Abstract Through space and time bodies present alternative surfaces upon which to inscribe social norms and personal predilection. This dissertation establishes a humanistic bioarchaeological framework for investigating the body and its intentional manipulation in life and after death. Past examinations have been fraught with misunderstanding or over-simplification of corporeal modifications. To move beyond past studies, I apply bioarchaeological frameworks and social theories.
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Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
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Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
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Wearing Culture: Dress and Regalia in Early Mesoamerica and Central America
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Childhood in the past
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Sensorial stimulation is the primary way in which people experience the world around them. Should one sense be extinguished, the body compensates by redistributing its emphasis onto others, shaping the world around the otherwise handicapped by way of accenting alternative neural pathways. Anthropological study of different cultures has offered a means of exploration regarding the myriad of ways in which disparate peoples modify their surroundings for the pleasure of their eyes, ears, nostrils, and fingertips, alternatively omitting or emphasizing senses in accordance with their societal importance. The culture of the Ancient Maya is no exception to this. For the Maya, every facet of sensorial stimulation contained an element of godliness that acted as a symbol of communication between the divine and mortal realms. I will examine the opening chapters of The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience by Stephen D. Houston, David Stuart, and Karl Taube, which utilizes the Annales School totalizing philosophical approach towards history. This method allows the authors to create a lens through which to view the many aspects of Mayan society that come together to form a diverse, interweaving cultural whole. In particular, I demonstrate that Mayan sensorial perception remains woefully under examined in Memory of Bones, despite the authors’ reliance on the Annales School theories which argue for a multitude of scientific approaches to historical quandaries. I assert that this downplay of emphasis on the senses has dire consequences for the text overall, as they played a greater and ultimately more protective role than they are currently awarded, especially regarding the collapse of Classic Maya society and the localized facial destruction of their representational images.
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Master's Thesis, University of Chicago
