Ancient Maya Commoners

Ancient Maya Commoners PDF

Author: Jon C. Lohse

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0292778147

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Much of what we currently know about the ancient Maya concerns the activities of the elites who ruled the societies and left records of their deeds carved on the monumental buildings and sculptures that remain as silent testimony to their power and status. But what do we know of the common folk who labored to build the temple complexes and palaces and grew the food that fed all of Maya society? This pathfinding book marshals a wide array of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic evidence to offer the fullest understanding to date of the lifeways of ancient Maya commoners. Senior and emerging scholars contribute case studies that examine such aspects of commoner life as settlement patterns, household organization, and subsistence practices. Their reports cover most of the Maya area and the entire time span from Preclassic to Postclassic. This broad range of data helps resolve Maya commoners from a faceless mass into individual actors who successfully adapted to their social environment and who also held primary responsibility for producing the food and many other goods on which the whole Maya society depended.

Ancient Maya Commoners

Ancient Maya Commoners PDF

Author: Jon C. Lohse

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2004-11-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9780292705715

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Much of what we currently know about the ancient Maya concerns the activities of the elites who ruled the societies and left records of their deeds carved on the monumental buildings and sculptures that remain as silent testimony to their power and status. But what do we know of the common folk who labored to build the temple complexes and palaces and grew the food that fed all of Maya society? This pathfinding book marshals a wide array of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic evidence to offer the fullest understanding to date of the lifeways of ancient Maya commoners. Senior and emerging scholars contribute case studies that examine such aspects of commoner life as settlement patterns, household organization, and subsistence practices. Their reports cover most of the Maya area and the entire time span from Preclassic to Postclassic. This broad range of data helps resolve Maya commoners from a faceless mass into individual actors who successfully adapted to their social environment and who also held primary responsibility for producing the food and many other goods on which the whole Maya society depended.

Maya Civilization

Maya Civilization PDF

Author: Charles George

Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC

Published: 2010-07-16

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 1420505475

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At its peak, the Maya civilization consisted of two million people populating over forty cities. While Europe languished in darkness after the fall of Rome, the Maya were advancing irrigation and terracing techniques in agriculture, pioneering the use of the zero in mathematics, and creating accurate astronomical tables. Yet, much about this great culture is unknown, as scholars struggle to decipher Mayan texts. This compelling volume examines the Maya civilization in accessible chapters with supplemental maps, timelines, and charts to support student research. Relevant topics discussed in this edition include the rise of the Mayans, the lives of the nobility and commoners during the classical period, achievements in science, engineering, and writing, the spirit realm and cosmology, and elements of Mayan culture in modernity.

Ancient Maya Daily Life

Ancient Maya Daily Life PDF

Author: Heather Moore Niver

Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

Published: 2016-07-16

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 1499419651

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What was life like in the days of the ancient Maya civilization? Where did people live and what did they do each day? These questions and more are answered in this fact-filled book about the daily life of the ancient Maya. Engaging text and primary sources shed light on the many mysteries of the Maya people. Color photographs of existing architecture and artifacts, as well as artwork, will transport readers back to the days when the Maya civilization was thriving. This exciting book is rich with information about Maya culture, and it’s sure to stoke readers’ imaginations while giving them a deep understanding of the history of this ancient civilization.

Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya

Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya PDF

Author: Andrew K. Scherer

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2015-11-15

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1477300511

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From the tombs of the elite to the graves of commoners, mortuary remains offer rich insights into Classic Maya society. In Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul, the anthropological archaeologist and bioarchaeologist Andrew K. Scherer explores the broad range of burial practices among the Maya of the Classic period (AD 250–900), integrating information gleaned from his own fieldwork with insights from the fields of iconography, epigraphy, and ethnography to illuminate this society’s rich funerary traditions. Scherer’s study of burials along the Usumacinta River at the Mexican-Guatemalan border and in the Central Petén region of Guatemala—areas that include Piedras Negras, El Kinel, Tecolote, El Zotz, and Yaxha—reveals commonalities and differences among royal, elite, and commoner mortuary practices. By analyzing skeletons containing dental and cranial modifications, as well as the adornments of interred bodies, Scherer probes Classic Maya conceptions of body, wellness, and the afterlife. Scherer also moves beyond the body to look at the spatial orientation of the burials and their integration into the architecture of Maya communities. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach, the author examines how Classic Maya deathways can expand our understanding of this society’s beliefs and traditions, making Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya an important step forward in Mesoamerican archeology.

