Maya figurines : intersections between state and household / by Christina T. Halperin.

Author
Halperin, Christina T. [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
First edition.
Published/​Created
Austin : University of Texas Press, 2014.
Description
xi, 300 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Marquand Library - Remote Storage: Marquand Use OnlyF1435.3.S34 H35 2014 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    • Latin American and Caribbean Arts and Culture Publication Initiative. [More in this series]
    • Latin American and Caribbean arts and culture publication initiative
    Summary note
    Rather than view the contours of Late Classic Maya social life solely from towering temple pyramids or elite sculptural forms, this book considers a suite of small anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and supernatural figurative remains excavated from household refuse deposits. Maya Figurines examines these often neglected objects and uses them to draw out relationships between the Maya state and its subjects. These figurines provide a unique perspective for understanding Maya social and political relations; Christina T. Halperin argues that state politics work on the microscale of everyday routines, localized rituals, and small-scale representations. Her comprehensive study brings together archeology, anthropology, and art history with theories of material culture, performance, political economy, ritual humor, and mimesis to make a fascinating case for the role politics plays in daily life. What she finds is that, by comparing small-scale figurines with state-sponsored, often large-scale iconography and elite material culture, one can understand how different social realms relate to and represent one another. In Maya Figurines, Halperin compares objects from diverse households, archeological sites, and regions, focusing especially on figurines from Petén, Guatemala, and comparing them to material culture from Belize, the northern highlands of Guatemala, the Usumacinta River, the Campeche coastal area, and Mesoamerican sites outside the Maya zone. Ultimately, she argues, ordinary objects are not simply passive backdrops for important social and political phenomena. Instead, they function as significant mechanisms through which power and social life are intertwined.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-294) and index.
    Contents
    • State and household: articulating relations
    • Materiality and mimesis
    • State pomp and ceremony writ small
    • From oral narrative to festival and back: tricksters, spirit companions, ritual clowns, and deities
    • Figurine political economies
    • Figurative performances
    • Comments on Maya state and household.
    ISBN
    • 9780292771307 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    • 0292771304 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    SuDoc no.
    Z UA380.8 H163ma
    LCCN
    2014002874
    OCLC
    878050579
    Other standard number
    • 40023616726
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