Constructing Power and Place in Mesoamerica
Constructing Power and Place in Mesoamerica
Pre-Hispanic Paintings from Three Regions
Identities of power and place, as expressed in paintings from the periods before and after the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica, are the subject of this book of case studies from Central Mexico, Oaxaca, and the Maya area. These sophisticated, skillfully rendered images occur with architecture, in manuscripts, on large pieces of cloth, and on ceramics.
In an era when few academic presses are willing to take on the financial risk of an edited volume, this recent collection of essays…stands as a reminder of why the genre was invented in the first place. In a field increasingly dominated by a minority of academic voices, edited volumes provide a venue for scholars housed outside American institutions to present their scholarship to the English-speaking world, offering fresh perspectives on well-studied monuments.
This volume reflects both the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of Mesoamerican studies as well at its international scope.
This book presents interdisciplinary analyses that cover a wide range of areas, sites, and time periods within Mesoamerican studies.…Many chapters offer new data subjected to varying modes of analysis, while other contributions address well-established aspects of the material record in ways that are thought provoking and sure to incite discussion and debate.
A beautifully illustrated, vividly discussed collection of current investigations in the field of Mesoamerican art history related to painting practices from codices to murals to vases to body painting.'--Anne Walke Cassidy, Carthage College
Merideth Paxton is a research associate in the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya: Cycles and Steps from the Madrid Codex (UNM Press) and the coeditor of Texto, imagen e identidad en la pintura maya prehispánica. Leticia Staines Cicero is a researcher in pre-Hispanic art at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas. She participates in the “La pintura mural prehispánica en México� project and is the coordinator of the volumes dedicated to Maya murals.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. Constructing Power and Place in Mesoamerica: An Introduction
Merideth Paxton and Leticia Staines Cicero
Part One. Central Mexico
Chapter Two. The Teotihuacán Obsidian Industry and the Birds of the Sierra de las Navajas
Jorge Angulo Villaseñor and América Malbrán Porto
Chapter Three. Place Names and Political Identities in the Teotihuacán Mural Paintings
Davide Domenici
Chapter Four. From Orderly Past to Chaotic Present: The Transition to Spanish Rule in Aztec Pictorial Histories
Lori Boornazian Diel
Chapter Five. Early European Book Conventions and Legitimized Mexica History in Codex Aubin
Angela Marie Herren
Part Two. Oaxaca
Chapter Six. Dynasty and Hierarchy in the Tombs of Monte Albán, Oaxaca: Tell Me Your Name
Alfonso Arellano Hernández
Chapter Seven. The Divine Right to Hold Power in the Mixtec Capitals of Monte Negro and Tilantongo
Manuel A. Hermann Lejarazu
Part Three. The Maya Area
Chapter Eight. Pre-Hispanic Maya Animal Images: Cultural Implications from Ceramics of Known Provenience
María de Lourdes Navarijo Ornelas
Chapter Nine. Fragrances and Body Paint in the Courtly Life of the Maya
María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual and Cristina Vidal Lorenzo
Chapter Ten. The Social Context of Food at Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico: Images Painted on the Pyramid of Chiik Nahb'
Ana García Barrios
Chapter Eleven. Mesoamerican World View and Cosmology in the Murals of Mayapán
Susan Milbrath, Carlos Peraza Lope, and Miguel Delgado Kú
Chapter Twelve. Pre-Hispanic Maya Solar Symbolism Illustrated in Diego López de Cogolludo’s Historia de Yucatán
Merideth Paxton
Appendix. A Comparison of the López de Cogolludo Katun Wheel with Three Books of Chilam Balam
Contributors
Index
