The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Ritual practice is a multisensory experience that calls on higher powers, spirits, or ancestors to intercede favorably in the lives of the practitioner. Ritual reverberates through all facets of life in Mesoamerica, a region with a rich record of ethnographic, historic, and archaeological data detailing the diversity of rituals embodied in daily religious practice. Yet like so many other facets of research in Mesoamerica, men receive the attention of investigators who resultantly place women in subsidiary roles or omit them from narratives all together. This session compiles evidentiary support that validates the vital role women played in ancestral and contemporary Mesoamerican rituals. Presenters discuss the religious practices women performed at home and in extravagant tombs, family shrines, sweat baths, and present-day cofradia houses. The women figured as the protagonists of these papers span from royal women to agrarian mothers and employ varied ritual toolkits encompassing brooms, figurines, spindle whorls, metates, textiles, sculpture, water, and flowers. Without a greater understanding of women-led or women-focused rituals, researchers will continue to distort essential aspects of Mesoamerican religious life.
Other Keywords
Iconography and epigraphy •
Ritual and Symbolism •
Maya: Classic •
Maya •
Gender •
Ethnohistory/History •
Gender and Childhood •
Iconography and Art •
Maya: Postclassic •
Architecture
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Belize (Country) •
Yucatan (State / Territory) •
Corozal (State / Territory) •
Quintana Roo (State / Territory) •
Campeche (State / Territory) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Orange Walk (State / Territory) •
Cayo (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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Birthing Dynasties and Raising Suns: Royal Women and Preclassic Maya Ritual (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Underneath a Classic Maya palace at Ucanha, builders buried a Terminal Preclassic platform outfitted with monumental portraits of rain gods. Analogous architecture appears throughout the Maya lowlands from the Middle Preclassic to Early Classic periods, and several scholars suggest their role in expediting the apotheosis of royal figures into...
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Dueñas de la memoria, guardianas de la historia: Mujeres Mayas, ritualidad y arqueología en el altiplano del territorio guatemalteco (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En el contexto de pueblos invadidos y luego brutalmente colonizados en los territorios que conforman la actual República de Guatemala, las mujeres mayas juegan un papel fundamental en la preservación, transmisión y radicalismo de la cultura. Las mujeres mayas son las constructoras y guardianas del pensamiento, idiomas, valores, filosofías y...
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“Grandmother of Light, Mistress of Shaping”: Midwife Deities in Highland Maya Ritual (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the Popol Vuh, the first truly successful human beings were created from maize by the goddess Xmucane: “The yellow ears of maize and the white ears of maize were then ground fine with nine grindings by Xmucane. Food entered their flesh, along with water to give them strength. . . . The yellowness of humanity came to be when they were...
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Las mujeres en los rituales de final de periodo durante el Clásico maya (250-900 dC) (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Durante el periodo Clásico se esculpieron dinteles y estelas donde algunas mujeres de sitios específicos desempeñaron un papel relevante en las ceremonias de final de periodo. Así lo atestiguan inscripciones de varias ciudades del Usumacinta y de la región de Petén, entorno geográfico en el que se centrará nuestro trabajo. La escritura...
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A Midwife’s Memorial: La Venta “Tomb” C (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the most elaborate tomblike deposits at La Venta may commemorate a female ritualist, possibly a midwife. This paper explores the contents and surroundings of Tomb C and relates them to the widespread imagery of women and pre-birth humans at this Middle Formative ritual and pilgrimage site. It uses analogies with Mixe ritual as evidence for...
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Pib Naah y la Partería: Birth Rituals and Midwifery at Río Amarillo, Copan, Honduras (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores evidence of women’s ritual practice at Río Amarillo, a site located 20 km from the Classic period center of Copan. While the ritual activities of royal women are largely hidden from view in Copan’s Acropolis, excavations at the site of Río Amarillo and in the groups surrounding it uncovered two contexts that were particularly...
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Rituals of Maya Royal Women in Classic Period Inscriptions (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Classic Maya period inscriptions provide us with extensive documentation of the rituals and ceremonies that Maya elites performed as part of their royal duties. Throughout this paper we will discuss those that were overseen by women belonging to the royal houses of the polities of the Maya lowlands, which have been recorded through the images and...
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Women and Ritual at Teotihuacan, Mexico (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Teotihuacan is a complex multiethnic urban metropolis whose history is slowly becoming more nuanced after more than 100 years of research. Despite the recent attention that this Mesoamerican city has received, we still have many questions, among them, about the role of women, their life histories, their identities, and their role in the ritual...
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Women’s Dress in Ritual and Non-ritual Contexts (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dress is an important way people interact with others. Modern concepts of dress include the entire body and how people adorn or change it. Maya rituals use specific sets of dress elements to convey not only what is happening but also to ensure the ritual was done correctly. After a brief review of women’s dress, I identify dress in ritual and...
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Xmucane and Her Granddaughters: Maya Women as Creators of Time (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Popol Vuh, the creation of the world and humankind is conceptualized as a process of birth. The old creator couple Xmucane and Xpiyacoc are described as the first diviners, just like their counter parts Oxomoco and Cipactonal who are the first calendar priests in Central Mexican mythology. This paper explores the relation between human...