Interpretation of Maya social organization through material remains has long
been a subject of speculation. The gap between data and interpretation inevitably
involves the concerns and conditions of the society producing such interpretive
discourse, and diverging interests and modes of analysis continue to result in
alternative and often conflicting interpretations of ancient Maya society, often
involving suppositions of systemic weakness that led to the collapse of its
centralized or dynastic authorities in the ninth century.
Currently central in such interpretations is the role of inscribed stone seats,
erected by "subsidiary" or non-royal members of Maya society in "subsidiary"
districts or suburbs of the major Maya polity of Copan. At issue are the problematic
interpretations of these seats that have been constructed to support a particular
construct of Maya sociopolitical organization and an inherent weakness that would
have doomed it to collapse.
This thesis explains the premises of this current interpretation and examines
the Copan seats from several alternate viewpoints and methodologies. Formulation
of a comprehensive dataset of actual Maya seats and representations of seats in
sculpture, ceramic, and hieroglyphic contexts demonstrates that the Copan seats fit
comfortably within Maya epigraphic, stylistic and iconographic conventions rather
than representing a revolutionary challenge to dynastic authority.
Through analyses of form and construction, locational context, varieties of
decoration, and content of inscriptions, this thesis shows that such hierarchically-privileged
seats-of-authority, which are found in residential complexes of very
different socio-economic status, not only in Copan but throughout the Maya region in
Classic times, better support a model of factional competition than of autocratic
dynastic authority. These seats appear to have been designed to construct the
social position of their occupants in relation to subordinate members of their own
factions, to other faction leaders with whom they were in competition, and to the
ruler as both head of the polity and leader of the royal faction. Indeed, discursive
notions of the seat and seating were central to ancient Maya concepts of patriarchal
authority. Further, since such factional competition may be shown to characterize
Maya social organization since Late Pre-Classic times, the inscribed Copan seats
provide no insights as to the causes of the so-called "Maya Collapse." / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/9901 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Noble, Sandra Eleanor |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 19989597 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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