Anth 168a/LALS100a:

The Maya – Past, Present, and Future

Spring 2017

Tuesday/Friday 9:30 PM–10:50

Charles Golden, cgolden@brandeis.edu,

781-736-2217, Office Hours: T/F 12:30 – 1:30pm or by appointment.

Who are the Maya? Popular representations of the Maya often focus on their ancient cities, magnificent

pyramids, palaces, ballcourts, and the supposed “collapse” of their civilization in the 9 th century CE. Or,

more recently, there was a public fascination with the “END OF THE WORLD” in 2012. The real picture is

far more complex, spans more than three millennia, and encompasses the modern story of more than 8

million people who speak the nearly 30 Mayan languages of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and

Honduras.

In this course we will investigate the earliest archaeological evidence for agricultural peoples that we

can securely identify as ancestors of modern Maya populations. We will explore the rise of the first

great Maya cities at places like El Mirador, the invention of the most complex writing system in the

Americas, and we will look at the rich archaeological and hieroglyphic data for understanding the lives of

kings and commoners in the first millennium AD. You will learn to read a bit of Maya hieroglyphic

inscriptions, we will question the various hypotheses for the famous “Maya Collapse,” and we will delve

into the aftermath of the supposed collapse. Woven into our discussion of the Precolumbian past will

be the ethnographic accounts of anthropologists and the voices of the Maya themselves, speaking to us

through historical and modern texts.

This Course is Writing Intensive and a Mix of Lecture and Seminar

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This course is a forum for discussion. As such, proper preparation and engaged class participation are

required. Brief writing assignments may be required for our regular meetings. Any more than two

unexcused absences during the course of the semester will result in the loss of a letter grade for class

participation for each additional absence. You should complete the readings before class on the day for

which they are assigned. You may not use computer or cell phones use in class unless academic

accommodations are required. Participation accounts for 20% of the final course grade.

Two 5-page essays will constitute the major midterm assignments. Each essay will be worth 10% of the

final grade. These papers will ask you develop an argument based on class readings, and providing

appropriate citations of those readings. You will receive the prompt for the first essay in class on 2/28

and must be submitted on Latte no later than the beginning of class on 3/7; and for the second essay,

the prompt will be distributed on 3/28 and must be submitted on Latte by 4/4. Full use of course

readings should be made in answering the exam questions. Outside readings are welcome but will not

be required.

A final paper will be an-in depth study of an object from a museum in the Boston area (or elsewhere, if

you choose). Boston has a rich collection of objects from the Maya area displayed in museums such as

the MFA and Harvard’s Peabody Museum. Many of these objects, however, are presented with limited

cultural context and, particularly in the case of art museums, without any real indication of where the

piece was originally found. You are to visit one of these collections over the course of the semester,

select an object and write a richly anthropological analysis of that piece. A 3-page proposal with

preliminary bibliography is due on 4/7 (10% of the final grade). A complete draft (10-12 pages) of the

paper is due 4/25 (10% of your final grade). You will present a summary of your findings in class during

the final sessions of the semester (10% of the final grade). You will receive comments on this draft and

are expected to revise the paper following these comments and discussion with me. A final draft of the

paper is due on 5/7 (30% of the final grade).

SOME RESOURCES FOR WRITING IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY:

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/anthropology/

http://www.bu.edu/archaeology/undergraduate/writing-guide-in-archaeology/

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~anthro/undergrad_materials/anthropology_writing_guide_2010.pdf

http://www.skidmore.edu/anthropology/writing/paper.php

GRADING

A grade of “A” means “excellent” - the work is of superior quality on an exam and represents insightful,

well-considered, and well-written/produced research & write-up. A grade of “A” typically represents a

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great deal of effort, but effort alone does not guarantee an “A.” A grade of “B” means “good” - the work

fulfills all of the assignment instructions and adequately presents well-written, well-researched work.

“C” means “average” - the work submitted fulfills the letter of the assignment, but lacks sufficient quality

of research and/or presentation that would warrant a higher grade. A grade of “D” represents work that

is unsatisfactory and has not fulfilled the stated goals of the assignment, while an “E” is a failing grade

resulting from work that is incomplete, incoherent, or otherwise unacceptable given the guidelines for

the assignment.

Extensions on papers will only be given if your professor is notified ahead of time of an existing conflict,

or you provide proof of an emergency. No extensions or make-ups will be given because of conflicts with

assignments or exams in other classes. Papers turned in late without permission of the instructor will be

discounted one letter grade per day.

