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Water, Maize, Salt, and Canoes: An Iconography of Economics at Late Preclassic Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Julia Guernsey*
Affiliation:
Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin, 2301 San Jacinto Blvd. D1300, Austin, TX 78712-1421([email protected])

Abstract

Images on Late Preclassic (300 B.C.–A.D. 250) monuments from Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico, featuring canoe scenes, maize deities, and water gods, have long been interpreted as representing mythic passages. While significant, such interpretations neglect other aspects of the scenes, including environmental and socioeconomic concerns that revolve around rain, subsistence, and water transport. By contextualizing these images and linking them to recent archaeological investigations that illuminate aspects of the Late Preclassic economy of Izapa, I argue that the scenes strategically situated economic activities— maize agriculture, the trade and transport of goods in canoes, even salt production—within a mythic framework. The images constitute an artistic program that entwined mythic tales, industries of salt production, and traditions of water navigation and that phrased them as part of a system of social order during a period of incipient state formation.

Resumen

Resumen

Las imágenes en algunos monumentos del período Preclásico tardío (300 a.C.–d.C. 250) del sitio de Izapa, Chiapas, México – especialmente en las estelas que tienen escenas con canoas, deidades de maíz y deidades de agua – han sido interpretadas por mucho tiempo como pasajes míticos. Aunque estas interpretaciones son importantes para entender la iconografía, no consideran otros aspectos sobresalientes de las escenas, incluyendo elementos que pertenecen a temas más medioambientales y socioeconómicos, particularmente los relacionados a la lluvia, la subsistencia y el transporte acuático. A través de la contextualización de estas imágenes y su vinculación a las investigaciones arqueológicas recientes que muestran aspectos de la economía de Izapa del período Preclásico tardío, sugiero que las escenas situaron estratégicamente actividades económicas -el cultivo del maíz, el comercio y el transporte de bienes en canoas, incluso la producción de sal- dentro de un marco mitológico. Las imágenes dan testimonio de un programa artístico y novelesco que entrelazó cuentos de batallas épicas entre los dioses del maíz y la lluvia, una industria próspera de la producción de sal y una tradición vital de navegación acuática, todo expresado como parte de un sistema de orden social organizado bajo los auspicios de un rey durante un período de formación inicial del estado.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2016

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