Full Description
The first book to focus on the multifaceted images of deer and hunting in ancient Maya art, from the award-winning author of To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization.
Winner, CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2019
The white-tailed deer had a prominent status in Maya civilization: it was the most important wild-animal food source at many inland Maya sites and also functioned as a major ceremonial symbol. Offering an in-depth semantic analysis of this imagery, The Beast Between considers iconography, hieroglyphic texts, mythological discourses, and ritual narratives to translate the significance and meaning of the vibrant metaphors expressed in a variety of artifacts depicting deer and hunting.
Charting the importance of deer as a key component of the Maya diet, especially for elites, and analyzing the coupling of deer and maize in the Maya worldview, The Beast Between reveals a close and long-term interdependence between the Maya and these animals. Not only are deer depicted naturalistically in hunting and ritual scenes, but also they are assigned human attributes. This rich imagery reflects the many ways in which deer hunting was linked to status, sexuality, and war as part of a deeper process to ensure the regeneration of both agriculture and ancestry. Drawing on methodologies of art history, archaeology, and ethnology, this illuminating work is poised to become a key resource for multiple fields.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Deer Life: The Maya Ethnobiology of Deer
Chapter 2. Bones to Picks: The Classic Maya Use and Depiction of Durable Deer Remains
Chapter 3. Big Bucks: Deer and Social Status
Chapter 4. Wearing the Horns: Deer, Sexuality, and Fertility in "Dying God" Scenes
Chapter 5. Locking Horns: Deer Hunting, Warfare, the Ballgame, and Male Rites of Passage
Chapter 6. Hart's Devotion: The Siip in Classic and Postclassic Maya Society
Chapter 7. A Sinking Hart: The Solar Symbolism of Deer in Maya Art
Chapter 8. Deer Departed: Cervid Spirits of Death and Disease
Epilogue. Out of the Woods: Deer and Borders
Notes
Bibliography
Index
