The Maya World / Edition 1

by Scott R. Hutson, Traci Ardren

Overview

The Maya World brings together over 60 authors, representing the fields of archaeology, art history, epigraphy, geography, and ethnography, who explore cutting-edge research on every major facet of the ancient Maya and all sub-regions within the Maya world.

The Maya world, which covers Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, contains over a hundred ancient sites that are open to tourism, eight of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and many thousands more that have been dug or await investigation. In addition to captivating the lay public, the ancient Maya have attracted scores of major interdisciplinary research expeditions and hundreds of smaller projects going back to the 19th century, making them one of the best-known ancient cultures. The Maya World explores their renowned writing system, towering stone pyramids, exquisitely painted murals, and elaborate funerary tombs as well as their creative agricultural strategies, complex social, economic, and political relationships, widespread interactions with other societies, and remarkable cultural resilience in the face of historical ruptures.

This is an invaluable reference volume for scholars of the ancient Maya, including archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138492837
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Series:	Routledge Worlds
Pages:	918
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Scott R. Hutson teaches at the University of Kentucky, USA. He has written the books The Ancient Urban Maya (2016) and Dwelling, Identity, and the Maya (2010). He also edited Ancient Maya Commerce: Multi-disciplinary Research at Chunchucmil (2017) and co-wrote (with Ian Hodder) the third edition of Reading the Past (2003). He has been doing fieldwork in the Maya Lowlands, usually focusing on household archaeology, settlement patterns, and ritual practice, since 1996.

Traci Ardren is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Miami, USA. She is an anthropological archaeologist interested in issues of identity and other forms of symbolic representation in the archaeological record. Traci is co-director of the Proyecto Sacbe Yaxuna-Coba, at the Classic Maya site of Yaxuna, in Yucatan, Mexico where she investigates the ways ancient road systems allowed for the flow of information and ideas as well as how culinary tourism and modern foodways intersect. As Consulting Curator for Mesoamerican Art, Traci curated a number of exhibits of ancient New World art at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami.

Table of Contents

List of figures xii

List of tables xxii

List of contributors xxiii

1 Introduction Tract Ardren Scott R. Hutson 1

Part I Beginnings 7

Introduction to beginnings 7

2 Archaic Maya matters Jon C. Lohse 11

3 Public architecture and the rise of complexity in the Middle Preclassic M. Kathryn Brown Travis W. Stanton 29

4 The southern Maya Lowlands in the Late Preclassic James Doyle 43

5 The Late Preclassic Pacific slope Julia Guernsey Michael Love 63

6 The Maya Highlands and the Late Preclassic: Kaminaljuyu as a case study Barbara Arroyo 81

Part II Bodies 103

Introduction to bodies 103

7 Maya bioarchaeology Vera Tiesler 107

8 Graves, dead bodies, souls, and ancestors Andrew K. Scherer 128

9 Gender and sexuality Tract Ardren 147

10 Human-animal relations in the Maya world Arianne Boileau Nicolas Delsol Kitty F. Emery 164

11 Favored plants of the Maya Cameron E. McNeil 183

12 Migration and mobility in the eastern Maya Lowlands Carolyn Freiwald 203

Part III Landscapes 223

Introduction to landscapes 223

13 Paleoecology, soil, and water in Maya history Timothy Beach Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach Nicholas Dunning Samantha Krause 229

14 Settlement patterns Thomas G. Garrison 250

15 Ancient Maya ports, port facilities, and navigation Anthony P. Andrews 269

16 Ritual cave use among the ancient Maya Holley Moyes 287

17 Ancient Maya rurality: old assumptions, current research, and new directions Celine C. Lamb 307

18 Lakamha: the place of "Big Waters": the archaeology of the ancient city of Palenque, Mexico Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo 328

19 The Maya city of Caracol, Belize: the integration of an anthropogenic landscape Arlen F. Chase Diane Z. Chase Adrian S. Z. Chase 344

20 Ek' Balam: a Maya city in the urban landscape of Yucatan Leticia Vargas De la Peña Alexandra Alonso Olvera Victor R. Castillo Borges Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo 364

Part IV Relations 385

Introduction to relations 389

21 Household archaeology of the Classic period Lowland Maya Nancy Gonlin 389

22 Inequality and social groups Scott R. Hutson 407

23 Maya relations with the material world Eleanor Harrison-Buck 424

24 Maya commerce Eleanor M. King 443

25 Classic Maya geopolitics Simon Martin 459

26 The politics of conflict: war before and beyond the state in Maya society Omar Andrés Alcover Firpi Charles Golden 477

