Maya figurines: intersections between state and household

by Halperin, Christina T.

Type Book

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Title Statements

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

Summary

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.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:2014.
Edition:First edition

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):University of Texas Press
Place of Publication:Austin
Language:eng
Publication Date:2014.

The Physical Object

Description:xi, 300 pages : : maps ; : 24 cm

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780292771307, 0292771304
oclc:ocn878050579
LC Classification:F1435.3.S34
Dewey Decimal:972.81/01

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.

Subjects

Antiquities Archéologie de la maison -- Amérique ce… Archéologie de la maison -- Mexique Central America Central America -- Antiquities Figurine Figurines Figurines -- Amérique centrale Figurines -- Central America Figurines -- Mexico Figurines -- Mexique Household archaeology Household archaeology -- Central America Household archaeology -- Mexico Maya Maya (folk) -- historia Maya sculpture Mayakonst Mayakulturen Mayas -- Antiquités