- Philosopher Kings: The Art & Culture of the Maya

Catalog description

An introduction to the art and architecture of the Maya from 500 BCE to the Early Colonial Period. Students will focus specifically on how changes in visual culture reflect larger religious and political transformations in Maya culture and social complexity. Issues of cultural memory and myth will also be examined to understand indigenous conceptualizations of history and cosmology, and how these shaped social, ritual, and political orders. To explore these topics and others the course will draw on a wide range of sources from pre-Columbian iconography, architecture, and epigraphy to Colonial and modern ethnographic documents.