Susan D. Gillespie
University of Florida, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Social Theory, Iconography, Mesoamerican Ethnohistory, Mesoamerican Archaeology, Olmec archaeology, Anthropology, and 32 moreForms of historicity, Anthropology Of Art, Social organization, Landscape Archaeology, Aztecs, Embodiment, Sculpture, Social and Collective Memory, Mesoamerica, Personhood, Mortuary Practices, Kinship, Political Organization, Olmec, Citation, Chalcatzingo, Americas, Complex Society, Classic Maya, Social Houses, House society, Human Trophies, Corporate/network, Maya kingship, Prehispanic Maya, History, Archaeology, Art History, Culture, Cultural Theory, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Cultural Heritageedit
Research Interests: Geography and Arqueologia
Within the scholarship concerning the Popol Vuh, the great K’iche’ Maya epic creation saga, critical questions have arisen concerning the gender of one of its most popular protagonists, Xbalanque. He is ostensibly male, like his older... more
Within the scholarship concerning the Popol Vuh, the great K’iche’ Maya epic creation saga, critical questions have arisen concerning the gender of one of its most popular protagonists, Xbalanque. He is ostensibly male, like his older brother Hunahpu. These two “Hero Twins” engage in male-oriented activities, including hunting with blowguns, clearing a corn field, and playing in a rubber ball game against the Lords of Death. Nevertheless, Xbalanque’s name has a prefix that normally marks female appellations. Furthermore, the siblings are transformed into the Sun and the Moon, with Xbalanque as the Moon. Many scholars consider this impossible because the Moon is female in Maya belief. The Popol Vuh has thus been declared corrupt, and the Hero Twins have been identified instead as Venus and the Sun, elder and younger brothers respectively. Although blaming the Popol Vuh authors or transcribers for this error in astronomical assignment may satisfy some analysts, the problem of Xbalanque’s gender lies with modern scholarship’s fetishization of gender as essentialized, fixed, dyadic, isolable, and compartmentalized. The modern Western concept of gender is at odds with the structure and nature of the Popol Vuh. As a cosmogonic account it explains how the different qualities associated with gender came into existence in concert with the origins of other components of sociocosmic order. These include the gradual development of gendered agency, relations, and goods, especially in connection with marriage exchange.
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La Venta, Mexico, the Middle Formative Olmec regional capital (ca. 1200-400 BC), is thought to have been ruled by powerful leaders based in part on the discovery of several well-endowed tombs dating to the last construction phase of the... more
La Venta, Mexico, the Middle Formative Olmec regional capital (ca. 1200-400 BC), is thought to have been ruled by powerful leaders based in part on the discovery of several well-endowed tombs dating to the last construction phase of the Complex A ceremonial center. However, their status as graves has been debated since soon after they were excavated in the 1940s, especially because they generally lacked osteological material. What remained was arrangements of costume items as if adorning a body, usually associated with a stone container. Most, but not all, archaeologists assumed that bones and teeth would not survive in tropical environments and accepted both the tomb attribution and their function as individual funerary monuments. Complex A was subsequently badly disturbed, its superficial structures destroyed, so attempts to resolve this debate rely on archived field records.
A detailed review of the available stratigraphic information from the 1940s-1950s Complex A excavations demonstrates that these assumptions are not warranted for two reasons. First, field data indicate the absence of expected taphonomic evidence of bodily decay that would have displaced the carefully arranged costume ornaments. Second, analysis of Mound A-2’s stratigraphy, aided by digitally enhanced profile and plan drawings, reveals its tomb-like features were erected in a single short construction phase, not over a span of decades as individual kings died.
These conclusions call for alternative explanations of these features. They are argued to function as surrogate burials, not simply as “pseudo-burials” or cenotaphs. They are only the last instances of a depositional practice that had a long history at Complex A going back to its first construction phase. By this means multiple generations of Olmec ritual officiants materially rendered absent bodies into “quasi-presences” in a durable form that, unlike a body, resisted decay.
https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0956536122000232
A detailed review of the available stratigraphic information from the 1940s-1950s Complex A excavations demonstrates that these assumptions are not warranted for two reasons. First, field data indicate the absence of expected taphonomic evidence of bodily decay that would have displaced the carefully arranged costume ornaments. Second, analysis of Mound A-2’s stratigraphy, aided by digitally enhanced profile and plan drawings, reveals its tomb-like features were erected in a single short construction phase, not over a span of decades as individual kings died.
