Making Sense and Divining Senses: Maya Royal Courts and Communities

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Decipherment, Digs, and Discourse: Honoring Stephen Houston's Contributions to Maya Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout his decades of scholarship, Stephen Houston has fundamentally changed our understanding of Maya courtly life and community. He synergistically weaves results from groundbreaking decipherment and archaeological excavations like no other scholar in the field. His many publications illuminate not merely the who and when of dynastic history, but also the experience of courtly life, its engagement with the senses, and the overarching physicality of the human condition. The humanity that defines the personages that Houston reveals in his research has fundamentally enriched our understanding of the organization of political and moral communities in Classic period Maya kingdoms. In this presentation, we discuss the transformative impact that Prof. Houston has had on the discipline, while also highlighting the particular influence he has had on shaping our own scholarship and research projects in Guatemala and Mexico.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Decipherment, Digs, and Discourse: Honoring Stephen Houston's Contributions to Maya Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23485