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Mortuary Sealing Among the Maya

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The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place

Abstract

In the Maya region, covering architecture and human remains in white marl has traditionally been interpreted as an act of defacement that accompanied some termination rituals. Recently, researchers have shown that such covering was a form of ritualized wrapping or sealing and could occur in the absence of other signs of desecration, as a part reverential termination. Here, I build on this work to argue that such sealing is not necessarily part of termination rites at all and could occur independently in mortuary contexts. I also suggest that such sealing is a distinct subset of other types of mortuary wrapping. Decoupling sealing from termination and exploring its relationship to other forms of wrapping helps refine our understanding of mortuary and ritual categories in the Maya area.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is no universally agreed-upon definition as to how to discern the recently deceased from more remote ancestors, but the relationship between the living and the deceased (recently, remotely, and perhaps fictively) was a fertile locus for social and political negotiation.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Gabriel Wrobel for inviting my participation in this volume. Dr. Estella Weiss-Krejci provided a thoughtful review and cogent criticisms that improved this chapter. All of the members of Proyecto Maya Colonial, in particular Dr. Leslie Cecil and the faculty and students of CUDEP in Guatemala, notably Lics. Romulo Sánchez Polo, Rolando Torres, Ivo Romero, and Mara Reyes made valuable contributions to this project. This project could not have been possible without cooperation from members of IDAEH in Guatemala, in particular Lics. Boris Aguilar and Sheila Flores. Dr. George Stuart kindly gave permission to reproduce several of images I used in this chapter. Carmen Arendt and Felix Duncan provided unflagging support, for which I am most grateful. Funding was provided in part by NSF doctoral dissertation improvement grant BCS 0125311. Any remaining errors are solely mine.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, East Tennessee State University, 37614, Johnson City, TN, USA

    William N. Duncan

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  1. William N. Duncan
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Correspondence to William N. Duncan .

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Gabriel D. Wrobel

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Duncan, W. (2014). Mortuary Sealing Among the Maya. In: Wrobel, G. (eds) The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0479-2_10

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