These conclusions call for alternative explanations of these features. They are argued to function as surrogate burials, not simply as “pseudo-burials” or cenotaphs. They are only the last instances of a depositional practice that had a long history at Complex A going back to its first construction phase. By this means multiple generations of Olmec ritual officiants materially rendered absent bodies into “quasi-presences” in a durable form that, unlike a body, resisted decay.
https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0956536122000232
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Prehispanic Mesoamerican elite art and architecture functioned in part to elucidate aspects of the state and cosmos, in particular, the nature of rulership. Ruling groups throughout Mesoamerica appropriated certain natural features... more
Prehispanic Mesoamerican elite art and architecture functioned in part to elucidate aspects of the state and cosmos, in particular, the nature of rulership. Ruling groups throughout Mesoamerica appropriated certain natural features associated with access to otherworldly supernatural power to demonstrate the source and characteristics of legitimate sovereignty. The most salient of these natural features are the cave as underworld entrance, the great tree that links the vertical domains of the cosmos, and the sacred mountain that rises into the heavens. These three pre-eminent cosmic pathways to sacred power are repeated icons in elite art and architecture from the Formative through the Postclassic periods. Furthermore, they are all associated with a specific animal–the serpent–which has the ability to transcend the cosmic levels. However, there are significant differences in how the cosmic pathways are utilized in the Mesoamerica, conforming to a general dichotomy between the highland depersonalized or institutionalized quality of rulership versus personalized depictions of individual rulers more common in the lowlands.
One of the growing wedges dividing American archaeology from its home in anthropology departments is the enormous increase in employment of archaeologists outside of academia, mostly in response to legislation mandating the active... more
One of the growing wedges dividing American archaeology from its home in anthropology departments is the enormous increase in employment of archaeologists outside of academia, mostly in response to legislation mandating the active stewardship of some cultural resources. The practice of professional archaeology has experienced a pronounced shift from what was once primarily an academic endeavor to what is now primarily an applied enterprise. Clark and Anderson (this volume) comment on the intellectual tensions that have long existed between academic and nonacademic archaeologies (the latter usually lumped together as cultural resource management), with CRM archaeology continuing to be stigmatized as good in methods but poor in theory and publication record. These tensions have exacerbated the stresses felt between archaeology and the rest of anthropology. The transformation in archaeological job placement is also impacting academia in terms of the teaching of archaeology. In recent y...
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Estudios recientes han clasificado la diversidad cultural de Mesoamérica según dos estrategias político-económicas opuestas. En la estrategia de red el poder es ejercido por individuos, mientras en la estrategia corporativa el poder es... more
Estudios recientes han clasificado la diversidad cultural de Mesoamérica según dos estrategias político-económicas opuestas. En la estrategia de red el poder es ejercido por individuos, mientras en la estrategia corporativa el poder es compartido entre grupos corporativos grandes. Se piensa que la civilización maya del periodo Clásico desarrolló la estrategia de red, mientras que Teotihuacan aprovechó la estrategia corporativa. Se considera como evidencia para la estrategia de red el énfasis de los mayas en las representaciones de reyes, entierros elaborados y palacios. Sin embargo, la literatura antropológica sobre el tema de personhood demuestra dificultades al distinguir entre individuos y grupos, y por eso surgen dudas acerca de la utilidad de la dicotomía red/corporativa. Examinar cómo los cuerpos de los reyes encarnaron los grupos corporativos (los gobernantes mayas del Clásico personificaron casas reales) revela nuevas ideas para comprender las estrategias políticas mayas.
