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This essay reviews the following works: Ancient Maya Pottery: Classification, Analysis, and Interpretation. Edited by James John Aimers. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. Pp. vii + 293. $79.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780813042367. The Huasteca: Culture, History, and Interregional Exchange. Edited by Katherine A. Faust and Kim N. Richter. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 241. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780806147048. Excavations in Residential Areas of Tikal: Group 7F-1. By William A. Haviland. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2015. Pp. xi + 133. $65.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781934536810. Politics of the Maya Court: Hierarchy and Change in the Late Classic Period. By Sarah E. Jackson. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 248. $29.95 hardback. ISBN: 9780806143415. The Ancient Maya Marketplace: The Archaeology of Transient Space. Edited by Eleanor M. King. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 325. $60.54 cloth. ISBN: 9780816500413. The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak. By Mary Miller and Claudia Brittenham. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 285. $54.05 cloth. ISBN: 9780292744363. Maya Lords and Lordship: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatan, 1350–1600. By Sergio Quezada. Translated by Terry Rugeley. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Pp. ix + 248. $34.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780806144221. Place and Identity in Classic Maya Narratives. By Alexandre Tokovinine. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection/Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 180. $39.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780884023920.

Intensified social complexity emerged in some parts of the lowland Maya region during the Middle Preclassic period (800–300 BC). Though data for Middle Preclassic complexity remain very thin, states may have formed in the Mirador Basin and other areas that exhibit settlement hierarchy, evidence of centralized administration, and specialization. However, these developments have been obscured by a shift from a more cooperative to a more competitive system during the Late Preclassic period (300 BC–AD 200). Unilinear thought has confused this change in organization with a shift toward greater complexity. Such positions incorrectly assume that divine kingship and its accouterments are a baseline for complexity. Judging Middle Preclassic period complexity according to Classic period developments is dubious given the cooperative–competitive oscillations; the tendency in the Maya area for states to have been secondary with longstanding interactions among Chiapas, Pacific Coast, Isthmian, and the Gulf Coast areas; and internal innovations. New data are needed to characterize early complexity in the Maya lowlands on its own terms.

In this paper, I explore the political potentialities the ­women’s collective in the Mam Maya town of Toj Coman Guatemala open when they bring the historical moment of the Spanish invasion into the...

Indigenous pottery traditions and other material aspects of daily life in Yucatan were slow to change during the early colonial period. This conservativism reflects a gradual rate of social change at the community scale as Maya peoples contended with a Franciscan missionization program imposed on them from the mid-16th to 17th centuries. Ceramic assemblages from the rural visita sites of Hunacti, Yacman, and Tichac reveal divergent—and parallel—trajectories of household economies and footprints of social identity during the first century of Spanish rule. The quantity, kind, and distribution of indigenous pottery at these sites refines interpretations of late precontact, contact, and colonial-era ceramic traditions and the broader socioeconomic contexts that affected them. This study joins a robust literature from other places in the Americas that consider the complex manifestations of hybridity and ambivalence in colonial encounters.

The Popol Wuj is one of the most important, commonly studied, and widely circulated Indigenous literary works from colonial Mesoamerica. By some accounts, there are 1,200 editions of the work published in thirty world languages, all of which trace back to a single manuscript—itself a copy of an earlier Mayan work. To protect their work from being destroyed by colonial officials or Inquisitional authorities, the original K’iche’ authors of the Popol Wuj had to embed their ways of knowing in a language and narrative structure that could not be detected by Spanish readers. Each edition of the Popol Wuj therefore helps to uncover different elements of the cosmovisión that is embedded in the text. This article draws from recent collaborative efforts to prepare a digital critical edition of the Popol Wuj based on the editorial standards and scholarly conventions of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). By comparing and contrasting the advantages and drawbacks of this edition relative to printed works and digital editions, we suggest how methods from the digital humanities can shed new light on texts like the Popol Wuj.

