Mountains, Caves, Water: Ideational Landscapes of the Ancient Maya (James E. Brady and Wendy Ashmore) (1999) (original) (raw)
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Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2009
People's experience of space and hence of landscape depends on how they interpret the world around them (Brück 1998; B. Knapp and Ashmore 1999). Through the process of living and dwelling, people continually create, transform, experience, and imbue their surroundings with meaning, which in turn influences the behavior of those who inhabit those surroundings (Ingold 2000; J. Thomas 1993). Thus social landscapes simultaneously transform and are transformed by human action (Gosden and Head 1994). Yet while the perception and construction of landscapes are panhuman processes, the perceptions and constructions of landscapes are highly variable. Landscapes are perceived in ways that vary cross-culturally and over time because experience and perception are not simply physical but are also cultural processes (Brück 1998; Carleton Jones 1998; Pred 1990). Moreover, people experience the same landscape in different ways, since each person occupies a distinctive position in relation to his or her landscape
Architecture as Animate Landscape: Circular Shrines in the Ancient Maya Lowlands
American Anthropologist, 2012
In this study, I develop a theory of landscape archaeology that incorporates the concept of “animism” as a cognitive approach. Current trends in anthropology are placing greater emphasis on indigenous perspectives, and in recent decades animism has seen a resurgence in anthropological theory. As a means of relating in (not to) one’s world, animism is a mode of thought that has direct bearing on landscape archaeology. Yet, Americanist archaeologists have been slow to incorporate this concept as a component of landscape theory. I consider animism and Nurit Bird-David’s (1999) theory of “relatedness” and how such perspectives might be expressed archaeologically in Mesoamerica. I examine the distribution of marine shells and cave formations that appear incorporated as architectural elements on ancient Maya circular shrine architecture. More than just “symbols” of sacred geography, I suggest these materials represent living entities that animate shrines through their ongoing relationships with human and other-than-human agents in the world. [Maya architecture, animism, relational ontology, landscape archaeology, agency]
International Journal of Archaeology 6 (1):46-55. , 2018
The function of chultuns, man-made subterranean chambers, in the southern Maya lowlands has been debated for over a century, with food storage being the most widely accepted proposal. Experimental archaeology shows, however, that none of the major Maya subsistence crops can be stored in chultuns because of their high humidity. Maya archaeology is currently at an impasse, espousing a storage function that is refuted by the data. Cave archaeology, with its intimate knowledge of subterranean space, has a decidedly different view. Ethnohistorical sources and ethnography document the fact that holes, even those dug for mining, are seen by the Maya as being caves, so one should expect chultuns to have had a religious function. Furthermore, in actual practice, there is considerable overlap between chultuns and caves, with a number of chultuns being identified as natural caves exhibiting an artificial entrance carved into them. Additionally, a number of chultuns are large enough that they could be classified as man-made caves. Religious functions have been repeatedly overlooked because of archaeologists’ insistence on a utilitarian function and further exacerbated by ignorance of Maya religion and ritual. It is shown that many chultuns have cosmological alignments, being placed along center lines or centered under structures or plazas. In proposing that chultuns functioned as sites of household ritual, considerable evidence is mustered to support an explanation that is more in accord with a realistic anthropological view of the Maya. The implications for sacred landscapes are profound in that thousands of sacred landmarks would be added to every site.
Maya Cultural Landscapes and the Subterranean: Assessing a Century of Chultun Research
International Journal of Archaeology, 6(1):46-55, 2018
The function of chultuns, man-made subterranean chambers, in the southern Maya lowlands has been debated for over a century, with food storage being the most widely accepted proposal. Experimental archaeology shows, however, that none of the major Maya subsistence crops can be stored in chultuns because of their high humidity. Maya archaeology is currently at an impasse, espousing a storage function that is refuted by the data. Cave archaeology, with its intimate knowledge of subterranean space, has a decidedly different view. Ethnohistorical sources and ethnography document the fact that holes, even those dug for mining, are seen by the Maya as being caves, so one should expect chultuns to have had a religious function. Furthermore, in actual practice, there is considerable overlap between chultuns and caves, with a number of chultuns being identified as natural caves exhibiting an artificial entrance carved into them. Additionally, a number of chultuns are large enough that they could be classified as man-made caves. Religious functions have been repeatedly overlooked because of archaeologists' insistence on a utilitarian function and further exacerbated by ignorance of Maya religion and ritual. It is shown that many chultuns have cosmological alignments, being placed along center lines or centered under structures or plazas. In proposing that chultuns functioned as sites of household ritual, considerable evidence is mustered to support an explanation that is more in accord with a realistic anthropological view of the Maya. The implications for sacred landscapes are profound in that thousands of sacred landmarks would be added to every site.
