Corporal Animal Forms as Ritualized Bodies in Burial 5, Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Applying a relational ontological approach to faunal bones I identify animals, secondary animal by-products, and faunal artifacts as persons—in the corporal animal forms of puma, eagle, wolf, and rattlesnake—whom actively engaged with entangled sociopolitical communities of humans. I present a case study of corporal animal forms participating as ritualized bodies in state dedicatory acts at the Moon Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico (CE 1–550). It is in this enigmatic city, where the structure of governance remains highly debated, that I introduce corporal animal forms and other nonhuman persons as agents in the active negotiation of state power. Emphasizing the layered congruities relating each corporal animal form to human and other-than-human persons found in the dedicatory cache, I interpret how the participation of these apex predators in state ritualized performances materialized its sovereignty and sanctioned the authority of its centralized elite.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part II   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36040.0