In this article we analyze the content and form of 58 stone monuments at the archaeological site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas, Mexico, which recent research confirms was a capital of the Classic Maya polity Sak Tz'i' (“White Dog”). Sak Tz'i' kings carried the title ajaw (“lord”) rather than the epithet k'uhul ajaw (“holy lord”) claimed by regional powers, implying that Sak Tz'i' was a lesser kingdom in terms of political authority. Lacanjá Tzeltal's corpus of sculptured stone, however, is explicitly divergent and indicates the community's marked cultural autonomy from other western Maya kingdoms. The sculptures demonstrate similarities with their neighbors in terms of form and iconographic and hieroglyphic content, underscoring Lacanjá Tzeltal artisans’ participation in the region's broader culture of monumental production. Nevertheless, sculptural experimentations demonstrate not only that lesser courts like Lacanjá Tzeltal were centers of innovation, but that the lords of Sak Tz'i' may have fostered such cultural distinction to underscore their independent political character. This study has broader implications for understanding interactions between major and secondary polities, artistic innovation, and the development of community identity in the Classic Maya world.

The project “The Great Auto de Fe in Santiago de los Caballeros” consisted of an interactive virtual recreation of this historical event that occurred on March 11, 1554 in the city today known as Antigua, Guatemala. A binational research team from Mexico and the U.S. made up of historians, architects and animation engineers, in the space of five weeks, created the historical settings, characters and interactivity necessary to offer the public this immersive experience. The project was presented within the framework of an international exhibition "The images of the Maya gods in the 16th century: The meeting of two worlds,” located at the Centro de Formación para la Cooperación Española in Antigua, the site of a former 17th century Jesuit College. This article presents the details of the workflow used, the social and cultural implications observed, as well as the results of the satisfaction surveys applied to approximately 80% of the users who had access to this experience.

Description of the professional activities and merits of the chief physician of one of the oldest children's hospitals in Moscow - .K.A. Timiryazev Children's Hospital №20 - Maya K. Bukhrashvili, celebrating her anniversary.

In Chiapas, and particularly in the Highland region, few colonial indigenous documents have been found that are similar to those produced by the neighboring Maya peoples of the Guatemala Highlands and the Yucatan Peninsula. The question of whether or not such sources exist is an legitimate one, considering the importance of these testimonies for linking Postclassic historical processes to the development of indigenous societies in the Colonial era. In this respect, the Chiapa Title is an exception. It is a record that gives us a glimpse of the dynamics and conflicts that unfolded between two large political centers: Chiapa and Zinacantan. Thus, the objective of this article is not to reexamine the content of the document, whose classification as a ''title'' is erroneous, but to analyze the nature and form of this fragment and contextualize it in the framework of the legal discourse of the era and the conflicts between the so-called ''pueblos indios''. To this end, we set forth the methodological guidelines used in our examination of the document, as well as reflections on its complex connection to the still fragmentary archeological corpus from the Postclassic period and its transition to the Colonial era.

In her book Maya Cultural Heritage: How Archaeologists and Indigenous Communities Engage the Past (Roman and Littlefield 2016), Patricia McAnany urges archaeologists who work in the Maya region (i [...]

During the 16th century, Spaniards in Yucatán found a significant number of codices, or pieces of rough materials worked to produce the Mayan manuscripts. Most of these writings were burnt by Fray Diego de Landa, but before proceeding with their final destruction, he transcribed the necessary amount of information that centuries later gave Yuri K. Knórozov the clues to decipher the Mayan hieroglyphs. Throughout Spanish dominion, the Maya learned how to write its own language using the Latin alphabet while they forgot its own scripture system. At the beginning of the 19th century a large number of Mayan ruins of ancient cities were discovered, and soon Scholars started to wonder how to read the inscriptions sculpted in its monuments. This did not would occurred until the middle of the 20th century, when Knórozov discover the way to understand Mayan hieroglyphs. En el siglo XVI, los españoles hallaron en Yucatán libros o códices de los mayas cuyos textos estaban escritos en jeroglíficos. El fraile Diego de Landa quemó gran número de estos códices, pero consignó la información en ellos contenida, necesaria para que siglos más tarde Yuri V. Knórosov encontrara la clave para la comprensión de esos textos jeroglíficos. Entretanto, los mayas aprendieron a escribir su lengua con letras del alfabeto latino y lograron expresarse de forma poética y con belleza formal. Durante el siglo XIX se descubrieron las ruinas de las ciudades mayas y comenzaron los intentos por descifrar los textos tallados en sus monumentos de piedra. No sería sino hasta mediados del siglo XX en que finalmente se encontró la clave para acceder al conocimiento semántico de los textos legados por los mayas de la antigüedad.

