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From Discard to Divination: Demarcating the Sacred Through the Collection and Curation of Discarded Objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Linda A. Brown
Linda A. Brown*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology,Campus Box 233, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0233
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Abstract

The artifact assemblage recovered in a sealed undisturbed context inside a ceremonial building (Structure 12) in the ancient village of Joya de Cerén (A. D. 600), a Classic Period site located on the Southeast Maya Periphery, has been particularly enigmatic and difficult to interpret. This assemblage consists of small portable worn objects, some of which show physical and chemical damage consistent with having been previously discarded prior to being carefully curated in a ceremonial building, suggesting that they were collected in antiquity. A review of the ethnographic literature reveals that contemporary Maya ritual practitioners routinely collect small portable objects, many of which are Pre-Columbian in origin, as personal sacra. This practice of “ritual collecting” serves multiple purposes including: 1) the acquisition of divining tools, 2) personal verification of divine election, and 3) evidence to one's community of supernatural sanction for a change in social status. Through engaging in this practice, social actors create and manipulate power in local ritual systems that exist outside of the control of contemporary institutionalized religions. It is suggested that collecting may represent an alternative avenue to supernatural power for past, as well as present-day, rural ritual practitioners.

Resumen

Resumen

La zona de Joya de Cerén, ubicada en el valle de Zapotitán en El Salvador, fue una villa agrícola floreciente durante el período clásico en la Periferia Maya del Sudeste (Sheets 1992). Alrededor del año 600 A. C., se abrió un paso volcánico debajo del cercano Río Sucio y sepultó a la villa debajo de cinco metros de ceniza. La erupción inesperada precipitó el abandono inmediato de la comunidad, dejando grupos virtualmente completos de artefactos en su contexto de uso, almacenamiento o desecho. Por lo tanto, Cerén proporciona un caso ideal para el examen de procesos de formación cultural que podrían tener un impacto en los archivos arqueológicos. La evidencia de Cerén sugiere que los practicantes precolombinos de rituales en la villa que trabajaban en un edificio ceremonial (Estructura 12) coleccionaban y curaban objetos encontrados en contextos de desecho. Una revisión de la literatura etnográfica revela que coleccionar era una práctica común entre los practicantes rituales contemporáneos en las tierras altas y bajas de los Mayas. Desde una perspectiva émica, los artículos coleccionados y cuidadosamente curados en grupos personales, en altares y en santuarios comunitarios o de linaje, pueden verse como herramientas importantes con las cuales los practicantes rituales acceden a lo supernatural. En este trabajo, sugiero que la tendencia a <<coleccionar ritualmente>> es parte de una actividad clave para los practicantes rituales de la villa ya que al principio sirve para identificar a individuos que participan en la iniciación y posteriormente se usa como evidencia continua de la sanción supernatural de un estado sagrado. Por sobre todo, el coleccionar se usa como una avenida hacia el poder religioso dentro de los sistemas rituales locales y existe fuera del control de las religiones contemporáneas institucionalizadas. El coleccionar también podría representar un camino alternativo hacia el poder para los practicantes rituales tanto del pasado como de nuestros días.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2000 , pp. 319 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2000

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