Relational Economies of Reciprocal Gifting

Harrison‐Buck, Eleanor

doi:10.1086/716726

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…This figure, severed in such fashion, alludes to an ancient myth of the sacrifice of three people by severing (Taube and Houston 2010). As Taube and Houston (2010) explain, this act of sacrifice is textually yax ch'ahb (“first penance”), related to the powerful act of conjuring, ch'ahb ak'baal , noted by Stuart as “complementary operating principles of ‘generation’ and ‘darkness’” (Stuart 2021:200; see also Harrison-Buck 2021:579–581). This jade may be conjured from the inverted plate.…”

Section: The Oracle On the Mountainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classic Maya mirror conjurors of Waka', Guatemala

Freidel,

Navarro-Farr,

Rich

et al. 2023

Ancient Mesoam

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The Classic period lowland Maya used iron-ore mosaic mirrors and deposited mirrors in the burials of rulers and other people. Depictions of mirrors suggest that they were used for scrying, as were mirrors in Mesoamerica at the time of the Spanish arrival. Maya mirror users of this kind were conjurors, who used a variety of other divining and conjuring instruments and materials, including plates and shallow bowls. Three rulers at El Peru-Waka', now called Waka' by researchers at the site, an ancient city in northwestern Peten, Guatemala, were buried with mirrors and associated divining and conjuring materials. Following a brief introduction to the city and its temples, we describe the arrangement of mirrors and associated materials in three royal tombs. We suggest that the mirrors in these tombs were used in conjuring supernatural beings into existence, particularly Akan, a death god and wahy spirit who was a patron of the Waka' realm. We propose that the rulers and mirror conjurors of Waka' were oracles and that Waka' was known for prophecy. References to Sihyaj K'ahk' in text and iconography at Waka', and his association with oracular paraphernalia such as mirrors, lead us to propose a prophetic aspect of the visit of Sihyaj K'ahk' to the site eight days prior to his famous arrival at Tikal in a.d. 378. We suggest that the three rulers we discuss were mirror oracles sustained by the prestige of the prophecy of Sihyaj K'ahk'.

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Section: The Oracle On the Mountainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classic Maya mirror conjurors of Waka', Guatemala

Freidel,

Navarro-Farr,

Rich

et al. 2023

Ancient Mesoam

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“…Regarding this phrase, Martin (2020, p. 146) speaks of it as perhaps representative of" mystical essence" of Classic rulers and Stuart (2005b, p. 278) as procreative power. Harrison-Buck (2021) suggests that Knowlton's reading may allude to sexual intercourse.…”

Section: The Old Womanman Figure As Diphrastic Kenningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Tate 2012, p. 277) The Dallas figure was created in the context of ambient Mesoamerican Olmec religion if not by an Olmec craftsperson of the Gulf Coast. The idea of engendering as a way of understanding the ontological relationship between mindful and sentient persons, be they human, animal, divine, or other animate things, is a focus of the Classic Maya, and later Maya, in the diphrastic kenning Ch'ab' Ak'baal (or chab akab'), "generation and darkness" (Knowlton 2002(Knowlton , 2010Stuart 2005bStuart , 2021Harrison-Buck 2021;Martin 2020). In this essay I will argue that this idea, act, and incantation were central to Mesoamerican thought long before the Classic Maya, and that, commensurate with Tate's theses regarding Olmec religion, engendering was a primary focus of the materialization of power through what Harrison-Buck (Harrison-Buck 2018;Harrison-Buck and Freidel 2021) terms relational ontology, the co-creation of the world through attentive and affective engagement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Old WomanMan and the Mesoamerican Diphrastic Kenning of Engendering

Freidel

2024

Religions

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The royalty of the Classic Maya of Mesoamerica, and later sages of the Maya, used a powerful diphrastic kenning chab akab’, glossed as “generation-darkness” to convey a range of objectives, conjuring foremost among them. Known principally from hieroglyphic written expressions, but also depicted in the form of sacrificial instruments and offerings, Eleanor Harrison-Buck, following Timothy Knowlton, proposed that the kenning references sexual intercourse. This essay proposes that a black steatite carved figure stylistically dating to the Middle Preclassic period (900–350 CE) depicts this incantation as an old woman giving birth to her maleness in the form of a circumcised penis. A second Middle Preclassic figure of a dancing child, found as an heirloom in a Classic tomb, is compared to show the link between Preclassic and Classic meaning.

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Introduction: Realizing Value in Mesoamerica

Hutson,

Golden

2023

Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies

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Relational Economies of Reciprocal Gifting

Cited by 11 publications

References 85 publications

Classic Maya mirror conjurors of Waka', Guatemala

Classic Maya mirror conjurors of Waka', Guatemala

First Old WomanMan and the Mesoamerican Diphrastic Kenning of Engendering

Introduction: Realizing Value in Mesoamerica

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