The role of craft producers in past economies provides information that helps contextualize the role of economies in broader sociopolitical systems. Through this examination of lowland Maya lithic producers in the Late to Terminal Classic period (a.d. 600–890), this article explores the centrality of economic activities in integrating craft producers into larger regional political communities and simultaneously buffering them against regional political conflicts. Through a study of lithic extraction and production at Callar Creek Quarry, Belize, this article examines the relevance of crafting activities in the minimization of economic uncertainty. These data indicate that lithic reduction served to diversify economic activities for lithic producers, and thus minimized economic risk. The use of economic activity to minimize risk provides evidence for the continuity of small-scale householders. This illustrates the independence of economic activities from political frameworks, and suggests that economic diversification serves as a critical stabilizing force for rural Classic-period Maya residents.

This essay explores how stories of Tecum, Maya K’iche’ warrior, and the quetzal can serve as creative entry points to contextualize the racialization and ideological positioning in Guatemala of May...

Global, (trans)national, and local moments frame this article and highlight how white supremacy and modern/colonial processes and logics operate in and through Guatemala, the Chuj nation, and Chuj ...

Archaeologists and epigraphers have long worked in concert across methodological and theoretical differences to study past writing. Ongoing integration of digital technologies into both fields is extending this collaboration’s scope by facilitating rapid information exchange, integration of multiple datasets in digital formats, and accumulation and analysis of large datasets. Recent research by the Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project, for example, has deployed social network analysis to correlate ritual practice, discourse, and material culture with political interactions. Similarly, epigraphers and archaeologists of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Southeast Asia have conducted spatial analysis to illuminate the relationship between economy, human mobility, and land use. Collectively, these examples illustrate how scholars are already using digital technologies for research at larger scales and with more diverse datasets than was previously possible. Moreover, they point to further directions for articulating text, material, and context in future studies of the human past.

Scholars have often criticized Hinduism for being an ecologically unfriendly religion, due to being too “other worldly” and “indifferent” toward the natural world. According to Hindus, they argue that the natural world is simply māyā—“ephemeral,” “illusory,” and “unreal.” The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, for example, features over 60 passages that reduce the material world to nothing more than a passing dream (svapna). (For an extensive discussion on this topic, please refer to my book, Māyā in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Human Suffering and Divine Play (Oxford University Press, 2020)). Meanwhile, other scholars have tried to correct this image by pointing to passages in Indian sacred literature that highlight the divinity of nature, as well as Hindu rituals that involve worshiping the earth, plants, animals, trees, water, sun, and sky. This paper will argue, however, that both the scholarly criticisms and responses are problematic for two reasons. First, these discussions often assume that a religious practitioner’s beliefs concerning the world and environment directly correspond to her attitude toward, and treatment of, the environment. Second, the scholarly criticisms and responses are based on a narrow interpretation and understanding of the concept of māyā. The word “māyā” has held a variety of meanings in Indian sacred literature. This paper focuses on conceptions of māyā found within the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and explores resources in the Bhāgavata that may be useful for developing a Vaiṣṇava ecotheology.

Recent excavations at the site of Gallon Jug, a minor center in northwestern Belize, revealed multiple patolli boards incised into a well-preserved plaster floor in an unvaulted platform. A significant artifact deposit was placed directly on top of the patolli boards. In this report we describe the architectural context, associated artifact deposit, and the patolli boards themselves.

