Description

Book Synopsis
The first comprehensive study of ancient Maya death rites in twenty years.

Table of Contents
  • A Note on Orthography
  • Acknowledgments
  • Chapter 1: Celebrations for the Dead
    • Anthropology and Death Rituals
    • The Classic Maya Case
    • Methodological Concerns
    • Kingship and the Ancestors
  • Chapter 2: Death and the Afterlife in the Lowlands
    • Earth
    • Maize
    • Mortality
    • Writing Death
    • The Self and the Soul
    • Breaths of Life and Death
    • Way
    • To the Afterlife
    • Celestial Bodies and Maize Gods
  • Chapter 3: Royal Funerals
    • Waiting for Interment
    • Gravemakers
    • Tombs as Underworld Surfaces
    • Tombs as Caves
    • Tombs as Houses
    • Timing and the Ritual Process
    • Embalming and Processing
    • Dressing and Bundling the Corpse
    • Painting
    • Arranging the Body, Arranging the Furniture
    • Sealing the Tomb
  • Chapter 4: Death and Landscape
    • K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'
    • Lowland Founders and Local Variations
    • Cults of Personality
    • Bird Jaguar IV
    • Gods and Orchards at Palenque
    • Souls within Buildings
    • Ancestor Shrines
  • Chapter 5: Entering the Tombs of the Classic Maya Kings
    • Patterns of Reentry at Piedras Negras
    • Fire in the Motmot Burial
    • Fire and History at Tonina
    • Family Affairs
    • False Reentry
    • Painting, Drilling, and Bone Peeling
    • The Portable Dead
  • Chapter 6: The Dead King and the Body Politic
    • Royal Funerals: Public or Private?
    • Bodies and Monuments
    • Corpses, Souls, and Mourners in Transition
  • Guide to Appendixes
  • Appendix 1: Burial Structures and Contexts
  • Appendix 2: Body Preparations and Funerary Activities
  • Appendix 3: Grave Goods
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index

Death and the Classic Maya Kings

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    A Hardback by James L. Fitzsimmons

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      Publisher: University of Texas Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 15/01/2009
      ISBN13: 9780292718906, 978-0292718906
      ISBN10: 029271890X

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The first comprehensive study of ancient Maya death rites in twenty years.

      Table of Contents
      • A Note on Orthography
      • Acknowledgments
      • Chapter 1: Celebrations for the Dead
        • Anthropology and Death Rituals
        • The Classic Maya Case
        • Methodological Concerns
        • Kingship and the Ancestors
      • Chapter 2: Death and the Afterlife in the Lowlands
        • Earth
        • Maize
        • Mortality
        • Writing Death
        • The Self and the Soul
        • Breaths of Life and Death
        • Way
        • To the Afterlife
        • Celestial Bodies and Maize Gods
      • Chapter 3: Royal Funerals
        • Waiting for Interment
        • Gravemakers
        • Tombs as Underworld Surfaces
        • Tombs as Caves
        • Tombs as Houses
        • Timing and the Ritual Process
        • Embalming and Processing
        • Dressing and Bundling the Corpse
        • Painting
        • Arranging the Body, Arranging the Furniture
        • Sealing the Tomb
      • Chapter 4: Death and Landscape
        • K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'
        • Lowland Founders and Local Variations
        • Cults of Personality
        • Bird Jaguar IV
        • Gods and Orchards at Palenque
        • Souls within Buildings
        • Ancestor Shrines
      • Chapter 5: Entering the Tombs of the Classic Maya Kings
        • Patterns of Reentry at Piedras Negras
        • Fire in the Motmot Burial
        • Fire and History at Tonina
        • Family Affairs
        • False Reentry
        • Painting, Drilling, and Bone Peeling
        • The Portable Dead
      • Chapter 6: The Dead King and the Body Politic
        • Royal Funerals: Public or Private?
        • Bodies and Monuments
        • Corpses, Souls, and Mourners in Transition
      • Guide to Appendixes
      • Appendix 1: Burial Structures and Contexts
      • Appendix 2: Body Preparations and Funerary Activities
      • Appendix 3: Grave Goods
      • Notes
      • References
      • Index

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