The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

Houston, Stephen D.

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Description: The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

BOOKThe Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

Stephen D. Houston

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14172

For the Classic Maya, who flourished in and around the Yucatan peninsula in the first millennium AD, artistic materials were endowed with an internal life. Far from being inert substances, jade, flint, obsidian, and wood held a vital essence, agency, and even personality. To work with these materials was to coax their life into full expression and to engage in witty play. Writing, too, could shift from hieroglyphic signs into vibrant glyphs that sprouted torsos, hands, and feet. Appearing to sing, grapple, and feed, they effectively blurred the distinction between text and image.

In this first full study of the nature of Maya materials and animism, renowned Mayanist scholar Stephen Houston provides startling insights into a Pre-Columbian worldview that dramatically contrasts with western perspectives. Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, images, and drawings, this beautifully written book reveals the Maya quest for transcendence in the face of inevitable death and decay.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date May 2014 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300196023

EISBN 9780300225587

Illustrations 114

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Glyphs for "u baah," "his forehead, body, portrait" or "image," Copan Hieroglyphic Stairway, Step 41, Block 376
Xcalumkin Lintel 1:B1
Vase with monkey scribes holding round objects
A wooden servant
Ancestors as plants
Dumbarton Oaks bowl
Vase with mythic ceiba
Wooden canoe, Tikal Burial 116
Cottony nest of Quetzal bird
"Taj" or pine cross-bars on throne, Cancuen Stela 1, east side
Ceramic vase with animated agave
Mythic toad holding wooden bowl
San Bartolo, West Wall
Río Azul bowl
Copan Hieroglyphic, Step 43, Block 407
Thatch" on Structure 13, Plan de Ayutla
Ceramic vessel with paper headdresses on mythic twins
Yaxchilan Lintel 15
Earth sign, Naj Tunich, Drawing 82:D1
Río Azul Tomb 25, North Wall
Palenque Temple XVIII tablet: A6
Atlantean being of stone, Sepulturas bench, Str. 9N-82, center room
Caracol Stela 6:B14
Late Classical bowl
"Ma yaxtuun," "no jade," plate from Tikal Burial 195
"Yaxtuun" in stucco band, Copan Margarita Structure
Panel, Usumacinta region
Piedras Negras Stela 8
Eccentric flint
Bonampak Murals: "baah te'," "head-wood," Caption I-26
Bonampak Murals: "baah tz'am," "head-throne," Caption I-34
Bonampak Murals: "baah pakal," "head shield," Caption II-23
Bonampak Murals: "baah took," head flint, Caption 38-39
Baskets on ceramics from Uaxactun or Uaxactun-area
"Baskets" on ceramic bowl from Uaxactun or Uaxactun-area
Chama-area vessel, detail
Nebaj-area vessel, the "Fenton Vase," detail
Bonampak Murals, Room 1, Figure 74, with Caption 55
Bonampak Murals, Room 1, Figure 74, with Caption 56
Caracol Structure B19, sub-operation C41, ceramic sherd
Greca and weaving design on plate, Calakmul Tomb 1, Structure XX
Stacked "belts" on ceramics, Tikal Burial 23
Altun Ha ballplayer "belt," Altun Ha Tomb B-4/7
Vessel
Polychrome vase
Palmar Orange Polychrome bowl, Tikal Burial 147
Bowl, Uaxactun Burial A40
Vase with rabbit scribe with book covered by jaguar hide
Leather drinking container, Calakmul Structure I, North Acropolis
Incensario and "ceiba" bark, OP 37/5/109 Tunnel 4, Level 8
A Late Classic bowl as "squash" or "pumpkin"
A Late Classic bowl as "squash" or "pumpkin"
Painted "gourd" on hemispheric bowl, Altun Ha, Structure A-8, Unit 8
Armadillo, Yaxha Offering 10 (YXMM 098)
Armadillo bowl
Schematic armadillo hide on cylindrical vessel
Chochola vessel with attributes of carved wood
Feathers ringing a bowl, Tikal Burial 116
Nunnery, west building, Uxmal
Plumbate vessel with appearance of metal
Ceramic bells
Ceramic bells
Ceramic bells
"Sak lak tuun" incense burner at Copan
"A sak hu'n," white paper jewel: Str. M8-4
A sak hu'n," white paper jewel: Burial 49
Semper and wicker originals, with "Caribbean" hut
Colley March and skeuomorphs influenced by binding
Mosaics, Palace of the Columns (interior), Mitla
William Henry Holmes and the shift of material, from original (left column) to secondary form (right)
Temple at Sanchi
Black-on-white bowl
Barra-phase pottery
Pottery composite: Holmul
Pottery composite: Uaxactun
Pottery composite: Santa Rita Corozal
Stela at Nocuchich
Vase with basket design
"K'uh" spilling from royal hands, Yaxchilan Stela 1
"K'uh" flowing onto basket, stalactite, Yaxchilan Stela 31
K'uh" flowing onto basket, stalactite, Yaxchilan Stela 31
K'uh" at San Bartolo, West Wall
Jade earspool, mythic deer-crocodile swimming in "k'uh," with mythic incense burner as tail
Vase with Chahk in his cave hosting a party
Emiliano Zapata panel
Stony heads at Caracol, showing place name, Altar 12
Río Azul Mask: A6
Copan-area sculpture
Jade and spirit within, highlighted, Palenque, Temple XII
Slab with spirit of polished stone, east-facing, Pomona Structure 4
Vase with deity with markings of polished celts
Mutilation of Maya sculpture, Dos Pilas Stela 11
Infixation, conflation, and superimposition in Maya glyphs
An example of a hieroglyphic system, Assyrian
Animation, generic and specific, in Maya writing
Full-figure bird, "muut," fused with deity Itzam
Songbirds
Margarita façade
Newborn Maize God under "Nal" sign
Table 1 Series of Full-Figure Glyphs
Caracol Stela 20:A3, full-figure Initial Series glyph, 18 katun and 4 h'ab
Full-figure glyphs, Palace Tablet: A9-B14
Yaxchilan Throne 2, full-figure glyph blocks, with bird in name of ruler, "Bird Jaguar III
Yaxchilan Throne 2, full-figure glyph blocks, with a noun
Quirigua Stela D:C9-D12, "0 Winal, 0 K'in
Copan Hieroglyphic Stairway, Step 63, block 590, full-figure scene, feeding or mounting
Quirigua Zoomorphs P and Altar P', showing overhead view, P "breathing out" the deity and wind sign in P' as indicated by direction of arrrows
Covered bowl reproducing basket coils, El Peru, Burial 24
Maya blue on figurine, Jaina-style whistle
Watery journey or death of the Maize god
Jade mask, Janahb Pakal I
Strangler fig

