Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Water and Ritual : The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers / Lisa J. Lucero.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian StudiesPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2006Description: 1 online resource (269 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292795839
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 305.897/42 22
LOC classification:
  • F1435.3.P7 L83 2006eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers -- 1. Water and Ritual -- 2. Classic Maya Political Histories -- 3. Maya Rituals: Past and Present -- 4. Community and the Maya:The Ritual History of Saturday Creek -- 5. Local Rulers and the Maya:The Ritual History of Altar de Sacrificios -- 6. Regional Rulers and the Maya:The Ritual History of Tikal -- 7. The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers -- 8. Water, Ritual, and Politics in Ancient Complex Societies -- Notes -- References Cited -- Index
Summary: In the southern Maya lowlands, rainfall provided the primary and, in some areas, the only source of water for people and crops. Classic Maya kings sponsored elaborate public rituals that affirmed their close ties to the supernatural world and their ability to intercede with deities and ancestors to ensure an adequate amount of rain, which was then stored to provide water during the four-to-five-month dry season. As long as the rains came, Maya kings supplied their subjects with water and exacted tribute in labor and goods in return. But when the rains failed at the end of the Classic period (AD 850-950), the Maya rulers lost both their claim to supernatural power and their temporal authority. Maya commoners continued to supplicate gods and ancestors for rain in household rituals, but they stopped paying tribute to rulers whom the gods had forsaken. In this paradigm-shifting book, Lisa Lucero investigates the central role of water and ritual in the rise, dominance, and fall of Classic Maya rulers. She documents commoner, elite, and royal ritual histories in the southern Maya lowlands from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods to show how elites and rulers gained political power through the public replication and elaboration of household-level rituals. At the same time, Lucero demonstrates that political power rested equally on material conditions that the Maya rulers could only partially control. Offering a new, more nuanced understanding of these dual bases of power, Lucero makes a compelling case for spiritual and material factors intermingling in the development and demise of Maya political complexity.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292795839

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers -- 1. Water and Ritual -- 2. Classic Maya Political Histories -- 3. Maya Rituals: Past and Present -- 4. Community and the Maya:The Ritual History of Saturday Creek -- 5. Local Rulers and the Maya:The Ritual History of Altar de Sacrificios -- 6. Regional Rulers and the Maya:The Ritual History of Tikal -- 7. The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers -- 8. Water, Ritual, and Politics in Ancient Complex Societies -- Notes -- References Cited -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In the southern Maya lowlands, rainfall provided the primary and, in some areas, the only source of water for people and crops. Classic Maya kings sponsored elaborate public rituals that affirmed their close ties to the supernatural world and their ability to intercede with deities and ancestors to ensure an adequate amount of rain, which was then stored to provide water during the four-to-five-month dry season. As long as the rains came, Maya kings supplied their subjects with water and exacted tribute in labor and goods in return. But when the rains failed at the end of the Classic period (AD 850-950), the Maya rulers lost both their claim to supernatural power and their temporal authority. Maya commoners continued to supplicate gods and ancestors for rain in household rituals, but they stopped paying tribute to rulers whom the gods had forsaken. In this paradigm-shifting book, Lisa Lucero investigates the central role of water and ritual in the rise, dominance, and fall of Classic Maya rulers. She documents commoner, elite, and royal ritual histories in the southern Maya lowlands from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods to show how elites and rulers gained political power through the public replication and elaboration of household-level rituals. At the same time, Lucero demonstrates that political power rested equally on material conditions that the Maya rulers could only partially control. Offering a new, more nuanced understanding of these dual bases of power, Lucero makes a compelling case for spiritual and material factors intermingling in the development and demise of Maya political complexity.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)