Mesoamerican Transitions: Social, Psychological, and Symbolic

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 2: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We use metaphors for the human mind just as we do for religious, mythic and symbolic systems. These metaphoric systems reproduce the same social phenomena in ritual process and social organization. It should thus be clear that we find reintegration of social, symbolic, and metaphoric systems as a society is transformed and that they should be reflected in a coherent manner. These cultural projections reflect universal norms found not only in the work of Jung, Freud, Campbell, and Frazer but the rise of Rabinic Judaism, Tantric Buddhism, and the Vedic Scriptures. In Mesoamerica we have failed to account for such transitions which clearly indicate major social, behavioral, and symbolic transformations. This is the case with the vibrant polycultural symbolism of late Mesoamerican narrative ceramics that reveal a remarkable world of psychical complexity and sophistication. I will examine the social, ideological, and symbolic transitions that take place in early antiquity and what they imply for Mesoamerican social and political structures.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bringing the Past to Life, Part 2: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39400.0