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Contents

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

Table of Contents

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14173

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Preface

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

I have a habit that is both unconscious and compulsive. A place does not seem real unless I touch a wall or pass my hand along the bark of a tree or feel the rough texture of stone. Then, somehow, I am there, completely in that time and place. A memory of it takes root. It turns out that matter means something to me. Another fixation is more aesthetic than cognitive. It concerns stone. Whatever the level of skill, an over-polished sculpture from the nineteenth century repels me. I can’t help it …

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.ix-xi

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14174

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1. A World That Matters

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

Humans are creatures of change. Born helpless, they grow to adulthood and, by a grim path with certain conclusion, stoop and creak to the end. The transformation is inescapable. But there is another one, too. Along the way, they do and make, and make again. The need to create cannot be disowned. Crafting is in our bones. …

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-29

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14175

Chapter subject tags:Maya artMaya philosophyArt, Ancient AmericanMaya language--WritingMaya language--TextsMaya gods

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2. To Become Something Else

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

At some point fourteen hundred years ago, a Classic Maya potter and a painter worked in unison on a bowl. Perhaps they were the same person. The potter coiled, smoothed, slipped, and burnished the clay. Stepping in, the painter adorned the surface or gouged out a design. The bowl, still leather hard, went back for firing. After breakage or long use the pot entered the ground as a scatter of sherds or a whole object. If complete, it found its way into a cache, a deep cave, or a tomb. There it …

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.31-73

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14176

Chapter subject tags:Maya artMaya potteryArt, Ancient AmericanMaya language--Writing

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3. The Life Within

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

The treasure of Maya ethnography comes from a hundred or more researchers, living and talking with native peoples, often over decades. What the sources offer: testimony that things, places, and materials might live. What they reject: the boxing of belief into a single set of ideas or practices, unyielding to time and circumstance. The concepts are too varied for that. Yet, past and present, Maya communities do participate in a shared frame of reference about living things. They endorse the …

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.75-123

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14177

Chapter subject tags:Maya artMaya mythologyArt, Ancient AmericanMaya sculptureMaya pottery

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4. A Beauty That Cannot Die

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

If the play of materials and the investment of life concerned the Classic Maya, so did another motivator: the search for beauty. But there is a problem. Beauty is central to human experience, yet, in general, no one knows quite what it is or what to make of it. To one philosopher, beauty “remains a bit of a mystery, forever a step beyond anything I can say.” Inducing longing and desire, it asks to be enfolded, possessed, and judged. The beautiful also implies the ugly. Attraction contrasts with …

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.125-133

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.006

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14178

Chapter subject tags:Maya artMaya philosophyArt, Ancient American

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Bibliography

Stephen D. Houston

The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence

[Bibliography]

Author

Stephen D. Houston

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00151.007

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14179

Access to this content is only available to subscribers. If you are at an institution that currently subscribes to the A&AePortal, please login to your VPN before accessing the site. If you have already purchased an individual subscription, please sign in to your account to access the content. Learn more about subscriptions.

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