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AGENCY AND THE “STAR WAR” GLYPH: A historical reassessment of Classic Maya astrology and warfare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

Gerardo Aldana
Gerardo Aldana
Affiliation:
Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4120, USA
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Abstract

Several studies over the past 20 years have argued for an explicit connection between a hieroglyphic record of war, the so-called star war, and the observation of Venus. To the last, these studies have relied on statistical treatments or simple numerical coincidence to substantiate their claims. In this paper I challenge the results of these studies on two levels. First, I demonstrate that the iconographic evidence that inspired the association between Venus and the “star war” verb is itself unstable; then I appeal to the historical contexts of the rulers engaged in this warfare to see if, as individuals, there is evidence that they held such a belief. In both cases, I show that the evidence does not support a ritual timing of Classic Maya warfare by the phases of Venus. At end, I turn to philological consideration to propose a new reading for the “star war” verb.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , July 2005 , pp. 305 - 320
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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References

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