If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability you

should contact me, and present your letter of accommodation, as soon as possible. If you have questions

about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations you should contact

Undergraduate Academic Services. Letters of accommodations should be presented at the start of the

semester to ensure provision of accommodations. Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.

The Brandeis Writing Center (extension 6-4885) on the first floor of the Goldfarb Library is available for

consultation throughout the academic year.

The following texts are required readings and should be purchased, or checked out from the library

(copies will be on reserve; an online version of Popul Vuh is also available at:

http://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf)

Michael D. Coe and

Stephen Houston

“The Maya” (9th Ed.) 2015, Thames and Hudson ISBN: 9780500291887

Allen J. Christenson “Popul Vuh” 2007, Univ. of Oklahoma Press ISBN: 0806138394

(Note that Popul Vuh is also available online at

http://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf)

Other assigned readings will be made available via LATTE.

This calendar represents a preliminary schedule of readings and discussions. All assignments and

readings are subject to change during the course of the semester. Students will receive written

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notification of these changes via e-mail.

T 1/17 Intro Class: Who, When, and Where are the Maya?

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “Introduction”

F 1/20 The Origins of Maya Culture and Society: The Preclassic

Restall, M. 2004. Maya Ethnogenesis. The Journal of Latin American Anthropology 9:64-89.

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “The Earliest Maya”

Joyce, Rosemary A., and John S. Henderson (2001) Beginnings of Village Life in Eastern

Mesoamerica. Latin American Antiquity 12 (1): 5-23.

T 1/24 The Origins of Maya Culture and Society: The Preclassic

Christenson, Popul Vuh, pp.59-191

F 1/27 The Origins of Maya Culture and Society: The Preclassic

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “The Rise of Maya Civilization”

Saturno, William A. 2009. Centering the Kingdom, Centering the King: Maya Creation and

Legitimization at San Bartolo, in The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Kingdoms

Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery, edited by William L. Fash and

Leonardo Lopez Lujan, pp. 111-134. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.

Inomata, T, D. Triadan, K. Aoyama, V. Castillo, H. Yonenobu. 2013. Early Ceremonial

Constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the Origins of Lowland Maya Civilization. Science

340: 467-471.

Inomata, T., MacLellan, J., Triadan, D., Munson, J., Burham, M., Aoyama, K., Nasu, H.,

Pinzón, F. and Yonenobu, H., 2015. Development of sedentary communities in the Maya

lowlands: Coexisting mobile groups and public ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(14), pp.4268-4273.

T 1/31 The Classic Period: Understanding Maya Inscriptions

Saturno, William et al. 2006. Early Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala.

Science 3 March 2006: 1281-1283.

Proskouriakoff, T. 1960. Historical Implications of a Patten of Dates at Piedras Negras,

Guatemala. American Antiquity 25:454-475.

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Coe, M. D., and M. Van Stone. 2001. Chapters 1 and 2 from Reading the Maya Glyphs. New

York: Thames and Hudson.

Video: Cracking the Maya Code (Posted to Latte)

F 2/3 The Classic Period: Understanding Maya Inscriptions

Martin, S. 2006. On Pre Columbian Narrative: Representation Across the Word Image ‐ ‐Divide. In A Pre Columbian World. J. Quilter and M.E. Miller, eds. Pp. 55 105. Washington, ‐ ‐D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

T 2/7 Who’s Who in the Texts

Coe and Houston - The Maya – p. 258 - 278

Martin, S., and N. Grube. 2008. Introduction to Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens.

New York: Thames and Hudson.

Tokovinine, A. 2011. People from a Place: Re-Interpreting Classic Maya Emblem Glyphs. In

Acta MesoAmericana 23: 91 – 106.

F 2/10 Working through Texts

Houston, S. D., K. A. Taube, and D. Stuart. 1989. Folk classification of Classic Maya pottery.

American Anthropologist 91:720-726.

Stuart, D. 2005. Glyphs on Pots: Decoding Classic Maya Ceramics. A section of the 2005

edition of the Sourcebook for the 29th Maya Meetings at Texas, The University of Texas at

Austin.

Beliaev, D., A. Davletshin, and A. Tokovinine. 2010. Sweet Cacao and Sour Atole: Mixed

Drinks on Classic Maya Ceramic Vases. In Pre-Columbian Foodways Interdisciplinary

Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, ed. by J. E. Staller and

M. Carrasco. Pp. 257-272. Springer, New York.

T 2/14 Understanding the Imagery - Maya Souls and Bodies

Pitarch, Pedro. 2011. The Two Maya Bodies: An Elementary Model of Tzeltal Personhood.

Ethnos 1 – 22.

