THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY: THE USE OF CLASSIC PERIOD DIVINATORY TEXTS IN THE LATE POSTCLASSIC MAYA CODICES

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Vail ◽  
Christine Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Seasonal Cycles ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cyclical Time ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Human Actors

AbstractMaya codices were important repositories of cultural knowledge and traditions passed down through the centuries. Rather than being focused on human actors, however, the Late Postclassic period Maya screenfolds contain almanacs that predict the movements of celestial bodies during earlier time periods. The purpose of these seemingly “out-of-date” tools was to predict the future based on notions of cyclical time. Recent research suggests that centuries-old astronomical almanacs do more than model the past or formulate rituals. Instead, they are formulated to integrate celestial events with other cycles of time and to contextualize them with events from the mythic past, such as the destruction of a former world by flood. The memory of this calamitous primordial event, framed in terms of astronomical and seasonal cycles, is preserved in pre-Hispanic and historic documents as a means of conveying the ill-fortune associated with like-in-kind events that are certain to repeat, and of scheduling the performance of appropriate ritual actions to mitigate their destructive potential.

TRANSFORMATION OF THE TERMINAL CLASSIC TO POSTCLASSIC ARCHITECTURAL LANDSCAPE AT CAYE COCO, BELIZE

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Rosenswig ◽  
Marilyn A. Masson
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Systematic Effort ◽  
Political Center ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Maya Site

In this paper, we analyze the distribution of Late Postclassic (A.D. 1250–1500) architecture and associated artifacts of the Maya site of Caye Coco, Belize. Artifact density and distribution suggest that different buildings served different functions and reflect a range of domestic and non-domestic activities at the island. An assessment of the labor investment required to build the seventeen structures at Caye Coco provides evidence of the degree of social hierarchy at this site, as many more people would have been required to build its elite residences than could have lived in them. The shift in the focus of architectural construction to the island at Progresso Lagoon in the Late Postclassic contrasts with the predominance of construction on the west shore during the Terminal Classic period. This trend reflects the emergence of a new political center among the lagoon settlements. It also may suggest an increased concern with aquatic transportation of trade goods during the Postclassic period, as Caye Coco is the most prominent island of the lagoon, which connects directly to the Caribbean Sea. The architecture at Caye Coco suggests that Late Postclassic political organization of northeastern Belize was more hierarchical than has been previously documented. This paper is the first systematic effort to quantify architectural labor investment and size distribution at a southern lowland Postclassic Maya site in order to address the issue of sociopolitical hierarchy.

The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
The Subject

A timely synthesis of the latest research and perspectives on ancient Maya economics, this volume illuminates the sophistication and intricacy of economic systems in the Preclassic period, Classic period, and Postclassic period. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines move beyond paradigms of elite control and centralized exchange to focus on individual agency, highlighting production and exchange that took place at all levels of society. Case studies draw on new archaeological evidence from rural households and urban marketplaces to reconstruct the trade networks for tools, ceramics, obsidian, salt, and agricultural goods throughout the empire. They also describe the ways household production integrated with community, regional, and interregional markets. Redirecting the field of ancient Maya economic studies away from simplistic characterizations of the past by fully representing the range of current views on the subject, this volume delves deeply into multiple facets of a complex, interdependent material world.

Adaptations of Time Travel Narratives in Japanese Multimedia: Nurturing Eudaimonia across Time and Space

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ae Lee
Keyword(s):  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
The Future ◽  
Live Action

To displace a character in time is to depict a character who becomes acutely conscious of his or her status as other, as she or he strives to comprehend and interact with a culture whose mentality is both familiar and different in obvious and subtle ways. Two main types of time travel pose a philosophical distinction between visiting the past with knowledge of the future and trying to inhabit the future with past cultural knowledge, but in either case the unpredictable impact a time traveller may have on another society is always a prominent theme. At the core of Japanese time travel narratives is a contrast between self-interested and eudaimonic life styles as these are reflected by the time traveller's activities. Eudaimonia is a ‘flourishing life’, a life focused on what is valuable for human beings and the grounding of that value in altruistic concern for others. In a study of multimodal narratives belonging to two sets – adaptations of Tsutsui Yasutaka's young adult novella The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Yamazaki Mari's manga series Thermae Romae – this article examines how time travel narratives in anime and live action film affirm that eudaimonic living is always a core value to be nurtured.

ON THE NEED TO COLLECT, PRESERVE AND STUDY DISAPPEARED NAMES OF SETTLEMENTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-192
Author(s):  
S.A. Popov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Local History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The Disappeared

The article deals with the problem of collecting, preserving and researching the disappeared names of localities in the subjects of the Russian Federation, which for centuries have become an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of our country. The author believes that only a comprehensive analysis of the past oikonyms in nominational, lexical-semantic, historical-cultural, historical-ethnographic, local history aspects will restore the linguistic and cultural systems of different time periods in different microareals of the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion that in order to preserve the historical memory of the disappeared names of geographical objects, local researchers need the support of regional state authorities and local self-government.

