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Author: David Freidel
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Published: 1995-02-27
Total Pages: 544
ISBN-13: 9780688140694
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Masterful blend of archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, and lively personal reportage, Maya Comos tells a constellation of stories, from the historical to the mythological, and envokes the awesome power of one of the richest civilizations ever to grace the earth.
Author: Merideth Paxton
Publisher: UNM Press
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780826322920
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTraces implications of a previously unrecognized image of the solar year in the Madrid Codex to find new meanings in the Dresden Codex and the Maya calendar system and a regional settlement organization in Yucatan.
Author: Prudence M. Rice
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2013-08-28
Total Pages: 388
ISBN-13: 0292757840
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow did the ancient Maya rule their world? Despite more than a century of archaeological investigation and glyphic decipherment, the nature of Maya political organization and political geography has remained an open question. Many debates have raged over models of centralization versus decentralization, superordinate and subordinate status—with far-flung analogies to emerging states in Europe, Asia, and Africa. But Prudence Rice asserts that neither the model of two giant "superpowers" nor that which postulates scores of small, weakly independent polities fits the accumulating body of material and cultural evidence. In this groundbreaking book, Rice builds a new model of Classic lowland Maya (AD 179-948) political organization and political geography. Using the method of direct historical analogy, she integrates ethnohistoric and ethnographic knowledge of the Colonial-period and modern Maya with archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic data from the ancient Maya. On this basis of cultural continuity, she constructs a convincing case that the fundamental ordering principles of Classic Maya geopolitical organization were the calendar (specifically a 256-year cycle of time known as the may) and the concept of quadripartition, or the division of the cosmos into four cardinal directions. Rice also examines this new model of geopolitical organization in the Preclassic and Postclassic periods and demonstrates that it offers fresh insights into the nature of rulership, ballgame ritual, and warfare among the Classic lowland Maya.
Author: Prudence M. Rice
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: 2019-04-14
Total Pages: 305
ISBN-13: 1607328895
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnthropomorphizing the Cosmos explores the sociocultural significance of more than three hundred Middle Preclassic Maya figurines uncovered at the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich' on Lake Petén Itzá in northern Guatemala. In this careful, holistic, and detailed analysis of the Petén lakes figurines—hand-modeled, terracotta anthropomorphic fragments, animal figures, and musical instruments such as whistles and ocarinas—Prudence M. Rice engages with a broad swath of theory and comparative data on Maya ritual practice. Presenting original data, Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos offers insight into the synchronous appearance of fired-clay figurines with the emergence of societal complexity in and beyond Mesoamerica. Rice situates these Preclassic Maya figurines in the broader context of Mesoamerican human figural representation, identifies possible connections between anthropomorphic figurine heads and the origins of calendrics and other writing in Mesoamerica, and examines the role of anthropomorphic figurines and zoomorphic musical instruments in Preclassic Maya ritual. The volume shows how community rituals involving the figurines helped to mitigate the uncertainties of societal transitions, including the beginnings of settled agricultural life, the emergence of social differentiation and inequalities, and the centralization of political power and decision-making in the Petén lowlands. Literature on Maya ritual, cosmology, and specialized artifacts has traditionally focused on the Classic period, with little research centering on the very beginnings of Maya sociopolitical organization and ideological beliefs in the Middle Preclassic. Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos is a welcome contribution to the understanding of the earliest Maya and will be significant to Mayanists and Mesoamericanists as well as nonspecialists with interest in these early figurines
Author: Lewis Spence
Publisher: New York : AMS Press
Published: 1908
Total Pages: 80
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Simon Martin
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
Published: 2008-03-25
Total Pages: 248
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"The ideal reference on Maya archaeology."--Science News
Author: Kenneth Johnson
Publisher: Lucita Publishing
Published: 2011-12
Total Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780977403592
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Mayan Calendar Astrology: Mapping Your Inner Cosmos" is the quintessential handbook to help you understand the art of Mayan astrology and how to harness it for a profound illumination of your personal lifepath. If you liked "Jaguar Wisdom," this book will take you even deeper into the powerful insights that Mayan astrology can offer, whether you're a seasoned expert or just a beginner. Included in the book are: - Complete information about the day signs and numbers - The importance of the Year Lord - The Mayan Destiny chart (also known as the Mayan Cross) - The complete nine-sign horoscope - Solar and lunar cycles - A unique method for determining the phases of human life - The personal compatibility matrices embedded within the Tzolk'in - A little-known technique for assessing human relationships by combining two horoscopes into a composite chart - Calendar diagrams and horoscope templates - A powerful and meditative technique called the "Path of Feathered Serpent," based on our own "personal lunar month" and designed, through a series of guided meditations, to awaken the koyopa or inner lightning we all possess. REVIEWS: "I am profoundly grateful to Kenneth Johnson for sharing his experientially based understanding of the Tzolk'in in this remarkable book. As a long-time lover of the Mayan world, 'Mayan Calendar Astrology' finally opened my eyes to the subtle workings of the 260-day calendar and led me to embrace it as a genuine path to self-understanding. The author's work is based upon his years of work with several aj q'ijab' in the Guatemalan highlands, primarily in Momostenango, the important center for contemporary Mayan calendar knowledge. Johnson's explanations of the significance of the 13 numbers, the Mayan Destiny chart, the Year Lords, and the Path of Feathered Serpent are unique in popular literature and will enrich the understanding of even dedicated scholars." - Robert Sitler, PhD, Director, Latin American Studies, Stetson University
Author: Linda Schele
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 1990
Total Pages: 564
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given us the first written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. Now, two central figures in the massive effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele and David Freidel, make this history available for the first time in all its detail. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution and the first great pyramid builders two thousand years ago to the decline of Maya civilization and its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great historic rulers of Precolumbian civilization come to life again with the decipherment of the writing. At its height, Maya civilization flourished under great kings like Shield-Jaguar, who ruled for over sixty years, expanding his kingdom and building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, the Maya elites are now known to have been the rulers or populous, aggressive city-states. Hailed as "a Rosetta Stone of Maya civilization" (Brian M. Fagan, author of People of the Earth), A Forest of Kings is "a must for interested readers," says Evon Vogt, professor of anthropology at Harvard University.
