Sign-In
Cart
To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization
Hardcover
ArchaeologyCentral American HistoryDance
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
ISBN13: 9780292709881
Publisher: Univ Of Texas Pr
Published: Jan 15 2009
Pages: 296
Weight: 2.42
Height: 1.00 Width: 8.70 Depth: 11.20
Language: English
Winner, Association for Latin American Art Book Award, 2010
The Maya of Mexico and Central America have performed ritual dances for more than two millennia. Dance is still an essential component of religious experience today, serving as a medium for communication with the supernatural. During the Late Classic period (AD 600-900), dance assumed additional importance in Maya royal courts through an association with feasting and gift exchange. These performances allowed rulers to forge political alliances and demonstrate their control of trade in luxury goods. The aesthetic values embodied in these performances were closely tied to Maya social structure, expressing notions of gender, rank, and status. Dance was thus not simply entertainment, but was fundamental to ancient Maya notions of social, religious, and political identity.
Using an innovative interdisciplinary approach, Matthew Looper examines several types of data relevant to ancient Maya dance, including hieroglyphic texts, pictorial images in diverse media, and architecture. A series of case studies illustrates the application of various analytical methodologies and offers interpretations of the form, meaning, and social significance of dance performance. Although the nuances of movement in Maya dances are impossible to recover, Looper demonstrates that a wealth of other data survives which allows a detailed consideration of many aspects of performance. To Be Like Gods thus provides the first comprehensive interpretation of the role of dance in ancient Maya society and also serves as a model for comparative research in the archaeology of performance.
Also in
Archaeology
The Death of Christ: The Bible and Popular Culture Vs Archaeological and Historical Evidence
Rutledge, Steven
Hardcover
Things We Found in the Ground: Discovering the History Buried Beneath Our Feet
Gray, Lucie
Bruce, Ellie
Paperback
Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts
Langlands, Alexander
Paperback
Treasures of Egypt: A Legacy in Photographs from the Pyramids to Cleopatra
National Geographic
Hardcover
Archaeology and the People of the Bible: Exploring the Evidence for the Historical Existence of Bible Characters
Kennedy, Titus
Paperback
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
Anthony, David W.
Paperback
Those Who Walked Before: How Ice Age Footprints in New Mexico Retell the Stories of the First Americans
Odess, Daniel
Bennett, Matthew
Bustos, David F.
Paperback
Slaving States: From West Africa to the Ancient Mediterranean
Rabinowitz, Adam
Fentress, Elizabeth
Hardcover
The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World
Wisnom, Selena
Hardcover
The Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun
The Countess of Carnarvon
Paperback
The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke
Lawler, Andrew
Paperback
Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age
Hapgood, Charles
Paperback
American Archaeology: Living History, Stolen Pasts, and Defending the Future
Burillo, R. E.
Paperback
The Indo-Europeans Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution Is Rewriting Their Story
Mallory, J. P.
Hardcover
Los Cuatro Cielos: Una Nueva Historia de Los Mayas / The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya
Stuart, David
Paperback
The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of the Modern World
Wisnom, Selena
Paperback
An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
Miller, Mary Ellen
Taube, Karl
Paperback
Escape from Pompeii: The Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Its Survivors
Tuck, Steven L.
Hardcover
Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed
Cline, Eric H.
Hardcover
Behind the Bears Ears: Exploring the Cultural and Natural Histories of a Sacred Landscape
Burrillo, R. E.
Paperback
The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved
Mithen, Steven
Hardcover
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
Finkelstein, Israel
Silberman, Neil Asher
Paperback
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
Hicks, Dan
Paperback
Macedonia Under the Argead Kings: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower
Worthington, Ian
Hardcover
The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery
Page, Jake
Adovasio, James
Paperback
Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest
Turner, Christy G., II
Paperback
An Archaeology of Milpa Cultures: Maize and Ecological Worldbuilding in Central Mexico
Alcántara, Keitlyn
Paperback
A Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai'i
Kirch, Patrick Vinton
Paperback
Capturing Water: Puebloan Resilience and Agricultural Sustainability in Chaco Canyon
Vivian, R. Gwinn
Fladd, Samantha G.
Hardcover
Turtle Island and the Tradition of Giants: When Earth Met Sky and Men Walked with Gods
Hamilton, Ross
Paperback
Arrowheads and Stone Artifacts: A Practical Guide for the Amateur Archaeologist
Yeager, C. G.
Paperback
Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age
Sheppard, Kathleen
Hardcover
Medieval Garments Reconstructed: Norse Clothing Patterns
Nørgård, Anna
ØStergård, Else
Fransen, LILLI
Paperback
Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the Gods
Pearce, David
Lewis-Williams, David
Paperback
The Trouble with Ancient DNA: Telling Stories of the Past with Genomic Science
Källén, Anna
Paperback
The Valkyries' Loom: The Archaeology of Cloth Production and Female Power in the North Atlantic
Hayeur Smith, Michèle
Paperback
Paper Number 89: Coastal Archaeology of Suchitepéquez and Escuintla, Guatemala; Paper Number 90: Environment and Settlement in the Jesús River Drainag
Arroyo, Barbara
Pye, Mary Elizabeth
Paperback
Uncovering America's First War: Contact, Conflict, and Coronado's Expedition to the Rio Grande
Schmader, Matthew F.
Hardcover
The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World
Broodbank, Cyprian
Hardcover
Silk Roads, Steppe Roads: History Unearthed from the Tombs of Medieval China
Skaff, Jonathan Karam
Hardcover
Classic Maya Social Inequality, Networks, and Collapse at DOS Pilas, Petén, Guatemala
Palka, Joel W.
Hardcover
The Founding of Thessaloniki: A Comparison of Literary, Archaeological and Topographical Evidence
Manoledakis, Manolis
Paperback
Roman Maritime Villas: Rediscovering Architecture in Southern Latium and Its Wider Context
Ferritto, Roberta
Hardcover
Archaeology of Doings: Secularism and the Study of Pueblo Religion. Severin M. Fowles
Fowles, Severin M.
Paperback
The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols
Von Petzinger, Genevieve
Paperback
Food Storage in Michigan's Late Woodland: The Work of Indigenous Women
Frederick, Kathryn M.
Paperback
How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-By-Step Guide to Teach Yourself
Manley, Bill
Collier, Mark
Hardcover
Administrative Reality and Scribal Apparatus in the Middle Babylonian Period, with Accompanying Texts
Tenney, Jonathan S.
Hardcover
Chosen Women and Inka Statecraft: Bioarchaeology, Gender, and Foodways at Saqsaywaman
Turner, Bethany L.
Paperback
Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age
Sheppard, Kathleen
Paperback
The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind
Hancock, Graham
Bauval, Robert
Paperback
Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections
Pellegrino, Charles R.
Paperback
Flaked Stone Artifacts from the East Wenatchee Clovis Cache
Bradley, Bruce A.
Huckell, Bruce
Mehringer, Peter J., Jr.
Hardcover
Blackbeard's Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne's Revenge
Carnes-McNaughton, Linda F.
Wilde-Ramsing, Mark U.
Paperback
Mountain Spirit: The Sheep Eater Indians of Yellowstone
Loendorf, Lawrence L.
Stone, Nancy Medaris
Paperback
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture
Colwell, Chip
Paperback
Archaeology of the Bible: The Greatest Discoveries from Genesis to the Roman Era
Isbouts, Jean-Pierre
Hardcover
Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State
Williams, David B.
Nesbitt, Elizabeth A.
Paperback
Forbidden Archeologist: The Atlantis Rising Magazine Columns of Michael A. Cremo
Cremo, Michael A.
Hardcover