Ancient Maya Women - (Gender and Archaeology) by Traci Ardren (Paperback)

About the Book

Edited volume tracing the state of knowledge of gender in Ancient Mayan society.

Book Synopsis

Edited volume tracing the state of knowledge of gender in Ancient Mayan society.

Review Quotes

Deftly edited by Traci Ardren, Ancient Maya Women is a fascinating compilation... A very highly recommended compilation of amazing discoveries and extrapolations of a long-ago culture-and an essential, seminal, core addition to Mayan Studies academic reference collections.

At a time when social anthropologists are tending to abandon ethnographic criteria of objectivity and scope of sampling, these papers remind us of the importance of quantitative evidence and repetitive observations in favor of, as well as a supplement to, imaginative interpretations.... It is a welcome addition to feminist studies in critiquing androcentric assumptions that guided both the creators of texts, imagery, and sculpture, as well as ethnohistorical and ethnographic observers over the five hundred years of contact and assimilation.

This volume provides a multidimensional view of women's activities and identities, based on diverse theoretical and methodological approaches that address severe gaps in our knowledge and inspire new questions.

With a foreword from the eminent ethnographer, June Nash, and a broad concluding essay by W. Ashmore, Dr. Ardren introduces 10 thematic essays and case studies of archaeological, epigraphic and historical evidence for women's work and symbolic roles in the prehispanic period (with one paper venturing into the Colonial period too). Much of the evidence is from aristocratic contexts but four of the papers deal with domestic, agricultural and funerary evidence for ordinary people.

About the Author

Traci Ardren is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Miami. She codirects the Pakbeh Regional Economy Project centered at the ancient Maya trading city of Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico. Her research has focused on gender, iconography, architecture and other forms of symbolic representation in the archaeological record.