Author: Gabriela Jurosz-Landa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2019-03-26
Total Pages: 276
ISBN-13: 1591433355
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn initiate’s inside account of ancient Maya spiritual practices alive today • Includes a Foreword by José Luis Tigüilá NABÉ kaxbaltzij, spokesperson of the Maya municipality • Details the initiation process the author went through to become a Maya shaman-priestess, including rituals, prayers, and ceremonies • Explains the foundational spiritual wisdom of the Maya calendar as a living entity, its cycles of time, and the significance of “the counting of the days”, which helps keep time itself alive • Examines the power of dance and Maya ceremonies, Maya future-telling, and communication with ancestors through the sacred fire Offering an insider’s experiential account of ancient Maya spiritual wisdom and practices, initiated Maya shaman-priestess Gabriela Jurosz-Landa opens up the mysterious world of the Maya, dispelling the rampant misinformation about their beliefs and traditions, sharing the transcendent beauty of their ceremonies, and explaining the Maya understanding of time, foundational to their spiritual worldview and cosmology. The author, an anthropologist, details the initiation process she went through to become a Maya shaman-priestess in Guatemala, including rituals, prayers, the presence of numinous forces, and the transmission of sacred knowledge. She explains the spiritual wisdom of the Maya calendar as a living entity, its cycles of time, and the significance of “the counting of the days,” which helps keep time itself alive. She examines Maya spiritual and cosmological concepts such as how the universe is shaped like a triangle over a square. She reveals the profound power of dance in Maya tradition, explaining how ritual dance halts the flow of time, reactivates primordial events, and captures vital energies that keep the Maya spiritual tradition vital and alive. Exploring other Maya secret knowledge, she also details Maya ritual attire, Maya future-telling with the calendar, the reading of the Tzi’te beans, and how the Maya communicate with ancestors through the sacred fire. Illustrating how contemporary Maya life is suffused with spiritual tradition and celebration, the author shares the teachings of the Maya from her initiate and anthropologist point of view in order to help us all learn from the ancient wisdom of their beliefs and worldview. Because, to truly understand the Maya, one must think like the Maya.
Author: Andrea Joyce Stone
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 363
ISBN-13: 0817311386
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis accessible, state-of-the-art review of Mayan hieroglyphics and cosmology also serves as a tribute to one of the field's most noted pioneers. The core of this book focuses on the current study of Mayan hieroglyphics as inspired by the recently deceased Mayanist Linda Schele. As author or coauthor of more than 200 books or articles on the Maya, Schele served as the chief disseminator of knowledge to the general public about this ancient Mesoamerican culture, similar to the way in which Margaret Mead introduced anthropology and the people of Borneo to the English-speaking world. Twenty-five contributors offer scholarly writings on subjects ranging from the ritual function of public space at the Olmec site and the gardens of the Great Goddess at Teotihuacan to the understanding of Jupiter in Maya astronomy and the meaning of the water throne of Quirigua Zoomorph P. The workshops on Maya history and writing that Schele conducted in Guatemala and Mexico for the highland people, modern descendants of the Mayan civilization, are thoroughly addressed as is the phenomenon termed "Maya mania"—the explosive growth of interest in Maya epigraphy, iconography, astronomy, and cosmology that Schele stimulated. An appendix provides a bibliography of Schele's publications and a collection of Scheleana, written memories of "the Rabbit Woman" by some of her colleagues and students. Of interest to professionals as well as generalists, this collection will stand as a marker of the state of Mayan studies at the turn of the 21st century and as a tribute to the remarkable personality who guided a large part of that archaeological research for more than two decades.