The contents, context, and date of Problematical Deposit 50 bear on the origin, function, and meaning of Teotihuacan stylistic traits in the Southern Maya Lowlands. Archaeological data and material culture research appear to support emulation and adaptation by local rulers and elites, while an actual presence of Teotihuacanos is asserted by epigraphy and iconography. PD 50, the partial contents of a probable Early Classic chamber burial, appears to support local emulation, but an extraordinary pottery vessel, nicknamed here the “Arrival Bowl,” implies direct contact. The chronology and archaeological context demonstrate that the appearance of Teotihuacan stylistic traits at Tikal during the later Early Classic period is functionally distinct from the goods distributed over an interregional interaction sphere of much longer duration in which both Central Mexico and the Maya area participated. Furthermore, together with other features at Tikal, PD 50 suggests that adoption of Teotihuacan ideology by Tikal's elite was eventually met with resistance that contributed to the violence at the end of the Early Classic period that is manifested in the archaeological record.

From Idols to Antiquity: Forging the National Museum of Mexico. By Miruna Achim. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. Pp. ix+ 327. $30.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781496203373. Framing a Lost City: Science, Photography, and the Making of Machu Picchu. By Amy Cox Hall. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017. Pp. xiv + 267. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477313688. Knowing the Day, Knowing the World: Engaging Amerindian Thought in Public Archaeology. By Lesley Green and David R. Green. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2013. Pp.vi + 308. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816530373. Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico: Art, Tourism, and Nation Building under Lazaro Cardenas. By Jennifer Jolly. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018. Pp. xi + 340. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477314203. Nature and Antiquities: The Making of Archaeology in the Americas. Edited by Philip L. Kohl, Irina Podgorny, and Stefanie Ganger. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2014. Pp. ix + 246. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816531127. Our Indigenous Ancestors: A Cultural History of Museums, Science, and Identity in Argentina, 1877–1943. By Carolyne R. Larson. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015. Pp. viii + 221. $79.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780271066967. Maya Cultural Heritage: How Archaeologists and Indigenous Communities Engage the Past. By Patricia A. McAnany. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. Pp. ix + 245. $85.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781442241275. Making Machu Picchu: The Politics of Tourism in Twentieth-Century Peru. By Mark Rice. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. xvi + 233. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469643533.

Inspired by life course and osteobiography approaches, this article explores the life and death of an individual associated with thelakamtitle (“banner” in Colonial Yukatek Maya; thus, a “standard-bearer”), a nonroyal elite of Late Classic period Maya society (AD 600–850). Although these elites are depicted on polychrome vessels and carved monuments, little is known about their life experiences and mortuary practices. The present analysis centers on an individual found at Structure GZ1, a temple with a hieroglyphic stairway, at the Maya archaeological site of El Palmar, Mexico. Using osteological, archaeological, and epigraphic data as different lines of evidence, we examine the relationship of the individual to his affiliated group. At the time of interment, there were a wide array of social, cultural, and political events both shaping and reshaping the body and identities of the individual during a period of political turbulence.

This article provides an environmental history of indigenous resistance during the Caste War, a major Indian revolt that took place in the Yucata?n peninsula between 1847 and 1901. It argues that the evolution of the war was bound to the material conditions of the vast Maya rainforest and the expanding built environment at this area?s commodity frontiers. In this regard, the article advances two main theses. First, that the Maya rainforest was an ideal battleground for the insurgents? guerrilla warfare but extremely challenging for regular military columns. Second, that indigenous subversion and survival rested on both commodity extraction and everyday agricultural practices carried out in the forest. In short, indigenous resistance was built on the ecology and geography of the rainforest at the contested interstices of empires and nations.