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Groark, Kevin P. 2009. Discourses of the Soul: The Negotiation of Personal Agency in Tzotzil

Maya Dream Narrative. American Ethnologist 36(4): 705-721.

Pitarch, Pedro. 2010. Intro and Chapter 2, The Jaguar and the Priest: An Ethnography of

Maya Souls. University of Texas Press, Austin.

F 2/17 Understanding the Imagery - Maya Souls and Bodies

Houston, S., D. Stuart and K. Taube. 2005. The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and

Experience among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin. Pp. 1 - 101

Fitzsimmons, J. L. 2009. Death and the Afterlife in the Lowlands, from Death and the Classic

Maya Kings. Pp. 17-60. Austin: University of Texas Press.

T 2/21 No Class (Midterm Recess)

F 2/24 No Class (Midterm Recess)

T 2/28 Deities, Imagery, and Identity

Coe and Houston - The Maya – p. 242-258

Brown, L. A. and K. Th. Emery. 2008. Negotiations with the Animate Forest: Hunting

Shrines in the Guatemalan Highlands. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15(4):

300-337.

Astor-Aguilera, M. 2009. Mesoamerican Communicating Objects: Mayan Worldviews

Before, During, and After Spanish Contact. In Maya Worldviews at Conquest. Edited by L.

G. Cecil and T. W. Pugh, pp. 159-182. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

F 3/3 Deities, Imagery, and Identity

Prof. Golden in New Orleans, Guest Speaker

Houston, S., and D. Stuart. 1996. Of gods, glyphs and kings: divinity and rulership among

the Classic Maya. Antiquity 70:289-312.

Stuart, D. 1996. Kings of Stone: A Consideration of Stelae in Classic Maya Ritual and

Representation. RES 29/30:148-171.

T 3/7 Early Classic: Contacts with Rest of Mesoamerica

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Coe and Houston - The Maya – “Classic Splendor: The Early Period”

Stuart, David. 2000. The Arrival of Strangers: Teotihuacan and Tollan in Classic Maya

History. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by D.

Carrasco, L. Jones and J. S. Sessions, pp. 465-513. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.

Sharer, R. J. 2004. "External Interaction at Early Classic Copan," in Understanding Early

Classic Copan. Edited by E. E. Bell, M. A. Canuto, and R. J. Sharer, pp. 297-318. Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Taube, K. A. 2003. "Tetitla and the Maya Presence at Teotihuacan," in The Maya and

Teotihuacan. Edited by G. E. Braswell, pp. 273-314. Austin: University of Texas Press.

F 3/10 Contacts with the Rest of Mesoamerica

Price, T. Douglas, et al. 2010. Kings and Commoners at Copan: Isotopic Evidence for Origins

and Movement in the Classic Maya Period. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29(1):

15-32.

Wright, Lori, et al. 2010. The Children of Kaminaljuyu: Isotopic Insight into Diet and Long

Distance Interaction in Mesoamerica. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29 (2010)

155–178

Wright, Lori E. 2005. In search of Yax Nuun Ayiin I: Revisiting the Tikal Project’s Burial 10.

Ancient Mesoamerica 16(1): 89-100.

T 3/14 The Classic Period Political Landscape

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “Classic Splendor: The Late Period”

Inomata, T. 2001. The Power and Ideology of Artistic Creation: Elite Craft Specialists in

Classic Maya Society. Current Anthropology 42:321-349.

Kovacevich, B. 2015. From the ground up: household craft specialization and Classic Maya

polity integration. In Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands: Integration,

Interaction, Dissolution. Damien B. Marken and James L. Fitzsimmons, eds. Boulder:

University of Colorado Press, pp. 39-73

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F 3/17 The Classic Period Political Landscape

Carter, Nicholas. 2016. These are our Mountains Now: Statecraft and the Foundation of a

Late Classic Maya Royal Court. Ancient Mesoamerica 27(2):233-253.

Golden, C., A. Scherer, A. R. Muñoz, and R. Vasquez. 2008. Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan:

Divergent Political Trajectories in Adjacent Maya Polities. Latin American Antiquity 19:249-

274.

LeCount, L. J., and Yaeger, J. 2010. Provincial politics and current models of the Maya state.

In Classic Maya provincial politics: Xunantunich and its hinterlands, Tucson: University of

Arizona Press, pp. 21-45

T 3/21 Communities and Social Organization

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “Maya Life on the Eve of Conquest”

Robin, Cynthia. 2006. Gender, Farming, and Long Term Change: Maya Historical and ‐Archaeological Perspectives. Current Anthropology 47(3): 409-433.

