私たちは地域や言語、時代区分により細分化できる社会・文化領域を数千年に亘ってひとまとめに「マヤ文明」としています。地域ごとに民族や地域言語の異なる無数の小都市が分立するような社会ながら、マヤ人は石造建築の技術を持って都市を建設し、複雑な農業を行い、高い芸術性を持って文字・書記体系を高度に発達させ、暦や数学、天体観測などの知識を書き記しました。マヤ人の自己同一性、政治機構あるいは政治風土と呼べるもの、そして世界観といったテーマに挑みます。
The Maya forged the greatest society in the history of the ancient Americas, and one of the great societies in human history. Long before contact with Europeans, Maya communities built spectacular cities, created complex agricultural systems, mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded extraordinary knowledge in calendrics, mathematics, and astronomy. All that was achieved without area-wide centralized control. For there was never a single, unified Maya state or empire, but always numerous, evolving ethnic groups speaking dozens of distinct Mayan languages. The people we call "Maya" never thought of themselves as such; so what was their self-identity and how did Maya civilization come to be "invented"? Yet something definable, unique, and endlessly fascinating-what we call Maya culture-has clearly existed for millennia.
With the Maya subdivided in so many ways-geographical, linguistic, and chronological-the pursuit of what made the Maya "the Maya" is all the more important. In this Very Short Introduction, Restall and Solari explore the themes of Mayan self-identity, polity or city-state political culture, and cosmovision and the world beyond.
Chapter 1 Maya Genesis
Chapter 2 The Divine King
Chapter 3 The Writing Rabbit
Chapter 4 A Day in the Life
Chapter 5 Maya "Mysteries"
Chapter 6 Conquests
Chapter 7 Colonizations
Further Reading
Index
ISBN : 9780190645021
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