In this article, the writings of three prolific writers, Canadian Katherine McKittrick, Canadian-Trinidadian Marlene NourbeSe Philips and American Maya Angelou, intersect at the point of Black liberation and form a singular voice where a reimagined freedom can emerge. The piece begins with McKittrick’s research of Black geographies and what Black freedom as a destination looks like, by way of a fixed Underground Railroad journey to settlements like Ontario’s Negro Creek Road. It further interrogates and reverses the power dynamic between the European colonizer and Black settler, by engaging with Philip’s novel, Harriet’s Daughter. Here, teen protagonist, Margaret, changes the rules of her Underground Railroad game, making it possible for anybody to be a slave. Finally, these ideas are connected to Angelou’s autobiographical accounts of racism in the Deep South and her poetic expressions of hope and freedom through her writings, Caged Bird and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Inequality is an intrinsic element of contemporary societies, with high income disparity impacting everything from life expectancy to violent crime. While inequality in today’s society is complex and multifaceted, the prominence and persistence of inequality that existed throughout human history raise important questions about its broader impacts in the past. In this paper, we discuss the concept of quality of life (QOL) for archaeology and introduce methods for studying multiple dimensions of wealth and well-being in past societies. Using previously published burial data from the ancient Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios, we illustrate this approach employing notions of personhood that treat individuals embedded in complex socio-material relations. These data enable diachronic analyses in the degree and kinds of inequality that characterized this Maya community over a span of nearly 2000 years. We further discuss how these techniques can apply to other units of archaeological analysis and comparative case studies. Tracing the disparities in material wealth, social well-being, and health through time enables a more detailed analysis of the specific contexts and historical processes that gave rise to varying degrees of inequality in the past.

Mortuary rituals at the mission church of Yacman, a sixteenth-century rural Maya community, reflect locally specific variants of cultural hybridity relevant to the comparative study of the archaeology of agency and social change in early Colonial settings of Mesoamerica. Burial practices in this church reveal early adoption of Christian norms, followed by a return to more traditional Pre-Columbian family mausoleum-like interments. At the same time, these Maya mission residents, like many of their contemporaries in the region, co-opted the Christian church as a new community nucleus and as a resting place for ancestors. These findings, with additional evidence for hybridity from domestic contexts, reveal strategic expressions of Colonial Maya identity at Yacman, a modest and remote rural settlement that exercised options to experience social change on its own terms, far from the supervisory gaze of Spanish friars.

Resumen A principios de 1980 se desencadenó una de las más intensas y atroces represiones militares en la larga historia de violencia política de Guatemala. En el marco de las disputas de la Guerra fría los pueblos mayas se volvieron enemigos internos para los proyectos nacionales, por lo que las estrategias de terror se ensañaron con ellos, obligándoles a desplazarse para resguardar su vida física y cultural. Aunque la violencia de Estado marcó una ruptura, experiencias como las del pueblo maya chuj se erigen como ejemplo de resistencia física y simbólica. Con el objetivo de aportar nuevos datos de análisis y reflexión en torno a la violencia ejercida sobre los pueblos mayas en Guatemala, este artículo realiza una reconstrucción histórica de esos acontecimientos retomando aspectos de la memoria histórica y la memoria colectiva del pueblo maya chuj. Para ello se analizan la cualidad de las interacciones políticas, sociales y culturales de los aspectos esenciales que desencadenaron, acompañaron y marcaron el contexto del conflicto armado, el desplazamiento forzado, el resguardo y el refugio en México, así como el retorno y repatriación a Guatemala del pueblo chuj. Abstract At the beginning of 1980, one of the most intense and atrocious military repressions in the long history of political violence of Guatemala was unleashed. Within the framework of the disputes of the Cold War, the Mayan peoples became internal enemies of national projects and, therefore, they were the targets of strategies of terror, forcing them to migrate in order to protect their physical and cultural lives. Although the state violence marked a rupture, experiences such as those of the Mayan Chuj people are an example of physical and symbolic resistance. With the aim of contributing new data for analysis and reflection concerning the violence exerted over the Mayan peoples in Guatemala, this article conducts a historical reconstruction of those events, revisiting aspects of the historical and collective memory of the Mayan Chuj people. To this end, the quality of the political, social and cultural interactions of the essential aspects that unleashed, accompanied and marked the context of the armed conflict, the forced displacement, protection and refuge in Mexico are analysed, as well as the return and repatriation of the Mayan Chuj people to Guatemala. Résumé Au début de 1980, une atroce répression militaire s'est déclenché au Guatemala, un pays qui a connu une longue histoire de violence politique. Dans le cadre des disputes propres à la Guerre froide, les peuples mayas sont devenus ennemis internes des projets nationaux, et c'est pourquoi les stratégies de terreur les ont pris pour cible les obligeant à se déraciner pour sauver leurs vies et leurs cultures. Si bien que la violence de l'État a marqué une rupture, des expériences comme celle du peuple maya chuj s'érigent comme un exemple de résistance physique et symbolique. Dans le dessein d'apporter des nouvelles données pour l'analyse sur la violence exercée contre les peuples mayas au Guatemala, cet article propose une reconstruction historique de ces événements historiques en revenant sur la mémoire historique et la mémoire collective du peuple maya chuj. Pour ce faire, on analyse la qualité des interactions politiques, sociales et culturelles des situations ayant marqué le contexte du conflit armé, le déplacement forcé, la migration au Mexique et le retour du peuple chuj au Guatemala.

