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- Honduras (8)
- Mesoamerica (8)
- Maya (5)
- Archaeology (3)
- Cerro Palenque (3)
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- Ulua Valley (3)
- Ballgame (2)
- Copan (2)
- Craft production (2)
- Ritual (2)
- Social organization (2)
- Andean region (1)
- Anthropology (1)
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- Burial (1)
- Center-periphery relations (1)
- Clay (1)
- Copan Site (1)
- EDXRF (1)
- Embodiment (1)
- Excavation (1)
- Figurines (1)
- Gender (1)
- Heterarchy (1)
- House societies (1)
- House society (1)
- Late Classic Period (1)
- Materiality (1)
- Maya architecture (1)
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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Producing Goods, Shaping People: The Materiality Of Crafting, Julia A. Hendon
Producing Goods, Shaping People: The Materiality Of Crafting, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
The study of craft production has a long and venerable history in archaeological research on ancient societies. In this chapter, I consider the crafting of useful and desired things from a materiality perspective by looking at the interactions between the craftpersons, the materials with which they work, and the ways that their end products are valued in society. I use two examples: working with fibers by the Maya of Mesoamerica and with metals by the Moche of Andean South America. These are two very different kinds of materials whose characteristics affect how one interacts with them. Crafting was a part …
Working With Clay, Rosemary A. Joyce, Julia A. Hendon, Jeanne Lopiparo
Working With Clay, Rosemary A. Joyce, Julia A. Hendon, Jeanne Lopiparo
Anthropology Faculty Publications
Evidence from sites in the lower Ulua valley of north-central Honduras, occupied between a.d. 500 and 1000, provides new insight into the connections between households, craft production, and the role of objects in maintaining social relations within and across households. Production of pottery vessels, figurines, and other items in a household context has been documented at several sites in the valley, including Cerro Palenque, Travesía, Campo Dos, and Campo Pineda. Differences in raw materials, in what was made, and in the size and design of firing facilities allow us to explore how crafting with clay created communities of practice made …
Social Memory And Ritualized Practice In Prehispanic Honduras, Julia A. Hendon
Social Memory And Ritualized Practice In Prehispanic Honduras, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
This paper discusses ritualized practices in domestic spaces as signs of an ongoing and dynamic engagement between the people living there and non-human material and incorporeal social actors, using archaeological evidence from the ancient town of Cerro Palenque and related sites in northwestern Honduras occupied from the 7th to 11th centuries. The paper considers the ways that figurines, pottery, and other kinds of material culture were given meaning through their involvement in these ritualized practices, the materiality of the objects themselves, and their association with human bones. These practices are situated in particular spaces and occur at particular points in …
Local Interaction And Long Distance Connections In The Ulua Valley: The View From Cerro Palenque, Julia A. Hendon
Local Interaction And Long Distance Connections In The Ulua Valley: The View From Cerro Palenque, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
The site of Cerro Palenque, the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in Honduras during the ninth and tenth centuries AD, was a locus of craft production of figurines and pottery, feasting, the ballgame, and other events associated with its ballcourt. Based on the analysis of imported obsidian, the evidence for ritual and craft production, and the layout of the settlement, Cerro Palenque maintained long distance trade connections with Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. It also took part in local rituals and events with its smaller neighbors in the valley.
Heterarchy As Complexity: Archaeology In Yoro, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce, Russell Sheptak
Heterarchy As Complexity: Archaeology In Yoro, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce, Russell Sheptak
Anthropology Faculty Publications
Based on archaeological evidence from the Cuyumapa Valley in Honduras, including the presence of multiple ballcourts, this paper argues that archaeologists need to pay more attention to Carole Crumley's concept of heterarchy when considering social relations, political relations, and power in ancient societies such as those of the Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica. We redefine complexity to include less centralized but regionally heterogeneous societies in which social and political relations are not all centralized into a single hierarchical structure. The Cuyumapa Valley falls in the zone traditionally described as the southeastern edge or periphery of Mesoamerica. Yet our research …
Importation Of Obsidian At Cerro Palenque, Honduras: Results Of An Analysis By Edxrf, Julia A. Hendon
Importation Of Obsidian At Cerro Palenque, Honduras: Results Of An Analysis By Edxrf, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
The results of source analysis by EDXRF of obsidian artifacts from the Mesoamerican site of Cerro Palenque in Honduras are reported and changes over time discussed. Sources of obsidian include Ixtepeque, El Chayal, Jalapa, San Martin Jilotepeque, and San Barolome in Guatemala. Some Pachuca obsidian from Mexico was also found. Honduran sources include La Esperanza and La Union. The implications of the obsidian sources are discussed in the context of changes at Cerro Palenque over time as it becomes the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in the ninth century AD.
Bodies Moving In Space: Ancient Mesoamerican Human Sculpture And Embodiment, Holly Bachand, Rosemary Joyce, Julia A. Hendon
Bodies Moving In Space: Ancient Mesoamerican Human Sculpture And Embodiment, Holly Bachand, Rosemary Joyce, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
Judith Butler’s proposal that embodiment is a process of repeated citation of precedents leads us to consider the experiential effects of Mesoamerican practices of ornamenting space with images of the human body. At Late Classic Maya Copán, life-size human sculptures were attached to residences, intimate settings in which body knowledge was produced and body practices institutionalized. Moving through the space of these house compounds, persons would have been insistently presented with measures of their bodily decorum. These insights are used to consider the possible effects on people of movement around Formative period Olmec human sculptures, which are not routinely recovered …
In The House: Maya Nobility And Their Figurine-Whistles, Julia A. Hendon
In The House: Maya Nobility And Their Figurine-Whistles, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
Studies a large collection of clay figurines in the Copan Valley of Honduras. Describes the different kinds of figurine-whistles that high status Maya had in their houses.
A Flexible Corporation: Classic Period House Societies In Eastern Mesoamerica, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce
A Flexible Corporation: Classic Period House Societies In Eastern Mesoamerica, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce
Anthropology Faculty Publications
House society models, based on the work of Levi-Strauss but since refined by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, provide a good model for understanding social organization among the ancient Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica based on a comparative study of societies in the Copan Valley, the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley), and the Cuyumapa Valley, all in Honduras. Social Houses are flexible, enduring social groupings that define kinship flexibly, recognizing adoption, marriage, shared residency, and other factors as ways to create ties that endure over generations.
Household Archaeology And Reconstructing Social Organization In Ancient Complex Societies: A Consideration Of Models And Concepts Based On Study Of The Prehispanic Maya, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
Studies of the settlement pattern in the Copan Valley, Honduras, indicate that a House society model provides the best way to understand the social organization of the Late Classic period Maya. The House society model, based on Levi-Strauss's original work but since modified by anthropologists and archaeologists, does not replace household archaeology. Instead, the model allows archaeologists to discuss the continuation of social identity over time.
The Uses Of Maya Structures: A Study Of Architecture And Artifact Distribution At Sepulturas, Copan, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon
The Uses Of Maya Structures: A Study Of Architecture And Artifact Distribution At Sepulturas, Copan, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon
Anthropology Faculty Publications
This dissertation presents a compositional analysis of the architecture and a distributional analysis of the associated artifacts resulting from excavation of some ninety buildings dating from the Late to Terminal Classic Period at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras. The study of all artifacts recovered from primary contexts, both in situ and redeposited, focuses first on a determination of their function, second on an analysis of their distribution within the site, and third on their associations with one another in order to identify the kinds of activities carried out at various locations. A second line of evidence used is the …