essay
Ritual and ideology
cuello : an early maya community in belize • Cambridge [England] • Published In 1991 • Pages: 204-234
By: Robin, Cynthia, Gerhardt, Juliette Cartwright, Hammond, Norman.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this three-part report, the authors examine burial customs, dedicatory caches and iconography at the Cuello site. Robin and Hammond examine the funerary patterns in the 142 burials at Cuello between the 1200 B.C.-250 A.D., and consider the social, ritual, and ideological factors that might have influenced the patterns. Domestic burials, including males, females, adults, and juveniles, are found throughout the Preclassic period. The most common grave goods were pottery and shell beads. Mortuary assemblages were consistent throughout the period. A usual practice was to place a large dish or bowl over the head, and in later burials, the lap, also. Two mass graves from the Late Preclassic indicate a change to more public and elaborate burials. A total of 31 dedicatory caches were found in association with successive construction of floors and buildings. The caches included offerings of bowls, deer mandibles, jade beads, stingray spines, and a child's skull. The bowls were usually aligned and covered. The iconography at Cuello is limited to small samples of modeled clay effigies, ceramic vessels, and carved pieces of stone, bone, and shell. The human figurines are naturalistic in style.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Burial practices and funerals
- Mourning
- Chronologies and culture sequences
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Preclassic Maya
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2001
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Maya Area
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2000
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1975-1987
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 3200-1850 BP
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Cuello, Belize
- NotesAdditional notes
- Cynthia Robin ; Juliette Cartwright Gerhardt ; Norman Hammond
- Burial practices / Cynthia Robin and Norman Hammond -- Offertory practices: caches / Norman Hammond and Juliette Cartwright Gerhardt -- Art and iconography / Norman Hammond
- For bibliographical references see document number 9: Anonymous
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 90001858
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Mayas--Antiquities