Why Do Pictures Speak? Orality in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper investigates the relationship between Classic Maya text, imagery, and genre when quoted speech is introduced. Quotes can be attributed to speakers through “speech scrolls,” the quotative evidential particle, or the verb meaning “say.” When the latter two are used, they are followed by the name of the speaker and sometimes the addressee. These kinds of attributions appear more commonly on ceramics than on monuments, and when these attributions do occur on monuments, they rarely appear as the speech verb. The usage of the speech verb primarily on ceramics, especially those portraying mythohistorical narratives, suggests that its appearance may be generically bound. Texts that include the speech verb are often thematically related and temporally and regionally limited. They are connected to a few historical actors—owners and scribes—named in rim texts. The way scribes represented speech in these narrative contexts was likely meant to foster a greater connection between their patrons and the mythohistorical heroes of their stories for a significant political aim. By creating these connections and even claiming to know the spoken words of supernaturals, historical actors could impress their esoteric knowledge upon their subjects by boasting access to an oral tradition passed down from the supernatural world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39467.0