Ancient Maya Pottery

Ancient Maya Pottery PDF

Author: James John Aimers

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2013-01-20

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 0813042577

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The ancient Maya produced a broad range of ceramics that has attracted concerted scholarly attention for over a century. Pottery sherds--the most abundant artifacts recovered from sites--reveal much about artistic expression, religious ritual, economic systems, cooking traditions, and cultural exchange in Maya society. Today, nearly every Maya archaeologist uses the type-variety classificatory framework for studying sherd collections. This impressive volume brings together many of the archaeologists signally involved in the analysis and interpretation of ancient Maya ceramics and represents new findings and state-of-the-art thinking. The result is a book that serves both as a valuable resource for archaeologists involved in pottery classification, analysis, and interpretation and as an illuminating exploration of ancient Mayan culture.

The Mysterious Maya Civilization

The Mysterious Maya Civilization PDF

Author: Emily Mahoney

Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC

Published: 2017-12-15

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 1534561862

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Though Mayan culture has existed for more than 3,500 years, researchers and historians have only recently started unlocking some of the mysteries behind this Central American society. Thoroughly researched text guides readers through the gripping history of the Maya, including a detailed description of Maya culture. The main text is supplemented with engaging sidebars, full-color photographs, historical images, and expert, annotated analysis from leading scholars.

Ancient Maya

Ancient Maya PDF

Author: Sara Green

Publisher: Bellwether Media

Published: 2020-01-01

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 1618918540

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The Mayans are remembered today for their beautiful pyramid temples. But this ancient civilization had many other innovations! This fact-filled title explores the underground reservoirs, rubber creations, and astronomy studies of ancient Maya. Engaging text and vivid images combine with special features such as profiles of gods and leaders, a cause and effect graphic, a time and place matrix, and a timeline to take readers on a journey to the past!

How the Maya Built Their World

How the Maya Built Their World PDF

Author: Elliot M. Abrams

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-06-04

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0292792387

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Maya architecture is often described as "massive" and "monumental," but experiments at Copan, Honduras, convinced Elliot Abrams that 300 people could have built one of the large palaces there in only 100 days. In this groundbreaking work, Abrams explicates his theory of architectural energetics, which involves translating structures into volumes of raw and manufactured materials that are then multiplied by the time required for their production and assembly to determine the labor costs of past construction efforts. Applying this method to residential structures of the Late Classic period (A.D. 700-900) at Copan leads Abrams to posit a six-tiered hierarchic social structure of political decision making, ranging from a stratified elite to low-ranking commoners. By comparing the labor costs of construction and other economic activities, he also prompts a reconsideration of the effects of royal construction demands on commoners. How the Maya Built Their World will interest a wide audience in New and Old World anthropology, archaeology, architecture, and engineering.

Water and Ritual

Water and Ritual PDF

Author: Lisa J. Lucero

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2009-07-21

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0292778236

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In the southern Maya lowlands, rainfall provided the primary and, in some areas, the only source of water for people and crops. Classic Maya kings sponsored elaborate public rituals that affirmed their close ties to the supernatural world and their ability to intercede with deities and ancestors to ensure an adequate amount of rain, which was then stored to provide water during the four-to-five-month dry season. As long as the rains came, Maya kings supplied their subjects with water and exacted tribute in labor and goods in return. But when the rains failed at the end of the Classic period (AD 850-950), the Maya rulers lost both their claim to supernatural power and their temporal authority. Maya commoners continued to supplicate gods and ancestors for rain in household rituals, but they stopped paying tribute to rulers whom the gods had forsaken. In this paradigm-shifting book, Lisa Lucero investigates the central role of water and ritual in the rise, dominance, and fall of Classic Maya rulers. She documents commoner, elite, and royal ritual histories in the southern Maya lowlands from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods to show how elites and rulers gained political power through the public replication and elaboration of household-level rituals. At the same time, Lucero demonstrates that political power rested equally on material conditions that the Maya rulers could only partially control. Offering a new, more nuanced understanding of these dual bases of power, Lucero makes a compelling case for spiritual and material factors intermingling in the development and demise of Maya political complexity.

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