Ancient use and manipulation of landscape in the Yalahau region of the northern Maya lowlands
Agriculture and Human Values, 2004
The tropical lowlands of southern Mexico and Central America are composed of a complex mosaic of landscapes that presented a variety of possibilities and challenges to the subsistence practices of the ancient Maya. The Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project has been investigating ancient Maya agricultural practices and use of resources in a unique fresh-water wetland zone located in the northeast corner of the Yucatán Peninsula. While containing only a sparse population today, the Yalahau region once supported numerous Maya communities and civic-ceremonial centers, particularly during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, between approximately 100 B.C. and A.D. 450. Our investigations have developed evidence that the ancient Maya manipulated and cultivated the wetland landscape of the region, used soil or algae from the wetlands to enrich upland garden plots, and cultivated trees within their communities. We suggest that the study of ancient Maya agricultural practices can contribute to sustainable development of the area today and in the future. ) is a specialist in Maya archaeology and has conducted field research in Belize and Mexico. Her research interests include settlement patterns, human ecology, community structure, ancient agriculture, the use of scientific method in archaeology, and the development of innovative teaching methods. She is currently employed in Connecticut as an archaeological
Ethnoecology of the Yucatec Maya: symbolism, knowledge and management of natural resources
Journal of Latin American …, 2005
There is a growing interest worldwide in adopting interdisciplinary approaches for studying the complex and dynamic interplay between societies and landscapes. During the last few years, ethnoecology, broadly defined as an integrative study of beliefs, knowledge and practice of a given social entity, has emerged as a useful research method for the comprehensive understanding of landscape use and management. Maya people have inhabited the Yucatan Peninsula for the last three thousand years, suggesting that Maya farmers have successfully managed natural resources, preserving both nature and culture in the long run. Despite research focusing on Yucatec Maya resource management, understanding of how pre-Hispanic Maya adapted to their heterogeneous and changing environment during the past is still limited. There are few studies that fully understand and explain how contemporary Maya farmers perceive, know, use and manage their landscapes as a whole. By applying the ethnoecological approach, this article reveals the inextricable links between beliefs, knowledge and management of natural resources among the Yucatec Maya. The paper concludes by discussing the highly resilient capacity of Yucatec Maya producers through examining two main mechanisms: their multiple-use strategy and their cross-scale concept of health.
Dissertation, 2022
Creation of space is complex and multilayered. When societies or groups make or construct space it can represent or reflect a variable host of characteristics of a given culture or people including but not limited to political, symbolic, ritual, social, practical, functional, and traditional aspects. All of these attributes create patterns that are observable across the landscape and in the archaeological record in both the visible and invisible remains. This dissertation examines and compares the aspects of the built and the buried environment that create those settlement and spatial patterns. Where previously discussed, with regard to ancient Maya site comparison, the research focus has been on small, individual sites and their relationships to their respective larger centers. This dissertation employs the novel approach of comparing the smaller sites of Las Abejas, Medicinal Trail, and Tzak Naab in northwest Belize to one another. I also scrutinize the reflection of social organization status disparities, and social traditions as they present in the spatial patterns. In order to do this, I identified and defined the relevant site planning approaches and aspects and then analyzed each site by incorporating new geophysical survey data with years’ worth of existing datasets, and both new and existing survey and mapping data. Evaluation and comparison of the datasets garnered both expected and unexpected information. Each site, while unique, was similar. Comparisons were recognized in terms of layout and organizational characteristics, resource availability and access, structural design, groupings, and shape, visible and invisible signs of social disparity, and visible and invisible indications of shared traditions which were then connected to modern populations through ethnographic correlates. This type of information is available not only from the sites chosen for this research endeavor, but also from a number of sites across the realm of the ancient Maya. The utilization of such datasets shows how minimal investigation and limited information can be used to analyze, contextualize, and compare sites, and allow for comparisons and connections to be made across regions and time periods connecting the past and the present through the identification and analysis of the visible and the invisible patterns.