Cancian, Frank. 1996. The Hamlet as Mediator. Ethnology 35(3): 215-228.

Christenson, Popul Vuh, pp.192-195.

F 3/24 Communities and Social Organization

Gillespie, S. D. 2000. Rethinking Ancient Maya Social Organization: Replacing 'Lineage' with

'House'. American Anthropologist 102: 467-284.

Houston, S. D., and P. A. McAnany. 2003. Bodies and Blood: Critiquing Social Construction

in Maya Archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22:26-41.

Magnoni, A., Hutson, S.R. and Dahlin, B.H., 2012. Living in the City: Settlement Patterns and

the Urban Experience at Classic Period Chunchucmil, Yucatán, Mexico. Ancient

Mesoamerica, 23(02): 313-343.

T 3/28 Collapse: Causes and Debates

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Coe and Houston - The Maya – “The Terminal Classic”

Aimers, J. and D. Hodell. 2012. Drought and the Maya. Nature 479: 44-45.

Hoggarth, Julie A., Matthew Restall, James W. Wood and Douglas J. Kennett. 2017.

Drought and Its Demographic Effects in the Maya Lowlands. Current Anthropology

0(0):000-000.

Cook, B. I., K. J. Anchukaitis, J. O. Kaplan, M. J. Puma, M. Kellley, and D. Gueyffier. 2012.

Pre-Columbian Deforestation as an Amplifier of Drought in Mesoamerica. Geophysical

Research Letters 39: 1-6.

F 3/31 Collapse: Causes and Debates

McNeil, C. 2011. Deforestation, Agroforestry, and Sustainable Land Management Practices

among the classic period Maya. Quaternary International 249 (2012) 19-30.

Turner, B. L. II and J. A. Sabloff. 2012. Classic Period collapse of the Central Maya

Lowlands: Insights about human–environment relationships for sustainability. PNAS.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1210106109

Golden, Charles and Andrew K. Scherer. 2013. Territories and Trust, Growth and Collapse:

Political Dynamics in Classic period Maya Kingdoms. Current Anthropology 54(4): 397-435.

T 4/4 The Postclassic – Aftermath, or new Beginning?

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “The Postclassic”

Ringle, W. M. 2004. On the Political Organization of Chichen Itza. Ancient Mesoamerica

15(2):167-218.

Andrews, Anthony P., E. Wyllys Andrews, and Fernando Robles Castellanos. 2003. The

Northern Maya Collapse and its Aftermath. Ancient Mesoamerica, 14 (1):151 - 156.

F 4/7 The Postclassic – Aftermath, or new Beginning?

Pugh, T.W., 2003. The exemplary center of the Late Postclassic Kowoj Maya. Latin American

Antiquity, pp.408-430.

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Milbrath, S. and Lope, C.P., 2009. Survival and revival of terminal Classic traditions at

Postclassic Mayapán. Latin American Antiquity, pp.581-606.

T 4/11 No Class (Spring Recess)

F 4/14 No Class (Spring Recess)

T 4/18 The Spanish and the Reorganization of Maya Society

Braswell, Geoffrey. 2001. “Post-Classic Maya Courts of the Guatemalan Highlands” in Royal

Courts of the Ancient Maya, Volume 2: Data and Case Studies. Edited by T. Inomata and S.

D. Houston, pp. 308-334. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Christenson, Popul Vuh, pp. 196-305 (Also, review previous sections of Popul Vuh)

F 4/21 The Spanish and the Reorganization of Maya Society

Bernal Diaz del Castillo “The Expedition under Cordova” and “The Expedition under

Grijalva” 1996. The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. New York: Da Capo Press.

Restall, Maya Conquistador, Selections

T 4/25 The Spanish and the Reorganization of Maya Society

Coe and Houston - The Maya – “The Enduring Maya”

Graham, E., S. Simmons, and C. D. White. 2013. The Spanish Conquest and the Maya

Collapse: How ‘Religious’ is Change? World Archaeology. http:/ / dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/

00438243.2013.770962

Pugh, T.W., 2009. Contagion and alterity: Kowoj Maya appropriations of European objects.

American Anthropologist, 111(3), pp.373-386.

Oland, Maxine. 2014. “With the Gifts and Good Treatment That He Gave Them”: Elite

Maya Adoption of Spanish Material Culture at Progresso Lagoon, Belize. International

Journal of Historical Archaeology 18(4):643-667.

F 4/28 STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

T 5/2 STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

Students are expected to follow community standards of behavior and of academic integrity detailed in

the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.

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