Ancient Maya Women

308 Pages·2001·11.481 MB·English

by  Traci Ardren

ANCIENT MAYA WOMEN
GENDER AND ARCHAEOLOGY SERIES
Series Editor
Sarah Milledge Nelson
University 0/ Denver
This series focuses on ways to understand gender in the past through archaeology.
This is a topic poised for significant advances in both method and theory, which
in turn can improve all archaeology. The possibilities of new methodological
rigor as well as new insights into past cultures are what make gendered archaeol
ogy a vigorous and thriving subfield.
The series welcomes single-authored books on themes in this topical area, partic
ularly ones with a comparative focus. Edited collections with a strong theoretical
or methodological orientation will also be considered. Audiences are practicing
archaeologists and advanced students in this field.
BOOKS IN THE SERIES
Volume 1, In Pursuit 0/ Gender: Worldwide Archaeological Approaches, Sarah
Milledge Nelson and Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, Editors
Volume 2, Gender and the Archaeology 0/ Death, Bettina Arnold and Nancy L.
Wicker, Editors
Volume 3, Ancient Maya Women, Traci Ardren, Editor
Submission Guidelines
Prospective authors of single- or co-authored books and editors of anthologies
should submit a letter of introduction, the manuscript or a four to ten page pro
posal, a book outline, and a curriculum vitae. Please send your book/manuscript
proposal packet to:
Gender in Archaeology Series
AltaMira Press
1630 North Main Street #367
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
[phone]
www.altamirapress.com
ANCIENT MAYA WOMEN
EDITED BY
TRACIARDREN
PRESS
A Division of
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Walnut Creek· Lanham • New York· Oxford
AL TAMIRA PRESS
A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
1630 North Main Street, #367
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
www.altamirapress.com
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
4720 Boston Way
Lanham, MD 20706
12 Hid's Copse Road
Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ, England
Copyright © 2002 by AltaMira Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ancient Maya women / edited by Traci Ardren.
p. cm. - (Gender and archaeology series; v. 3)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7591-0010-7
1. Maya women-History. 2. Maya women-Politics and government. 3. Maya
women-Social conditions. I. Ardren, Traci. n. Series.
FI435.3.W55 A53 2001
305.48'8974152'0090 l-dc2 I
2001044069
Printed in the United States of America
e™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSIINISO Z39.48-1992.
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PREFACE
JUNE C. NASH
I N THE PROCESS OF engendering archaeological materials, these researchers
have brought faces and forms to the Maya sites where they work. The task
requires that information from a wide variety of sources be creatively assem
bled and interpreted: Ethnographic observations enable the researchers to visual
ize the fabrication and function of tools, the social relations in production and
reproduction, and the enactment of ideals symbolized in texts and epigraphy. Eth
nohistorical research extends these understandings back in time to reveal
sequences and processes that can then be verified in archaeological finds. Advances
in epigraphy expand the interpretive base as studies reveal more of the past than
we could have imagined a few decades ago. By focusing on the distaff side of
human history, we gain new insights into the cosmological, ideational, and bio
logical dimensions of Maya society. A gendered perspective on these new materi
als and interpretations expands those dimensions, allowing us to appreciate Maya
philosophical premises of balance and harmony in a cyclical passage of time that
ensures the renewal of life after death.
Women emerge as strong protagonists of the high civilization that developed
in Mesoamerica over the past two millennia, but the record remains contradictory.
For example, Traci Ardren shows that the sexed skeletal remains from Yaxuna
reveal that women had a poorer diet and that their life span was a decade less
than that of men, yet epigraphic analysis indicates that women enjoyed high cere
monial status as essential progenitors in the perpetuation of elite lineages.
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