Rock art and rituality in the construction of the Maya person of the Postclassic period at Mensabak Lake, Chiapas

Abstract

The notion of person among the Maya has been studied particularly for the Classic and post-contact periods. However, we know little about the Maya person in the Postclassic period. In this paper, our initial assumption is that the Postclassic rock art found in some of the cliffs of Mensabak Lake, Chiapas, conveys elements regarding the notion and construction of the Maya person. In this sense, we analyze the rock paintings and the material culture associated with the cliffs based on the anthropology of the person.
 For the Classic Maya, the limits of the person were relatively permeable, something that can be observed in various scenes of Classic art, given the presence of various essences emanating from the bodies of the individuals depicted therein. Permeability, in that sense, is expressed when the person is saturated by substances whose qualities influence the internal composition of the person.
 Here we discuss an interpretation of a rock scene from the Postclassic period, where we observe a ritual of construction of the Maya person. In addition, we conducted underwater archaeological surveys and archaeological excavations at the foot of a particular cliff, whose collected materials suggest the presence of a repeated ritual practice, where food was prepared, copal was burned and substances were exchanged with the deities.