The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Classic (ca. a.d. 600–810) and Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000) periods from the archaeological site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala. Comparisons of ceramics from different households across the site reveal that differences in access to decorated and imported ceramics decreased between these periods, suggesting that socioeconomic distinctions leveled out over time. In turn, chemical analysis of ceramics using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument reveals that the site shifted its political-economic networks, with greater ties to the Petexbatun and Usumacinta regions and continued ties with the Upper Belize Valley.

This article summarises the scientific methods used to study past climate in the Maya Lowlands. It also provides an overview of the strategies employed by the ancient Maya to adapt to natural climate change and address issues associated with their growing population. The Maya response to these challenges, including to severe droughts between 800 and 1000 CE, culminated in a societal restructuring sometimes referred to as “the Classic collapse.” The story of the Lowland Maya may serve as a “lesson” going forward, as we confront similar issues in the twenty-first century, e.g., food insecurity, water scarcity, pandemics, and waste management, all in the context of anthropogenic climate change. The ancient Maya experience might provide useful insights, given that the effects of modern-day climate change are already being felt.

Excavators working in a ceremonial plaza group in the Classic period Lowland Maya city of Caracol, Belize, encountered thousands of pieces of chert and obsidian scattered above a royal tomb. A recent analysis of the chert from this context confirms that the assemblage included pieces from each stage of reduction in the production of blades. Taken together, the quantity of both chert and obsidian makes it the largest reported collection of lithic debitage found at the site and provides insight into the techniques of lithic crafters at Caracol. In this article, we consider the sequence of actions involved in the burial of a high-ranking individual and suggest that the layering of flaked stone above the tomb is reminiscent of other reported above-tomb contexts in the Maya Lowlands. Further, a technological analysis of this collection produced results similar to analyses of assemblages typically found in crafting-intensive residential groups. This finding suggests that lithic crafters throughout the city of Caracol donated flaked stone material for funerary events, providing a protective layer and sealing the grave below.

El arte rupestre presente en los riscos de Laguna Mensabak expresa elementos vinculados a la noción y construcción de la persona maya durante el periodo Posclásico. Para ofrecer una aproximación a la manera en que se conceptualizó a la persona en el pasado, primeramente se hace una revisión de los conceptos nativos de persona mediante la información etnográfica y lingüística maya en el marco del modelo antropológico del personhood. Posteriormente, se analizan dos paneles rupestres del Risco Mensabak y se concluye con la proposición de que la noción maya de persona durante el Posclásico en la región era de carácter dividual y permeable.

The clash of cultures during the sixteenth-century Spanish wars for control of the Americas are storied but the clash of ontologies and corresponding ritual practices have defied easy storytelling....