Depicting the Mesoamerican Spirit World

Bibliographic Data

ID6033744
AuthorsAlessia Frassani (0000-0002-2867-255X, Leiden University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume27
Issue2
Pages441-459
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0956536116000328
OpenAlexW2557639965
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited27

In this study I argue that modern ethnographic data can be used in the interpretation of ancient Mesoamerican art and pictography, in particular, beyond iconographic analysis. Ancient painted texts were read in a performative way, with recitation, enunciation, and context playing a fundamental role in conveying meaning. While normally pictography is approached as a provider of content information, the way meaning is encoded and decoded is also integral to pictorial language. In this essay, I attempt to trace durable forms of Mesoamerican religiosity by comparing ancient depictions, their colonial transformations, and modern Mazatec chants through the prism of the “religious specialist.” This figure embodies an ecstatic experience: a direct contact and communication with the divine, which requires a cognitive transformation materialized in words, texts, and pictures

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Epistemology · Ethnography · Linguistics · Literature · Performative utterance · Religiosity · Theology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Latin American history and culture · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy

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