Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)
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 "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Sweat baths have a deep history in Mesoamerica. While also used by males, they have a pan-Mesoamerican association with women and women’s health issues, including childbirth, general fertility, and gynecological illnesses. Ancient images and recent excavations demonstrate the links between goddesses, fertility-linked reptiles, and sweat baths. In the last decade a number of sweat baths have been excavated providing new information on the form sweat baths of the precontact period took and the types of offerings associated with them. In addition, in some areas of Mesoamerica each household had a sweat bath, while in others sweat baths appear to be a structure shared communally. This session includes papers on ancient and modern sweat baths.
Other Keywords
Maya: Classic •
Architecture •
Iconography and epigraphy •
Ritual and Symbolism •
Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology •
Experimental Archaeology •
Landscape Archaeology •
Historic •
Maya: Preclassic •
Iconography and Art
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
Cayo (State / Territory) •
Stann Creek (State / Territory) •
Toledo (State / Territory) •
Yucatan (State / Territory) •
Orange Walk (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)
- Documents (7)
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A Bath for 8,000 Gods: Atij and Similar Expressions on Classic Maya Monuments (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maya hieroglyphs are an invaluable source of data about the Classic period religion. However, when it comes to sweat baths, only a small subset of archaeologically investigated structures contains inscriptions. Therefore, any attempt to study this particular aspect of Maya ritual life should consider a...
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Chuu: The Use and Cultural Impact of Sweat Baths by the Ixil Community in Cotzal, Quiché, Guatemala (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent times, sweat baths are customary within Indigenous communities of the Guatemalan highlands; specifically, in the Ixil population, in places such as la sierra de Los Cuchumatanes, San Gaspar Chajul, San Juan Cotzal, and Santa María Nebaj. This region is known for its cold climate due to its...
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Evidencias arqueológicas del “ika” tojolabal, una tradición ancestral (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La ceremonia del temascal, el baño ritual prehispánico, está presente desde épocas remotas en muchos sitios arqueológicos de Mesoamérica hasta la actualidad. Para la etnia tojolabal es de gran importancia terapéutica relacionada con la salud del grupo familiar que habita en la casa, en especial la...
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Geografía sagrada en Naranjo: Relaciones simbólicas entre cerros, cuevas y temazcal (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Por medio de esta presentación, intentamos entender y considerar la importancia ritual y simbólica de un temascal Preclásico ubicado en la ciudad de Naranjo, Petén, Guatemala. Trataremos este tema a partir de la ubicación del temazcal dentro del paisaje sagrado del epicentro monumental de Naranjo y de...
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Myth, Ritual, and the Classic Maya Sweat Bath (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sweat baths have been used in Mesoamerica for more than a millennium for humoral medicine, childbirth, and obstetrics, not to mention rituals related to death, birth, and rebirth. During this long period of time, they have held a relatively constant place in mythology; they are ancestral grandmothers who...
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Rio Amarillo’s Temazcal: Fertility, Toads, and Childbirth in the Copan Valley, Honduras (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2014, rescue excavations in a residential group on the outskirts of Río Amarillo, 20 km from the ancient center of Copan, revealed the presence of a Pib Naah (temazcal/sweat bath), with clear ties to women’s rituals and Maya concepts of fertility. This evidence led the author to name this structure...
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The Soundscape inside the Ancient Ceren Sweat Bath (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient Ceren sweat bath was a communal facility of notable sophistication, especially for a commoner village. Household 2 supported its functioning with ollas full of water, pine kindling, and presumably structural maintenance. Loma Caldera’s phreatomagmatic eruption phases, with lava bombs, caused...