Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:46:50.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Glimpses of the Supernatural: Altered States of Consciousness and the Graffiti of Tikal, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William A. Haviland  and
Anita de Laguna Haviland
William A. Haviland
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Vermon, Burlington, VT 05405
Anita de Laguna Haviland
Affiliation:
R.F.D. 1, Box 89, Jericho, VT 05465
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Application of a neuropsychological model, developed in the laboratory, to the graffiti of Tikal reveals that the great majority of the latter are products of altered states of consciousness, depictions of visions seen by people in states of trance in relatively private settings. Beneath this art's apparent surface disorder and haphazard arrangement lies a definite neuropsychological order. Consideration of the provenances of graffiti suggests that the practice of trancing was widespread in Classic times, at least among the elite class and upper stratum of commoners.

La aplicación de un modelo neuropsicológico, diseñado en el laboratorio, a los graffitti de Tikal, ilustra fenómenos entópticos—las formas geométricas luminosas que se ven al comenzar un trance—tanto como imágenes icónicas de personas, animales y monstruos que aparecen durante etapas más profundas del trance. Bajo la superficie aparente desordenada y azarosa de este arte, yace un orden neuropsicológico definido. La proveniencia de los graffitti sugiere que la práctica del trance estaba bastante difundida en tiempos clásicos, por lo menos entre la élite y el estrato superior de la gente común.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 295 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bourguignon, E. 1979 Psychological Anthropology: An Introduction to Human Nature and Cultural Differences. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1989 Deaths and Entrances: A Contextual Analysis of Megalithic Art. Current Anthropology 30:68–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, W. R. 1983 Editor’s Introductory Comments. In The Graffiti of Tikal by H. Trik and M. E. Kampen, pp. 1–6. Tikal Report No. 31. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Coe, W. R. 1990 Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace and North Acropolis of Tikal. Tikal Report No. 14. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hammond, N. 1987 The Discovery of Tikal. Archaeology 40(3):30–37.Google Scholar
Harrison, P. D. 1970 The Central Acropolis, Tikal, Guatemala: A Preliminary Study of its Structural Components During the Late Classic Period. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Haviland, W. A. 1963 Excavation of Small Structures in the Northeast Quadrant of Tikal, Guatemala. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Haviland, W. A., Becker, M. J., Chowning, A., Dixon, K., and Heider, K. 1985 Excavations in Small Residential Groups 4F-1 and 4F-2. Tikal Report No. 19. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Haviland, W. A., and Moholy-Nagy, H. 1992 Distinguishing the High and Mighty from the Hoi Polloi at Tikal, Guatemala. In Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, edited by D. Z. Chase and A. F. Chase, pp. 50–60. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Kampen, M. E. 1978 The Graffiti of Tikal. Estudios de Cultura Maya 6:155–180.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J. D. 1988 Reality and Non-Reality in San Rock Art. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J. D. 1990 Discovering Southern African Rock Art. David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J. D., and Dowson, T. A. 1988 Signs of All Times: Entoptic Phenomena in Upper Paleolithic Art. Current Anthropology 29:201–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J. D., and Dowson, T. A. 1993 On Vision and Power in the Neolithic: Evidence from the Decorated Monuments. Current Anthropology 34:55–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maler, T. 1911 Explorations in the Department of the Peten, Guatemala: Tikal. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 5, No. 1. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Scheie, L. 1990 Proceedings of the Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop, March 1–11, 1990, University of Texas at Austin. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Scheie, L., and Freidel, D. 1990 A Forest of Kings. William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Siegel, R. K. 1977 Hallucinations. Scientific American 236(10):132–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trik, H., and Kampen, M. E. 1983 The Graffiti of Tikal. Tikal Report No. 31. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar