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Book Cover
E-book
Author Ardren, Traci

Title Social identities in the classic Maya northern lowlands : gender, age, memory, and place / by Traci Ardren
Edition First edition
Published Austin : University of Texas Press, 2015

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Description 1 online resource
Series The Linda Schele series in Maya and pre-Columbian studies
Contents Social imaginaries and the construction of classic Maya identities -- Circulations and the urban imaginary of Chunchucmil -- Memory, reinvention, and the social imaginary of later Yaxuna -- Burial rituals and the social imaginary of childhood -- Gendered imaginaries and architectural space -- Why social identities?
Summary Social Identities in the Classic Maya Northern Lowlands plumbs the archaeological record for what it can reveal about the creation of personal and communal identities in the Maya world. Using new primary data from her excavations at the sites of Yaxuna, Chunchucmil, and Xuenkal, and new analysis of data from Dzibilchaltun in Yucatan, Mexico, Traci Ardren presents a series of case studies in how social identities were created, shared, and manipulated among the lowland Maya. Ardren argues that the interacting factors of gender, age, familial and community memories, and the experience of living in an urban setting were some of the key aspects of Maya identities. She demonstrates that domestic and civic spaces were shaped by gender-specific behaviors to communicate and reinforce gendered ideals. Ardren discusses how child burials disclose a sustained pattern of reverence for the potential of childhood and the power of certain children to mediate ancestral power. She shows how small shrines built a century after Yaxuna was largely abandoned indicate that its remaining residents used memory to reenvision their city during a time of cultural reinvention. And Ardren explains how Chunchucmil's physical layout of houses, plazas, and surrounding environment denotes that its occupants shared an urban identity centered in the movement of trade goods and economic exchange. Viewing this evidence through the lens of the social imaginary and other recent social theory, Ardren demonstrates that material culture and its circulations are an integral part of the discourse about social identity and group membership
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Mayas -- Yucatán Peninsula -- Social conditions
Maya -- Yucatán Peninsula -- Antiquities
Group identity -- Yucatán Peninsula -- History
Social structure -- Yucatán Peninsula -- History
Social archaeology -- Yucatán Peninsula
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
Antiquities
Group identity
Mayas -- Social conditions
Social archaeology
Social structure
SUBJECT Yucatán Peninsula -- Antiquities
Subject Central America -- Yucatán Peninsula
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780292768123
0292768125