Descripción:
During the past century of systematic Maya archaeology two great currents of scholarship have developed. The most venerable and traditionally most powerful has its sources in art history and in an archaeological tradition committed to description and classification. Its products include many of the classic publications in Maya studies, including those of Maudslay (1889-1902), Morley (1920, 1935, 1937-38), Spinden (1913), and Thompson (1950, 1962). Beginning modestly in the 1950s and swelling to a powerful tributary in its own right in the 1960s is another current: behavioral anthropology and human ecology.

Both have been considerably commingled in their practitioners and in their goals, especially in terms of cultural-historical reconstruction. Both have depended heavily on many of the same resources, particularly ethnohistoric accounts and ethnographic studies of recent Maya and other Mesoamerican populations. The fruitful confluence of these two streams has produced spectacular insights into the nature of ancient Maya society that would have astounded Maudslay or Morley, as well as a whole new generation of stimulating debates. The data and interpretations in this book, which focus on the House of the Bacabs at Copan and its context, are recent products of this interaction.
- From Introduction


CONTENTS:

List of Figures......IV

Introduction, David Webster......1

1. The House of the Bacaba: Its Social Context, David Webster......5

2. The Sculptural Façade of Structure 9N-82: Content, Form, and Significance, William L. Fash, Jr. ......41

3. The House of the Bacabas: An Iconographic Analysis, Claude F. Baudez......73

4. The Inscription on the Sculptured Bench of the House of the Bacaba, Berthold Riese......82

5. Household, Lineage, and State at Eighth-Century Copan, Honduras, William T. Sanders......89

Epilogue, David Webster......106

Appendex: The Original Location, Date, and Possible Implications of Alter W’, David Sebster......108

Bibliography......113