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The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World: Mythic History and Ritual Order

Online ISBN:
9780813067957
Print ISBN:
9780813069807
Publisher:
University Press of Florida
Book

The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World: Mythic History and Ritual Order

David A. Freidel (ed.),
David A. Freidel
(ed.)

professor of anthropology emeritus 

Washington University in St. Louis
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Arlen F. Chase (ed.),
Arlen F. Chase
(ed.)

professor of comparative cultural studies

University of Houston
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Anne S. Dowd (ed.),
Anne S. Dowd
(ed.)

forest archaeologist, heritage program manager, and tribal liaison

Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River National Grassland
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Jerry Murdock (ed.)
Jerry Murdock
(ed.)
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Published online:
19 September 2024
Published in print:
9 January 2024
Online ISBN:
9780813067957
Print ISBN:
9780813069807
Publisher:
University Press of Florida

Abstract

This book discusses the range of ways the ancient Maya people made time tangible through their architecture, arts, writing, beliefs, and practices. These chapters show how the Maya incorporated cyclicality and expanded dimensionality into the built environment, embedding notions of time in shared political and economic institutions, religious and philosophical traditions, and mythology. Beginning several millennia ago, the Maya observed and calculated the solar year cycle and scheduled collective activities that integrated cities, towns, and villages over great distances. Their timekeeping approaches evolved from commemorative ceremonial architectural complexes starting around 1000 BCE to the formal public inscription of calendar jubilees on stone monuments, the use of calendar almanacs, written prophetic and historical accounts, and the customs of modern priest shamans. Contributors to this volume discuss everyday examples of how the Maya kept time through these practices, including divining with snail shells, laying out center designs with creation stories and star patterns, singing those stories while drinking from vases depicting mythic history, and embedding symbolic temporal deposits within their buildings and living areas. This comprehensive volume includes analyses of groundbreaking recent discoveries, such as the early center of Aguada Fénix and the connections it shows between Maya and Olmec timekeeping. By sharing how the Maya crafted a cosmological sense of time into their daily lives, The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World addresses and rethinks the most famous intellectual feature of this civilization.

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