Book Review: Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul

• Published in: Latin American antiquity Vol. 29; no. 1; p. 200
• Main Author: Weiss-Krejci, Estella
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Cambridge University Press 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Archaeology; Bones; Cosmology; Ethnography; Excavation; Funerals; Historic artifacts; Human remains; Mayan civilization; Rites & ceremonies
• ISSN: 1045-6635; 2325-5080
• DOI: 10.1017/laq.2017.73

Cranial shaping, tooth modification, diet, sex, gender and aging, and disease are also addressed. Because the treatment of the body in both life and death is perceived as a lens into Classic Maya conceptions of body and soul, in Chapter 2, Dead Bodies, the author looks into body treatments such as wrapping and bundling, adornment of the head, the use of red pigment on the dead body, and the symbolism of associated artifacts such as death masks and jade ornaments. [...]there are references to many other Preclassic and Classic Maya sites such as Altar de Sacrificios, Cuello, Calakmul and Copan, but the burial data concerning the Classic period of these sites seem not to have been incorporated thoroughly into the analysis. [...]to the list of collective interments I would like to add the sites of Caledonia, Chiapa de Corzo, Guaytan, Kaminaljuyu, Lubaantun, Nebaj, Tikal, and Zaculeu, to name but a few, as well as some Belizean caves, which should be considered as collective burial spaces, especially those where bones have been studied in detail and identified as the remains of funerary deposits (Wrobel, Helmke & Freiwald 2014, in The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place, pp. 77-106). [...]the author considers certain mortuary phenomena as exceptions (such as the funerary use of Belizean caves), tries to explain away variability by suggesting that other researchers erred, and entangles himself in contradictory arguments.