The Captive Body in Late Classic Maya Art: Bound in Rope, Bound in Stone
FAIN: FEL-273537-21
Caitlin Earley
University of Nevada, Reno (Reno, NV 89557-0001)
Research and writing leading to a book on the roles and identities of bound captives in Late Classic Maya stone sculpture.
This book project investigates depictions of captives in Late Classic (600-900 CE) Maya stone sculpture. Although they are usually understood as emblems of dishonor, this study suggests that captives were both multivalent and rhetorically powerful in Maya art. Based on analysis of the style, iconography, and context of over 300 depictions of captured enemies from throughout the Maya area, I demonstrate that captives in Late Classic Maya art legitimized royal authority, constructed specific social identities, and ensured the maintenance of world order through the nourishing power of their bodies. Treating the captive body as a cultural project that both shaped and reflected the embodied experiences of ancient people, this analysis enables a more robust understanding of Maya art by recovering the ways in which carved stone sculptures signified to diverse audiences in ancient Maya centers.
Associated Products
Bodies in Flesh, Bodies in Stone: Classic Maya Depictions of Captives and the Fluidity of Presence (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Bodies in Flesh, Bodies in Stone: Classic Maya Depictions of Captives and the Fluidity of Presence
Author: Caitlin Earley
Abstract: While the animate visual culture of ancient Maya centers is well documented, many studies continue to interpret Maya sculptures—usually images of kings—from a static Eurocentric perspective. In this paper, I consider how representations of captives can help us reconsider links between bodies, objects, and environment in Classic Maya ontology. Usually prisoners of war, captives appear in low-relief and three-dimensional sculpture with particular frequency in the Late Classic period (c. 600-900 CE). Depictions of captives are the ideal place to examine conceptions of bodily presence because they act in the world in ways that other Maya works do not. Sculptures of captives were buried in tombs, beheaded in ballcourts, and trod upon on stairways. In this paper, I consider three case studies of sculptures that interacted with their communities, from Toniná, where three-dimensional stone captives were decapitated on the acropolis; to the burial of a sculpted captive in a tomb at Tenam Puente; and finally, to the scaffolded bodies of captives on the hieroglyphic stairway at Dzibanché. I argue that through their engagement with humans and the environment, such sculptures materialized the fluidity between stone and flesh and enacted ontological transformations that were key to Indigenous concepts of being. Combined, sculpted captives offer the opportunity to engage with the vitality of Maya sculpture, the dynamic continuum of personhood, and the possibility of being in the world in flesh and also in stone.
Date: 02/14/2023
The Good Captive: Portraits and Power in Classic Maya Sculpture (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Good Captive: Portraits and Power in Classic Maya Sculpture
Author: Caitlin Earley
Abstract: Existing studies of portraiture in a variety of art historical traditions focus on the elite. In this study, I consider a different type of portrait: the depiction of Classic Maya (c. 300-900 CE) war prisoners. Often appearing in tandem with their captors—usually kings—captives on carved stone monuments challenge traditional conventions of portraiture in Maya art. I argue that depictions of war captives communicated ideal cultural values through an interplay between generality and specificity. Beginning with a case study of Piedras Negras Panel 12, I examine conventions for the representations of captives, including “types” of captive bodies and their ability to communicate political and cosmological information. In additional case studies, I consider how shifts in power are expressed in portraiture, and the effect of manipulation of captive sculptures on their ability to signify. This study suggests that the canon of Maya portraiture must be adjusted to include disempowered actors, whose likenesses were active players in ritual and political practice in the ancient Maya world.
Date: 04/01/2022
Estilo y política: Toniná y sus vecinos en el mundo maya occidental (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Estilo y política: Toniná y sus vecinos en el mundo maya occidental
Author: Caitlin Earley
Abstract: El sitio arqueológico de Toniná es bien conocido por su distintivo estilo escultórico: en el periodo clásico tardio, esculturas de piedra talladas en redondo poblaban la acrópolis de la ciudad. Sin embargo, ese estilo aparece en otros sitios en el área maya occidental en el periodo clásico, especialmente en Tenam Puente. En ese sitio, varios fragmentos de esculturas representan gobernantes y cautivos en un estilo muy similar al estilo de Toniná. En este ponencia, considero lo que la difusión del estilo escultórico de Toniná puede decirnos sobre la historia del área maya occidental. Utilizando estudios de caso de varios centros mayas importantes, examino diferentes patrones de difusión y lo que nos pueden decir sobre el control artístico, la diplomacia y el poder en el mundo maya occidental.
Date: 08/10/2022
Art and the Body in the Ancient Americas (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Art and the Body in the Ancient Americas
Author: Caitlin Earley
Abstract: What is a body, and how do bodies make meaning in art? This course investigates the concept of the body and its expression in Indigenous art from the Ancient Americas. As a site of human experience, a node of relational exchanges, and an expressive and constructive force, the body offers us a window into ways of being and understanding in the Americas. What can the way the body is created, represented, and manipulated tell us about attitudes toward power, religion, and the structure of the world? We will consider case studies from three cultural groups: the Moche, the Maya, and the Aztec. Our investigation is focused on the human body, and explores bodies that are living, dead, gendered, fragmented, multiple, and divine.
Year: 2023
Audience: Undergraduate