To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization (The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies)

295 Pages·2009·10.98 MB·English

by  Matthew G. Looper

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To Be Like Gods
the linda schele series in maya and pre-columbian studies
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TO BE
Matthew G. Looper
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS | AUSTIN
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LIKE GODS
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Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization
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This series was made possible through the generosity of William C.
Nowlin, Jr., and Bettye H. Nowlin, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, and various individual donors.
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Copyright © 2009
by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
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first edition, 2009
Requests for permission to reproduce
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∞ The paper used in this book meets
the minimum requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Looper, Matthew George, 1966–
To be like gods : dance in ancient Maya
civilization / Matthew G. Looper.
p. cm. — (The Linda Schele series in Maya
and pre-Columbian studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-70988-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Maya dance. 2. Mayas—Social life and
customs. I. Title.
f1435.3.d34l66 2009
972.81'016—dc22 2008041134
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Acknowledgments, vii
Introduction: The Defi nition and
Interpretation of Ancient Maya Dance, 1
Defi nitions of Dance, 2
History of Maya Dance Studies, 3
Aesthetics and Embodiment, 9
Sources and Methods, 13
1: The Textual Record of Dance, 15
Decipherment of Dance Texts, 16
The Contexts of t516 “Dance” Expressions, 18
Case Study 1: Dos Pilas, 20
Case Study 2: Yaxchilán, 28
Conclusions, 44
2: The Iconography of Dance, 45
Identifying Dance Iconography, 47
Case Study: The Bonampak Murals, 61
Conclusions, 81
3: Dance Poses and Gestures, 83
The Study of Body Positions in Maya Art, 84
Dance Poses, 86
Problematic Poses, 93
Contents From Pose to Gesture: Reconstructing Dance
Movement from Figural Images, 103
Case Study: Narrative and Avian Dances, 106
Conclusions, 111
4: Dance on Classic Maya Ceramics, 113
by Matthew G. Looper, Dorie Reents-Budet,
and Ronald L. Bishop
Case Study 1: Dances of the Maize God, 114
Case Study 2: The Ik’-Style Corpus of Pictorial
Cylinder Vessels, 132
Conclusions, 149
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5: The Architectural Settings of Dance, 151
Case Study 1: Dance Platforms at Copán and the Yucatán, 156
Case Study 2: Temple and Palace Dances in Campeche, 173
Conclusions, 186
6: The Persistence of Maya Dance After
European Contact, 189
Characteristics of Colonial and Modern Maya Dance, 191
Case Study: The Patzkar, 201
Conclusions, 221
Epilogue: Dance as an Image of
Civilization, 223
Dance as an Image of Divinity, 224
Dance as an Image of Society, 226
Dance as an Image of the State, 228
Aesthetics as Image and Process, 230
Dance in Ancient Maya History, 231
Appendix: t516 “Dance” Expressions Ordered by Date, 235
Notes, 241
Bibliography, 247
Index, 271
vi contents
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Most scholarly studies of dance in some way relate
to personal experiences in dance performance. My
own participation in dance has perhaps been less in-
tensive than others’, involving a few years of training
during childhood. However, these experiences left
a deep and lasting impression, coming to fruition
in my fi rst exercise in the interpretation of ancient
Maya dance in the form of my ma thesis (Looper
1991a).
This thesis was partly inspired by a collabora-
tive experiment with Kathryn Reese-Taylor (then a
graduate student at the University of Texas at Aus-
tin, now a professor at the University of Calgary)
and Yacov Sharir of the Department of Theatre and
Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. Although
we never published our results, our explorations
combining computer animation and body move-
ment to decipher images of dance on Maya ceramics
made me aware of the diverse methods available to
explore dance in an archaeological context.
It was also Kathryn who convinced me of the im-
portance of studying contemporary Mesoamerican
performance as a clue to understanding dance in an
archaeological time frame. A few years later, while liv-
ing in Guatemala from 1993 to 1997, I had the oppor-
tunity to see a variety of Maya festival dances and to
participate in social dancing. Focused interviews with
dance offi cials and participants began only after I had
conceived the idea for this book and were conducted
between 2001 and 2007. This fi eldwork took place in
several locations, including Chamula and Zinacantán
in Mexico, and Chichicastenango and Chajul in Gua-
Acknowledgments
temala, but mainly in San Andrés Sajcabajá and San
Andrés Xecul in Guatemala. Full results of this fi eld-
work must await a future publication, though I would
like to take this opportunity to express my sincere
thanks to all of my informants.
This study was supported by a fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Humanities (fb-51444-
05), a summer fellowship from Dumbarton Oaks,
Washington, D.C., and a research grant from the
California State University Research Foundation. Any
views, fi ndings, conclusions, or recommendations ex-
pressed in this book do not necessarily refl ect those
of the National Endowment for the Humanities,
Dumbarton Oaks, or California State University.
vii
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I thank the following institutions and individuals
for permission to publish the drawings and photo-
graphs included in this book: the Bonampak Docu-
mentation Project; the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington, D.C.; the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic In-
scriptions, Harvard University; Dumbarton Oaks; the
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican
Studies; the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de
Guatemala; the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología
e Historia; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art;
the Middle American Research Institute, Tulane Uni-
versity; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Mu-
seum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institu-
tion; the New World Archaeological Foundation; and
the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeol-
ogy and Anthropology; as well as Ed Carter, Barbara
Fash, Nikolai Grube, Julia Guernsey, Stephen Hous-
ton, Heather Hurst, Justin and Barbara Kerr, Peter
Mathews, Frank Lee Mays, Cameron McNeil, Dorie
Reents-Budet, F. Kent Reilly III, Merle Greene Rob-
ertson, Andrea Stone, and Thomas Tolles. Many of
the scholars and friends listed above, as well as Vir-
ginia Fields, Rosemary Joyce, Martha Macri, Elizabeth
Newsome, and Carolyn Tate, provided helpful com-
ments and much needed support along the way, for
which I am grateful. I would like to thank the Centro
de Investigaciones Regionales en Mesoamérica in La
Antigua, Guatemala, its staff, and its director, Tani
Adams, for use of their library and facilities. I am par-
ticularly indebted to Thomas Tolles for uncounted
hours of editing and illustration preparation.
viii acknowledgments
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To Be Like Gods
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