Part V Production 497

Introduction to production 497

27 Ancient Maya agriculture Nicholas Dunning Timothy Beach Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach 501

28 The Maya forest: a domesticated landscape Anabel Ford 519

29 The complexity of ancient Maya craft production Michael G. Callaghan Brigitte Kovacevich 540

30 Animating materials: the sculpted forms of the ancient Maya world Megan E. O'Neil 559

31 Maya mural painting Heather Hurst 578

32 Recent developments in Maya epigraphic research Mallory E. Matsumoto Nicholas P. Carter 599

33 Maya time David Stuart 624

34 Maya rites, rituals, and ceremonies Miguel Astor-Aguilera 648

Part VI Interactions 669

Introduction to interactions 669

35 Olmecs and other western neighbors Takeshi Inomata 673

36 Interactions between Ancient Teotihuacan and the Maya world Saburo Sugiyama Nawa Sugiyama 689

37 Southeast Mesoamerica Edward Schortman Patricia Urban 712

38 Classic and Postclassic peoples of the Pacific coast Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos 731

39 The northern Maya Tollans William M. Ringle 752

Part VII Resilience, Legacies, and Transformations 773

Introduction to resilience, legacies, and transformations 773

40 Collapse, transformation, reorganization: the Terminal Classic Transition in the Maya world Jason Yaeger 777

41 The structures of everyday life in the Postclassic urban setting of Mayapan Marilyn A. Masson Timothy S. Hare 794

42 Colonial entanglements at Tahcabo, Yucatán Patricia A. McAnany Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche Maia Dedrick 813

43 The archaeology of Henequen Haciendas: San Pedro Cholul as a case study Héctor Hernández Álvarez Lilia Fernéndez Souza Mario Zimmermann 832

44 Lacandon Maya culture: continuity and change Joel W. Palka 850

Index 869

Editorial Reviews

"A compendium that brings together the latest research built on deep foundations of archaeological, historical, paleo-ecological, and epigraphic study. A must for the bookshelf of every investigator of the ancient Maya!" - Dr. Mary Miller, Getty Research Institute, USA

"A volume of unprecedented riches, this book instructs, guides, and inspires with its far-ranging and lucid essays about ancient Maya civilization. My main regret is not having this compendium as a student! It will lead us all forward. Majestic and authoritative." - Dr. Stephen D. Houston, Brown University, USA

"It has been generations since Maya studies had a really great handbook for students, experts and everyone interested in the subject. This sharply current book delivers. The Maya World is a superb compendium of finely written, intellectually exciting and highly informative essays by leading experts in the field. I will turn to it regularly and I recommend everyone else who reads it do the same." - David A. Freidel, Washington University, St. Louis, USA

"A rich collection of up-to-date essays by top authorities on all aspects of the culture, politics, livelihood and achievements of the ancient Maya. A triumph of scholarship, it can be read with profit by specialists and students, as well as by visitors to the realm of the Maya." - Michael D. Coe (1929-2019), Yale University, USA

"A compendium that brings together the latest research built on deep foundations of archaeological, historical, paleontological, and epigraphic study. A must for the bookshelf of every investigator of the ancient Maya!" - Dr. Mary Miller, Getty Research Institute, USA

"A volume of unprecedented riches, this book instructs, guides, and inspires with its far-ranging and lucid essays about ancient Maya civilization. My main regret is not having this compendium as a student! It will lead us all forward. Majestic and authoritative." - Dr. Stephen D. Houston, Brown University, USA

"It has been generations since Maya studies had a really great handbook for students, experts and everyone interested in the subject. This sharply current book delivers. The Maya World is a superb compendium of finely written, intellectually exciting and highly informative essays by leading experts in the field. I will turn to it regularly and I recommend everyone else who reads it do the same." - David A. Freidel, Washington University, St. Louis, USA

"A rich collection of up-to-date essays by top authorities an all aspects of the culture, politics, livelihood and achievements of the ancient Maya. A triumph of u scholarship, it can be read with profit by specialists and students, as well as by visitors to the realm of the Maya." - Michael D. Coe (1929-2019), Yale University, USA

From the Publisher