Keeping Abreast of the Maya

A Study of the Female Body in Maya Art

Bibliographic Data

ID6034014
AuthorsAndrea J Stone (0000-0003-0947-7692), Andrea Stone (0000-0002-4485-5727, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume22
Issue1
Pages167-183
Publication date2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0956536111000137
OpenAlexW2134378116
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited35

This paper discusses the importance of female breasts in gender construction in Maya art and explains artistic conventions and choices in their deployment. The visual analysis focuses on Late Classic pictorial vases and ceramic figurines. Rather than reflecting a natural body, the female breast was filtered through a cultural lens that drove its highly conceptual rendering in Maya art, mirrored in a breast hieroglyph. Through the principle of contrast, including morphology and absence vs. presence of breasts in specific pictorial contexts, Maya artists constructed female personae varying in age, class, supernatural status, and gender ambiguity. In order to flesh out the layered meaning of the breast, the paper turns to ethnographic studies of modern Maya medicine concerning the hot-cold system. It is argued that ethnographic data on women's bodies in medical discourse shed light on how the breast served as an index of age-based female stereotypes

Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Archaeology · Art · Ethnography · Linguistics · Literature · Maya · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Philosophy