In Search of Middle Preclassic Lowland Maya Ideologies

Rice, Prudence M.

doi:10.1007/s10814-020-09144-y

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…More specifically, beyond the pan-Mesoamerican representations of speech [72] , the Mayan word for king, lord, or ruler (ajaw) and the Nahuatl (Aztec) word for ruler (tlatoani) both have their roots in words for speaking. Significantly, the Mayan word, ajaw, which literally means "person who shouts or cries out" [80] , stems back to the Formative period [81,82] when Maya political organization was less autocratic than it was in the Classic period [83] . In Nahuatl [84] , tlatoani means literally "he who speaks".…”

Section: Variability In Governance Statecraft and Associated Modes Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication, Computation, and Governance: A Multiscalar Vantage on the Prehispanic Mesoamerican World

Feinman

Carballo

2022

J. Soc. Comput.

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Writing has often been put forth as one indicator of civilization. This correspondence dovetails with the even broader cross-species expectation that the degrees of social complexity and levels of computational communication should closely correlate. Although in a general sense across human cooperative arrangements, a basic relationship between these variables undoubtedly exists, more detailed and fine-grained analyses indicate important axes of variability. Here, our focus is on prehispanic Mesoamerica and the means of computation and communication employed over more than three millennia (ca. 1500 BCE-1520 CE). We take a multiscalar and diachronic analytical frame, in which we look at 30 central places, six macroregions, and Mesoamerica as whole. By unraveling elements of "social complexity", and decoupling computation from communication, we illustrate that institutional differences in governance had a marked effect on the specific modes and technologies through which prehispanic Mesoamerican peoples communicated across time and space. Demographic and spatial scale, though relevant, do not alone determine time/space diversity in media of computational communication. This article is part of the theme issue "Evolution of Collective Computational Abilities of (Pre)Historic Societies".

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Section: Variability In Governance Statecraft and Associated Modes Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication, Computation, and Governance: A Multiscalar Vantage on the Prehispanic Mesoamerican World

Feinman

Carballo

2022

J. Soc. Comput.

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“…Esto fue esencial porque permitió a los mayas celebrar la llegada de la temporada de lluvias y, por lo tanto, planificar prácticas agrícolas concentradas en el cultivo del maíz (Aveni et al 2003; Aylesworth 2004; Brown 2017:386–387; Estrada-Belli 2011:78–79; Freidel et al 2017; Inomata 2017b; véase también Šprajc 2021). Además, debe destacarse la asociación de los Grupos E con el simbolismo del maíz propuesto por algunos investigadores que perciben estos complejos como lugares para rituales que conmemoran el renacimiento del dios del maíz, la deidad central del panteón maya (Stanton y Freidel 2003; véase también Rice 2021:23). Los escondites que contienen cabezas humanas desmembradas que se encuentran con frecuencia dentro de los Grupos E pudieron servir para evocar el simbolismo de la decapitación y resurrección del dios del maíz (Stanton y Freidel 2003; véase también Brown 2017; Chase y Chase 2017:43–45; Ricketson y Ricketson 1937).…”

Section: Desarrollo Arquitectónico De Nakum En La Segunda Mitad Del P...unclassified

Dinámica Del Desarrollo Cultural Y Sociopolítico De Nakum, Guatemala Durante El Preclásico Medio

Źrałka

Hermes²,

Velásquez³

et al. 2022

Ancient Mesoam

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ResumenLos resultados de investigaciones arqueológicas recientes llevadas a cabo en el sitio Nakum, ubicado en el noreste de Guatemala, indican que este centro experimentó una importante evolución cultural, sociopolítica y arquitectónica entre los horizontes pre-Mamom y Mamom (1000–300 a.C.). Las excavaciones arqueológicas permitieron documentar varios edificios y complejos fechados para este periodo, incluyendo un grupo tipo E, una cancha de juego de pelota y un baño de vapor. Asimismo, producto de las excavaciones, se obtuvo una gran colección cerámica de dicha temporalidad, la cual permite—gracias a estudios estilísticos, modales, petrográficos y fisicoquímicos—conocer con mayor detalle los cambios culturales y sociales que tuvieron lugar en el sitio durante el preclásico medio.

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“…Although cosmogonic myths and the Indigenous art of populations living north of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands afford some insights into the significance of breath among these communities, the patterns most closely mirror cosmological concepts of life and creation expressed in the art and myths of Mesoamerica. Even though there are marked cultural differences between nomadic foragers and sedentary agriculturalists, López Austin (2001:59) and Rice (2020) remind us that the religious traditions of Mesoamerican agriculturalists were, at least in part, an outgrowth of the worldview of Archaic huntergatherers. Rice (2020) notes that some of the cosmological concepts and perceptions of reality may not only be pan-Mesoamerican but also pan-New World.…”

Section: Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though there are marked cultural differences between nomadic foragers and sedentary agriculturalists, López Austin (2001:59) and Rice (2020) remind us that the religious traditions of Mesoamerican agriculturalists were, at least in part, an outgrowth of the worldview of Archaic huntergatherers. Rice (2020) notes that some of the cosmological concepts and perceptions of reality may not only be pan-Mesoamerican but also pan-New World. By looking for the similarities and patterns within the diversity, we begin recognizing components of the núcleo duro that are most resistant to change, those that may be pan-New World, such as the breath-soul.…”

Section: Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech-Breath: Mapping the Multisensory Experience in Pecos River Style Pictography

Boyd

Busby

2021

Latin Am. antiq.

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Archaic period hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, created complex rock art murals containing elaborately painted anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. These figures are frequently portrayed with dots or lines emanating out of or into their open mouths. In this article, we discuss patterns in shape, color, and arrangement of this pictographic element and propose that artists used this graphic device to denote speech, breath, and the soul. They communicated meaning through the image-making process, alternating brushstroke direction to indicate inhalation versus exhalation or using different paint application techniques to reflect measured versus forceful speech. The choices made by artists in the production of the imagery reflect their cosmology and the framework of ideas and beliefs through which they interpreted and interacted with the world. Bridging the iconographic data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic texts from Mesoamerica, we suggest that speech and breath expressed in the rock art of the Lower Pecos was tied to concepts of the soul, creation, and human origins.

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In Search of Middle Preclassic Lowland Maya Ideologies

Cited by 10 publications

References 108 publications

Communication, Computation, and Governance: A Multiscalar Vantage on the Prehispanic Mesoamerican World

Communication, Computation, and Governance: A Multiscalar Vantage on the Prehispanic Mesoamerican World

Dinámica Del Desarrollo Cultural Y Sociopolítico De Nakum, Guatemala Durante El Preclásico Medio

Speech-Breath: Mapping the Multisensory Experience in Pecos River Style Pictography

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