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Creating the Cosmos, Reifying Power: A Zooarchaeological Investigation of Corporal Animal Forms in the Copan Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

Nawa Sugiyama Open the ORCID record for Nawa Sugiyama [Opens in a new window] ,
William L. Fash  and
Christine A.M. France
Nawa Sugiyama
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MSN:3G5 Fairfax, VA 22030, USA Email: [email protected]
William L. Fash
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Harvard University, Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138USA Email: [email protected]
Christine A.M. France
Affiliation:
Museum Conservation Institute, Smithsonian Institution, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746, USA Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Throughout Mesoamerica, corporal animal forms (a term encompassing living animals, animal-derived by-products and artifacts made from animal bodies) have long played essential roles in state-level ritualized activities. This paper focuses on three zooarchaeological assemblages from the Classic Period Maya kingdom of Copan, Honduras (ad 426–822), to describe how corporal animal forms were implemented to mediate power, express social identities and encapsulate contemporary socio-political circumstances. Two of these fundamental assemblages relate to world-creation myths associated with the Starry Deer-Crocodile, a mythological entity prominent in both contexts which was materialized into the ritual arena through a formalized process of commingling and translating animal body elements. The third context was deposited some three centuries later during the reign of Yax Pasaj, the last ruler of the Copan dynasty. This assemblage, extravagant with powerful felids conjuring the authority of the royal dynasty, reflects a period of acute socio-political struggle faced by the Copan dynasty. Detailed zooarchaeological analysis of corporal animal forms at Copan facilitates a more comprehensive reconstruction of some of the socio-political power negotiations in play.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 407 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2019 

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