Women’s Dress in Ritual and Non-ritual Contexts

Summary

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 non-ritual contexts to identify what elements occurred in each. Some elements seem generalized for any ritual and others not. I also examine how the ritual affected women’s location in space at rituals and how politics affects that location. A case study at Yaxchilan looks at some changes over time as well.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35862.0