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Eighteen essays provide an accessible, entertaining look into a system of millennia-old legends and beliefs.Mythology is one of the great creations of humankind. It forms the core of sacred books and reflects the deepest preoccupations of... more
Eighteen essays provide an accessible, entertaining look into a system of millennia-old legends and beliefs.Mythology is one of the great creations of humankind. It forms the core of sacred books and reflects the deepest preoccupations of human beings, their most intimate secrets, their glories, and their infamies.In 1990, Alfredo Lopez Austin, one of the foremost scholars of ancient Mesoamerican thought, began a series of essays about mythology in the Mesoamerican tradition, published in Mexico Indigena. Although his articles were written for general readers, they were also intended to engage specialists. They span a divers subject matter: myths and names, eclipses, stars, left and right, Mexican origins, Aztec incantations, animals, and the incorporation of Christian elements into the living mythologies of Mexico. The title essay relates the Mesoamerican myth explaining why there is a rabbit o the moon's face to a Buddhist image and suggests the importance of the profound mythical concepts presented by each image.The eighteen essays in this volume are unified by their basis in Mesoamerican tradition and provide an accessible, entertaining look into a system of millennia-old legends and beliefs.
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The critical role of social or collective memory in ongoing processes of societal reproduction and transformation is well acknowledged by anthropologists and is being increasingly modeled in archaeological interpretations as well.... more
The critical role of social or collective memory in ongoing processes of societal reproduction and transformation is well acknowledged by anthropologists and is being increasingly modeled in archaeological interpretations as well. Investigating how social memory impacted the materialities and historical trajectories of the Maya civilization has great potential for advancing archaeological methodologies as well as enlarging our knowledge of the Maya. In addition to the wealth of epigraphic, ethnographic, and early historical information available for the Maya, archaeologists are examining enduring architecture, representative imagery, and even mundane artifacts that constitute a “technology of memory” for clues to the interplay of recollection and forgetting in the operation and transformation of Maya societies. This commentary reviews issues and problems in archaeological studies of social memory and addresses the specific prospects for investigating social memory among the pre-Hisp...
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Research Interests: Social Change, Archaeology, Anthropology, Political Economy, Social Identity, and 15 moreMesoamerican Archaeology, Personhood, Agency Theory, Ethnology, Maya Archaeology, Individualism, Maya, Social organization, Agency, Identification, Anthropological Archaeology, Case Study, Mortuary Ritual, House Societies, and Social Organization
Research Interests: Social Change, Archaeology, Anthropology, Political Economy, Social Identity, and 15 moreMesoamerican Archaeology, Personhood, Agency Theory, Ethnology, Maya Archaeology, Individualism, Maya, Social organization, Agency, Identification, Anthropological Archaeology, Case Study, Mortuary Ritual, House Societies, and Social Organization
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For the Maya reality is a unified whole within which every entity shares in the same fundamental animating principle. This is a relational ontology whereby no phenomenon is self-contained but emerges from relations with others, including... more
For the Maya reality is a unified whole within which every entity shares in the same fundamental animating principle. This is a relational ontology whereby no phenomenon is self-contained but emerges from relations with others, including humans and non-humans, in various fields of action. This ontology correlates with a more encompassing “process metaphysic” in which reality is in constant flux, continually “becoming.” The process metaphysic envisioned by philosopher Alfred North Whitehead provides a technical language for analyzing the composition and extension of Maya persons, using the model of personhood developed by anthropologist Marcel Mauss. In life individual Maya persons assembled divergent components endowed by their maternal and paternal ancestors, which were subsequently disassembled upon their deaths. They also assembled non-corporeal components–souls and names–that linked them to existences beyond the physical boundaries and timelines of their bodies. Aspects of ...
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ABSTRACT This article briefly considers early monumental constructions in North America, including Mesoamerica, presenting similarities and differences with the African examples in this special issue. Comparing monumentality in Africa... more
ABSTRACT This article briefly considers early monumental constructions in North America, including Mesoamerica, presenting similarities and differences with the African examples in this special issue. Comparing monumentality in Africa with another major world area expands the potential types of archaeologically visible processes involved in building monumental or quasi-monumental structures, while still recognising their different material and historical trajectories. Such comparison reveals the great variety of types of monumental constructions and of the theoretical approaches that are being engaged to investigate them. What the selected examples of early North American monumentality discussed here have in common, which can be of value for African archaeologists, is attention to building as a form of social practice, rather than to the design forms or functions of built structures, or the intentions of their makers.
