The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World: Mythic History and Ritual Order
The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World: Mythic History and Ritual Order
professor of anthropology emeritusÂ
professor of comparative cultural studies
forest archaeologist, heritage program manager, and tribal liaison
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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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Front Matter
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1 Landesque Cosmography
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II Building Time into Place
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3
Spatial and Temporal Standardization in Southern Mesoamerica during the Preclassic Period: New Insights from the Middle Usumacinta Region, Mexico
Takeshi Inomata andDaniela Triadan
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4
Ordering Time and Space at Yaxnohcah: Creation and Renewal in a Preclassic Landscape
Kathryn Reese-Taylor and others
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5
Domesticating Time: Quadripartite Symbolism and Founding Rituals at Yaxuná
Travis W. Stanton and others
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6
In the Shadow of Descending Gods: Monumental Posts and Solar Cycles in the Preclassic Maya Lowlands
Francisco Estrada-Belli andDavid A. Freidel
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7
Stelae, Spirits, Desecration, and Devotion: The Fate of Some Time Lords in the Classic Maya World
David A. Freidel andOlivia Navarro-Farr
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3
Spatial and Temporal Standardization in Southern Mesoamerica during the Preclassic Period: New Insights from the Middle Usumacinta Region, Mexico
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III Chambers of Time
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8
Balamkú’s History House: Harkening to Primordial Rhythms of Mythic Time
Anne S. Dowd andGabrielle Vail
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9
Scorpion Star: Constellations, Seasons, and Convergences of Meaning in a Classic Maya Entity
Franco D. Rossi
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10
Time as Ordinary Practice: A Divination Building at Chan
Cynthia Robin
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11
The Chamber of Secrets at Xunantunich
M. Kathryn Brown and others
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8
Balamkú’s History House: Harkening to Primordial Rhythms of Mythic Time
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IV Bridging Time
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12
Imagery of the Yearbearers in Maya Culture and Beyond
Susan Milbrath
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13
Lived Experience and Monumental Time in the Classic Maya Lowlands
Patricia A. McAnany
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14
The Materialization of Time in the Maya Archaeological Record: Examples from Caracol and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize
Diane Z. Chase andArlen F. Chase
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15
Materializing Time on Wax: The Cozumel Maya Bee Gardens
Adolfo Iván Batún-Alpuche andDavid A. Freidel
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16
Temporal Fusion: Mythical and Mortal Time in Maya Art
James A. Doyle
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17
“How Much May They Not Have Written?”: K’atuns 11 Ajaw and the Itzá
Prudence M. Rice
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12
Imagery of the Yearbearers in Maya Culture and Beyond
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V Materializing Mesoamerican Chronoscapes
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End Matter
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