"Here in the US, we're having difficult discussions about who we should monumentalize, the political implications of our statues, or what to do with monuments that no longer reflect our ideals. In a way, this book looks at how the Maya dealt with these and related issues. The author explores how the ancient Maya engaged with their history by using, reusing, altering, and burying stone sculptures. O'Neil shows, for example, how the ancient Maya repurposed stelae that were damaged by their enemies. In somecases, they would break the stelae to signify a change in their status, and bury them with others so that the buried monuments connected with those still standing in specific sacred sites. Infused with agency, the sculptures retained ceremonial meaning. O'Neil explores how those breakages and other, different human interactions, amidst unstable religious, political, and historical contexts, changed the sculptures' "lives.""--
An exploration of how the ancient Maya engaged with their history by using, altering, and burying stone sculptures.
An exploration of how the ancient Maya engaged with their history by using, altering, and burying stone sculptures.
For the ancient Maya, monumental stone sculptures were infused with agency. As they were used, reused, altered, and buried, such sculptures retained ceremonial meaning. In Memory in Fragments, Megan E. O'Neil explores how ancient Maya people engaged with history through these sculptures, as well as how they interacted with the stones themselves over the course of the sculptures’ long “lives.” Considering Maya religious practices, historiography, and conceptions of materials and things, O’Neil explores how Maya viewers perceived sculptures that were fragmented, scarred, burned, damaged by enemies, or set in unusual locations. In each case, she demonstrates how different human interactions, amid dynamic religious, political, and historical contexts, led to new episodes in the sculptures' lives.
A rare example of cross-temporal and geographical work in this field, Memory in Fragments both compares sculptures within ancient Maya culture across Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize over hundreds of years and reveals how memory may accrue around and be evoked in material remains.
