the Ancient Maya
Kingdoms and Communities, Objects and Beings
Substance of the Ancient Maya: Kingdoms and Communities, Objects and Beings collects twelve essays by top scholars, highlighting what is new in research pertaining to the ancient Maya. Subjects range from updated political histories of major kingdoms in the southern Maya Lowlands to explorations of the nature of Maya writing and materiality. These essays were inspired by the scholarship of Stephen Houston and celebrate his transdisciplinary commitment to research in anthropological archaeology, epigraphy, and art history.
Collectively, these contributions show how the objects and beings that composed the Classic Maya world were both literal and sacred substances that mediated relations not only among living people but with gods and ancestors. A final chapter by Stephen Houston reflects on unfinished projects of the ancient Maya as a metaphor for all of the work yet to be done to move forward in our studies of the past.
“An excellent contribution to the field of Maya studies.”—William L. Fash, author of Scribes, Warriors, and Kings: The City of Copán and the Ancient Maya
Andrew K. Scherer is the director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World and an associate professor of anthropology and archaeology at Brown University. Thomas G. Garrison is an assistant professor of geography and the environment and the director of the Lidar and Landscapes of the Ancient Mediterranean and Americas (LLAMA) Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.
Chapter One. Introduction: Substance of the Ancient Maya
Andrew K. Scherer and Thomas G. Garrison
Part I. Kingdoms and Communities
Chapter Two. Classic Maya Royal Courts, Gender, Personhood, and Moral Authority
Patricia A. McAnany
Chapter Three. Revisiting the Moral Community: Holy Lords, Patron Deities, Origins, and Collapse at Piedras Negras and Beyond
Charles Golden and Takeshi Inomata
Chapter Four. Negotiating Ancient Maya Identity: Ethnicity, Community, and the Fostering of Loyalty in Classic Period Kingdoms
Thomas G. Garrison and Edwin Román
Chapter Five. Maya Populations, Proxies, and Puzzles
David Webster
Chapter Six. The Long Twilight of the Tikal Dynasty: What Ninth Century Tikal, Zacpeten, Ixlu, and Jimbal Tell Us About the Classic Maya Collapse
Simon Martin
Chapter Seven. Revisiting the Architectural Settings of Bonampak: A World on Fire
Mary Miller
Part II. Objects and Beings
Chapter Eight. Proper Names and the Origins of Writing
David Stuart
Chapter Nine. The Olmec Double Merlon Motif: A Middle Formative Sign for Green
Karl A. Taube
Chapter Ten. Setting the Story in Motion: Dedicatory Texts on 4th–6th Century Maya Vases
Claudia Brittenham
Chapter Eleven. Supporting Roles: Wood and Helper Figures in Ancient Maya Art
James Doyle
Chapter Twelve. The Death Within: Maya Perspectives on Bone, Material, and Being
Andrew K. Scherer
Chapter Thirteen. Animal Sacrifice in Mesoamerica: Imitation, Incorporation, and Intimacy
Sarah E. Newman and Franco D. Rossi
Part III. End Matters
Chapter Fourteen. Unfinished Business
Stephen Houston