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The legend of Ce AcatI Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl—priestking of Tollan, who traveled with his Toltec followers to the far-away Maya city of Chichen Itza in Yucatan—has fascinated scholars and the public alike for over a century. More... more
The legend of Ce AcatI Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl—priestking of Tollan, who traveled with his Toltec followers to the far-away Maya city of Chichen Itza in Yucatan—has fascinated scholars and the public alike for over a century. More significantly, it has indelibly shaped archaeological interpretations in virtually all of greater Mesoamerica from the Classic through the Postclassic periods. This story first emerged out of native historical traditions recorded in the Spanish colonial period deriving from both central Mexico and the Maya ...
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This chapter showcases human engagements with the most primal material of all—earth itself—beginning in the Neolithic period (which began ca. 9000 BCE in the Fertile Crescent), when people relied on domesticated plants and animals for... more
This chapter showcases human engagements with the most primal material of all—earth itself—beginning in the Neolithic period (which began ca. 9000 BCE in the Fertile Crescent), when people relied on domesticated plants and animals for their livelihood. The Neolithic has also been called the Age of Clay because clay and soils were critical
materials for many aspects of daily life. A case study of an important Neolithic settlement, Çatalhöyük, demonstrates how people and clay became interdependent on each other, resulting in an “entanglement” that influenced human actions and values. The Neolithic entanglement with clay, multiplied countless times all over the globe, led to significant historical changes in human society that still reverberate today. This case study also provides general insights for understanding the relationships between humans and materials. How people engage with the potential and actualized properties of materials in production processes is key to understanding the historical trajectories of the impacts of materials on societies.
materials for many aspects of daily life. A case study of an important Neolithic settlement, Çatalhöyük, demonstrates how people and clay became interdependent on each other, resulting in an “entanglement” that influenced human actions and values. The Neolithic entanglement with clay, multiplied countless times all over the globe, led to significant historical changes in human society that still reverberate today. This case study also provides general insights for understanding the relationships between humans and materials. How people engage with the potential and actualized properties of materials in production processes is key to understanding the historical trajectories of the impacts of materials on societies.
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The chapters of this book address the entanglement of humans and minerals, from their extraction to their circulation and valuation. It draws on ethnography, archaeology, and history to understand how "preciousness" must be understood in... more
The chapters of this book address the entanglement of humans and minerals, from their extraction to their circulation and valuation. It draws on ethnography, archaeology, and history to understand how "preciousness" must be understood in relation to complex cultural, political-economic, and semiotic systems of value. This Introduction to Part One is a commentary on three chapters: cellphone scrapping in the US (by Joshua Bell), sapphire mining in Madagascar (by Andrew Walsh), and crystal hunting in the Alps (Gilles Raveneau), all of which involve wresting minerals from their matrixes, which resist human attempts to do so. The risk, even danger, of these engagements with minerals intersects with the marginalized positioning of some miners, but it can play a role in elevating their status.
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Scrappers, Miners, and Hunters. In The Anthropology of Precious Minerals, ed. by Andrew Walsh, Elizabeth Ferry, and Annabel Vallard, pp. 35-42. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2020
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Scrappers, Miners, and Hunters. In The Anthropology of Precious Minerals, ed. by Andrew Walsh, Elizabeth Ferry, and Annabel Vallard, pp. 35-42. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2020
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Review of Michael Bazzett's "The Popol Vuh: A New English Version," comparing it to other English editions and highlighting Bazzett's treatment of aspects of Maya cosmology and creation. Delos: A Journal of Translation and World... more
Review of Michael Bazzett's "The Popol Vuh: A New English Version," comparing it to other English editions and highlighting Bazzett's treatment of aspects of Maya cosmology and creation.
Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature 34(2):285-290.
Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature 34(2):285-290.