Ritual responses to drought

An examination of ritual expressions in Classic Maya written sources

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7296111
AutoresEva Jobbová (0000-0001-7116-9637, University College London), Christophe G B Helmke (0000-0003-3691-7075, University of Copenhagen), Christophe Helmke, A Bevan (0000-0001-7967-3117, University College London)
Año2018
Volumen46
Número5
Páginas759-781
Fecha de publicación2018-09-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHuman Ecology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0300-7839 • E-ISSN: 1572-9915
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10745-018-0019-6
PMID30363853
OpenAlexW2889957383
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas50

Planting and rain-beckoning rituals are an extremely common way in which past and present human communities have confronted the risk of drought across a range of environments worldwide. In tropical environments, such ceremonies are particularly salient despite widespread assumptions that water supplies are unproblematic in such regions. We demonstrate for the first time that two common but previously under-appreciated Maya rituals are likely planting and rain-beckoning rituals preferentially performed at certain times of the year in close step with the rainy season and the Maya agricultural cycle. We also argue for considerable historical continuity between these Classic Maya ceremonies and later Maya community rituals still performed in times of uncertain weather conditions up to the present day across Guatemala, Belize, and eastern Mexico. During the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-900), the changing role played by ancient Maya drought-related rituals fits into a wider rhetorical shift observed in Maya texts away from the more characteristic focus on royal births, enthronements, marriages, and wars towards greater emphasis on the correct perpetuation of key ceremonies, and we argue that such changes are consistent with palaeoclimatic evidence for a period of diminished precipitation and recurrent drought

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Ethnology · Geography · Literature · Maya · Period (music · Rhetorical question · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · History · Latin American history and culture