Dissertation: Mayan Traditions at Piedras Negras

Mark Child先生将在Takeshi Inomata博士的指导下为他的博士论文收集数据。他的研究目标是重建史前玛雅人的仪式实践，并检查古代和后接触时期之间潜在的连续性。虽然早期的西班牙手稿提供了玛雅人生活的多个方面的广泛描述，但不确定这些描述在多大程度上受到欧洲人先入为主的偏见。根据西班牙人的说法，玛雅人的世界观包括热/冷二分法，据说，玛雅人相信良好的健康源于两者的适当平衡。他们认为疾病是“冷”的结果，为了治疗这种疾病，人们进入仪式式的汗浴，以增加体内“热”的量。正如查尔德博士所指出的，这个概念与欧洲的“四种幽默”信仰惊人地接近，有理由怀疑它在史前玛雅时代是否存在。通过对危地马拉Piedras Negras遗址的考古发掘，Child先生将试图重建汗浴仪式。虽然在其他中美洲遗址中也有几个汗浴的例子，但Piedras Negras的数量是独一无二的。目前已确定的有8座，迄今为止的挖掘表明，它们的顺序建造跨越了这个主要遗址的占领。然而，相邻的房间似乎是在相对较短的时间内建成的。根据他之前在现场的工作，查尔德先生认为有可能重建汗浴是如何使用的，因为它们含有大量的文物，包括精心制作的黑曜石（火山玻璃刀片）和浮石。“热/冷”只是归因于史前玛雅的许多二分法之一，通过对出土遗骸的仔细测绘、挖掘和绘图，应该有可能确定汗浴的活动和性别使用是沿着这样的界线划分的。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为许多中美洲考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它将揭示传统随时间的长期连续性，并有助于确定特定概念是否主要是历史性质的，还是反映了人类思想的更基本方面。该奖项还将有助于培养一名有前途的青年科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Takeshi Inomata, Mr. Mark Child will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. The goal of his research is to reconstruct prehistoric Mayan ritual practice and examine the potential continuity between ancient and post contact periods. While early Spanish manuscripts provide extensive descriptions of multiple aspects of Mayan life, it is uncertain to what extent these are biased by European preconceptions. According to Spanish accounts the Mayan worldview included the hot/cold dichotomy and, supposedly, Mayans believed that good health resulted from an appropriate balance of the two. Illness, they believed was the result of a preponderance of "cold" and to remedy this people entered ritual sweat baths to increase the amount of "hot" in their body. As Dr. Child notes, this concept is surprisingly close to the European "four humors" belief and there is reason to doubt its prehistoric Mayan existence. Through archaeological excavation at the site of Piedras Negras in Guatemala Mr. Child will attempt to reconstruct sweat bath ritual.While several examples of sweat baths are known from other Middle American sites, Piedras Negras is unique in the number it contains. Eight have been identified and excavation to date indicates that their sequential construction spans the occupation of this major site. However adjoining rooms appear to have been built over a relatively short period of time. Based on his prior work at the site, Mr. Child believes it is possible to reconstruct how sweat baths were used since they contain a wealth of artifacts including carefully crafted obsidian (volcanic glass blades) and pumice stones. "Hot/cold" is only one of many dicotomys attributed to the prehistoric Maya and through careful mapping, excavation and plotting of excavated remains it should be possible to determine where activities and gendered use of the sweatbaths were divided along such lines.This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many Middle Americanist archaeologists. It will shed light on the long-term continuity of tradition over time and help determine whether specific concepts are primarily historical in nature or reflect more basic aspects of the human mind. This award will also assist in training a promising young scientist.