{"title":"Boundary-crossing as resilience: the colonisation of the Maya at Lamanai, Belize in the 16th century","authors":"Guo Peng Chen","doi":"10.1177/14696053231196887","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"During the Colonial Period, Maya communities underwent significant social and religious transformations. This paper investigates how the Maya communities of Lamanai, Belize maintained resilience in the 16th century. By examining ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence at Lamanai, especially zoomorphic effigies at two Christian churches, the study demonstrates that resilience was not solely a product of human agency but also arose from engagement with other species and materials. Drawing influence from process philosophy, this paper redefines resilience as a dynamic and creative process encompassing active adaptation, reorganisation, and transformation. It argues that the ability to cross boundaries is essential to resilience. Maya communities were able to transcend the boundaries of properties, entities, realities, and cultures, which enabled them to re-envision their relationships with others and the world. Boundary-crossing allowed them to navigate complex changes with ease and integrate diverse cultural elements into their identity, ultimately fostering resilience in the face of colonial challenges.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Social Archaeology","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14696053231196887","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
During the Colonial Period, Maya communities underwent significant social and religious transformations. This paper investigates how the Maya communities of Lamanai, Belize maintained resilience in the 16th century. By examining ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence at Lamanai, especially zoomorphic effigies at two Christian churches, the study demonstrates that resilience was not solely a product of human agency but also arose from engagement with other species and materials. Drawing influence from process philosophy, this paper redefines resilience as a dynamic and creative process encompassing active adaptation, reorganisation, and transformation. It argues that the ability to cross boundaries is essential to resilience. Maya communities were able to transcend the boundaries of properties, entities, realities, and cultures, which enabled them to re-envision their relationships with others and the world. Boundary-crossing allowed them to navigate complex changes with ease and integrate diverse cultural elements into their identity, ultimately fostering resilience in the face of colonial challenges.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Social Archaeology is a fully peer reviewed international journal that promotes interdisciplinary research focused on social approaches in archaeology, opening up new debates and areas of exploration. It engages with and contributes to theoretical developments from other related disciplines such as feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism, social geography, literary theory, politics, anthropology, cognitive studies and behavioural science. It is explicitly global in outlook with temporal parameters from prehistory to recent periods. As well as promoting innovative social interpretations of the past, it also encourages an exploration of contemporary politics and heritage issues.