Suchergebnisse

Artificially modifying the skull was widespread among the pre-Hispanic Maya, who used different head styles during their long cultural past. We examine the distribution and evolution of skull shapes along Quintana Roo's east coast, a cultural region defined by its own pictorial style, sculpture, and architecture, which peaked during the Postclassic. Here, we examine 222 documented skulls from eight pre-Hispanic coastal and island sites. With the idea that specific, diagnostic head shapes should identify differentiated cultural associations and perhaps even the ethnicity of their human carriers, we explore the population contexts of the documented head styles and their changes during three occupation periods. Our results are discussed in terms of replacement of shapes with cultural, possibly ethnic implications. The tendencies confirm current interpretations on the increase in commercial activities and with them, the political, ideological and population reorganization of Yucatan after the ninth and tenth centuries. ; La modificación artificial de la cabeza constituía una tradición arraigada entre los mayas prehispánicos, quienes lucían diversas formas cefálicas a través del tiempo. En este trabajo se evalúa la distribución y evolución de las siluetas del cráneo en la costa oriental de Quintana Roo, región cultural definida por su estilo pictórico, escultórico y arquitectónico propio, y que experimentó su auge en el Posclásico. Examinamos una muestra de 222 cráneos bien documentados, de ocho sitios costeros e isleños. Con la premisa de que algunas formas cefálicas específicas (diagnósticas) identifican la pertenencia cultural y quizá étnica de sus portadores, trazamos las características de las poblaciones y sus cambios en la región. Los resultados se discuten en términos de reemplazo de técnicas e identificación cultural y étnica. Las tendencias confirman las interpretaciones arqueológicas del auge comercial costero y la re-organización política, ideológica y de la población en la península tras los siglos IX y X.

"The meanings of ritualized head treatments among ancient Mesoamerican and Andean peoples is the subject of this book, the first overarching coverage of an important subject. Heads are sources of power that protect, impersonate, emulate sacred forces, distinguish, or acquire identity within the native world. The essays in this book examine these themes in a wide array of indigenous head treatments, including facial cosmetics and hair arrangements, permanent cranial vault and facial modifications, dental decorations, posthumous head processing, and head hunting. They offer new insights into native understandings of beauty, power, age, gender, and ethnicity. The contributors are experts from such diverse fields as skeletal biology, archaeology, aesthetics, forensics, taphonomy, and art history"--

The artificial modification of head form, conferred by females upon their offspring, was a widespread physical enhancement with diverse visible results among the Classic-period Maya. This paper explores the roles of culturally conferred head shapes in the public display of group identity (potentially ethnicity) across and beyond the Maya territories. To this end, we survey the area's head portraiture and cranial shapes together with the inferred vernacular languages. While narrow, inclined, and elongated heads were prominently displayed among the Western Ch'olan around the Usumacinta basin and bordering Tzeltalan, Zoque and K'iche' communities sported broad and shortened heads. In the context of an increasingly divided political landscape surrounding the Maya collapse, we discuss the shifting scope of head shapes in terms of identity vs. alienation, interaction vs. antagonism. ; Las modificaciones cefálicas artificiales en infantes estuvieron a cargo de las mujeres y fueron algunas de las prácticas más difundidas entre los mayas prehispánicos, con resultados tan diversos como visibles en los semblantes de los mayas del periodo Clásico. En este artículo se exploran sus significaciones identitarias, potencialmente étnicas, a través de los territorios mayas y más allá. Para este fin hemos revisado la cartografía de los vestigios humanos mayas, sus retratos y las inscripciones, los cuales en parte siguen la distribución de su habla en territorios políticos cambiantes y cada vez más divididos. Nuestras indagaciones trazan similitudes entre lenguas y formas cefálicas que a su vez dejan entrever antagonismos. Las diferencias se vuelven especialmente patentes entre los hablantes del ch'olano occidental, con sus testas alargadas e inclinadas, y aquellos de habla tzeltalana, zoque y k'iche', quienes solían lucir una cabeza corta y ancha.

This volume illuminates human lifeways in the northern Maya lowlands prior to the rise of Chichén Itzá. This period and area have been poorly understood on their own terms, obscured by scholarly focus on the central lowland Maya kingdoms. "Before Kukulkán" is anchored in three decades of interdisciplinary research at the Classic Maya capital of Yaxuná, located at a contentious crossroads of the northern Maya lowlands.

Using bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, and culturally sensitive mainstream archaeology, the authors create an in-depth regional understanding while also laying out broader ways of learning about the Maya past. Part 1 examines ancient lifeways among the Maya at Yaxuná, while part 2 explores different meanings of dying and cycling at the settlement and beyond: ancestral practices, royal entombment and desecration, and human sacrifice. The authors close with a discussion of the last years of occupation at Yaxuná and the role of Chichén Itzá in the abandonment of this urban center.

"Before Kukulkán" provides a cohesive synthesis of the evolving roles and collective identities of locals and foreigners at the settlement and their involvement in the region's trajectory. Theoretically informed and contextualized discussions offer unique glimpses of everyday life and death in the socially fluid Maya city. These findings, in conjunction with other documented series of skeletal remains from this region, provide a nuanced picture of the social and biocultural dynamics that operated successfully for centuries before the arrival of the Itzá.