scholarly journals Aztec and Tlaxcalan Economic Interaction: Blockade or Interregional Exchange?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Bianca L. Gentil ◽  
A. Gabriel Vicencio Castellanos ◽  
Kenneth G. Hirth
Keyword(s):  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Lithic Tools ◽  
Economic Interaction ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Large Center ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of the Aztec Triple Alliance on trade and economic activity in the region of Puebla-Tlaxcala during the Late Postclassic period (AD 1200–1519). Ethnohistorical sources describe the Aztec Triple Alliance as constantly at war with settlements in the Tlaxcala region. To weaken their Tlaxcalteca rivals, the Aztecs imposed a trade blockade to reduce the flow of resources into Puebla-Tlaxcala. This article uses archaeological evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this blockade. It compares the types of obsidian used to manufacture lithic tools from Aztec-controlled sources with those used within Puebla-Tlaxcala. Information from the large center of Tepeticpac and the small obsidian workshop site of Cinco Santos II, both in the Tlaxcala domain, are compared to other sites in Central Mexico prior to and during the height of Aztec influence. The results show little difference in regional trade patterns: obsidian from Sierra de las Navajas and Otumba was used in proportions in the Tlaxcala region in the Late Postclassic similar to those used during earlier periods. If an embargo was attempted, it was largely unsuccessful in isolating Tlaxcala from broader regional distribution networks.

Re-imaging Aboriginal leadership in higher education – A new Indigenous research paradigm

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Payi Ford ◽  
Kathy Gotha Guthadjaka ◽  
James Walung Daymangu ◽  
Bettina Danganbar ◽  
Colin Baker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aboriginal Women ◽  
Leadership In Higher Education

This article focuses on leadership by women in Indigenous research in the higher education sector of Australia. The research that provided the context for this exploration of Indigenous women’s leadership involved archiving ceremonial cultural knowledge from the Daly and Wagait regions of the Northern Territory. The article introduces the concept of Aboriginal corporeality and the struggle within colonial Australia and through to the present to prevent its erasure from Australia’s history. This struggle is referenced in the paradigm shifts underway in Indigenist research. The article acknowledges the past commitments of powerful Aboriginal women to the advancement of their clans’ people under the new circumstances that they had to confront from the 1880s. It is argued that the cultural agenda of these women prepared the ground for the advances in Indigenist research reported in this article. The article concludes with an example of the close, culturally significant partnership that was forged by the research project across two Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory.

FILTH AND HEALING IN YUCATAN: INTERPRETING IX HUN AHAU, A MAYA GODDESS

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Interethnic Interaction

AbstractThis paper analyzes the roles and attributes of the Maya goddess Ix Hun Ahau, the female manifestation of Hun Ahau that appears in the Ritual of the Bacabs. This Colonial Yucatec text is our earliest surviving source for how Maya cosmology provided a framework for healing practices. Although the extant manuscript dates to the late eighteenth century, it is the culmination of centuries of interethnic interaction, including innovations emerging from the intellectual exchange that characterized Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic period (ca. A.D. 1200–1500). The accoutrements and activities ascribed to this goddess in the incantations identify her as a Maya parallel to Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina, the Nahua goddess of weaving, sexuality, pollution, and its purification. Pollution concepts and purification practices that are otherwise peripheral in the Ritual of the Bacabs are specifically related to Ix Hun Ahau, suggesting that early intellectual exchange between Mesoamerican peoples extended to medical cosmologies as well.

Linguistic Divergence and the Collapse of Preclassic Civilization in Southern Mesoamerica

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce H. Dahlin ◽  
Robin Quizar ◽  
Andrea Dahlin
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Proximate Cause ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
Early Classic Period

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

Wage-Setting Measures: A Survey and Assessment

2001 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lane Kenworthy
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Wage Setting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Measurement Strategy ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Wage Coordination

Wage setting has been one of the most heavily studied institutions in the field of comparative political economy over the past two decades, and quantitative measures of wage-setting arrangements have played a major role in this research. Yet the proliferation of such measures in recent years presents researchers with a sizable array from which to choose. In addition, some scholars are rather skeptical about the validity and/or reliability of these measures. This article offers a survey and assessment of fifteen wage-setting measures. It attempts to answer questions about (1) how these indicators differ from one another in conceptualization and measurement strategy; (2) which are the most valid and reliable; (3) the strengths and weaknesses of measures of wage centralization versus those of wage coordination; (4) particular countries or time periods for which there are noteworthy discrepancies in scoring; (5) how sensitive empirical findings are to the choice of wage-setting measure.

Women’s Bodies, Femininity, and Spacetimemattering: A Baradian Analysis of the Activewear Phenomenon

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Julie E. Brice
Keyword(s):  
International Business ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Alternative Perspective ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Hegemonic Femininity

Over the past decade, activewear has become a booming international business and cultural phenomenon. It has simultaneously been critiqued for its pervasive neoliberal, postfeminist, and healthism rhetoric and the ways it continues to (re)produce hegemonic femininity. In this paper, the author drew upon new materialist theory, specifically Karen Barad’s concept of spacetimemattering, to contribute to this body of literature, providing an alternative perspective on the production of femininity and feminist politics within activewear. Using a Baradian-inspired approach, this paper brought various material-discourses and events from multiple time periods into dialogue with the activewear phenomenon to (re)think the production of femininity. Specifically, the analysis explored how activewear entanglements across various spatiotemporalities challenge appearance-based femininity and increase the visibility (and acceptance) of the moving female body. Through this exploration, the author provided a way to (re)imagine feminist politics that are embedded in women’s everyday fitness practices.

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