The Abundant Shade of Plaza Ceibas in Late Prehispanic Central America

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Living hundreds of years, ceiba trees (Ceiba pentandra) have long functioned as monuments to ancestral spirits, cosmological order, and chiefly authority among Indigenous populations throughout Central America. While these giant trees are often cosmologically charged and considered sacred or divine, there is substantial variety within Indigenous worldviews regarding ceibas. Among some cultures, the ceiba is the central axis of the world, providing the very infrastructure that upholds the cosmos. Sometimes, ceibas are perceived as gateways to the spiritual realm and psychopomps, guiding ancestral spirits to their supernatural home. In other instances, ceibas shelter powerful forest spirits (e.g., ixtabay) to be feared and respected for their roles in protecting the animals and plants of the forests. Often the tallest and most enduring trees in forests throughout Central America, ceibas are perceived as active supernatural forces that commemorate ancestral spirits, model the universe, and affect the well-being of humans and the rest of nature. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this paper considers the chronology and ontological factors that might have led to the widespread practice of planting ceibas in central town plazas throughout some regions of Central America while other communities have actively avoided these trees.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53039