Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm
338
Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm
338eBook
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Overview
Complex and time-consuming to produce, iron-ore mirrors stand out among Prehispanic artifacts for their aesthetic beauty, their symbolic implications, and the complexity and skill of their assembly. Manufactured Light presents the latest archaeological research on these items, focusing on the intersection of their significance and use and on the technological aspects of the manufacturing processes that created them.
The volume covers the production, meaning, and utilization of iron-ore mirrors in various Mesoamerican communities. Chapters focus on topics such as experimental archaeology projects and discussions of workshops in archaeological contexts in the Maya, Central Mexico, and northwest Mexico regions. Other chapters concentrate on the employment and ideological associations of these mirrors in Prehispanic times, especially as both sacred and luxury items. The final chapters address continuities in the use of mirrors from Prehispanic to modern times, especially in contemporary indigenous communities, with an emphasis on examining the relationship between ethnographic realities and archaeological interpretations.
While the symbolism of these artifacts and the intricacy of their construction have long been recognized in archaeological discussions, Manufactured Light is the first synthesis of this important yet under-studied class of material culture. It is a must-read for students and scholars of Mesoamerican archaeology, ethnography, religion, replicative experimentation, and lithic technology.
Contirbutors include: Marc G. Blainey, Thomas Calligaro, Carrie L. Dennett, Emiliano Gallaga, Julie Gazzola, Sergio Gómez Chávez, Olivia Kindl, Brigitte Kovacevich, Achim Lelgemann, José J. Lunazzi, John J. McGraw, Emiliano Melgar, Joseph Mountjoy, Reyna Solis, and Karl Taube.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781607324089 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University Press of Colorado |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 338 |
| File size: | 19 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Emiliano Gallaga is a Mexican archaeologist interested in northwest Mexico and experimental and historical archaeology. He is the director of the Escuela de Antropología e Historia del Norte de México (EAHNM) INAH, Chihuahua.
Marc G. Blainey is a research fellow at the Trent University Archaeological Research Centre (TUARC). He received a PhD in anthropology from Tulane University and served as a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. His research and publications bridge the anthropology of religion, medical anthropology, cognitive archaeology, and consciousness studies.
Read an Excerpt
Manufactured Light
Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm
By Emiliano Gallaga M., Marc G. Blainey
University Press of Colorado
Copyright © 2016 University Press of ColoradoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60732-408-9
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
EMILIANO GALLAGA M.
"Here is the Mirror of Galadriel," she said....... "What shall we look for, and what shall we see?" asked Frodo....... "[T]he mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold. What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell. Do you wish to look?"
(Tolkien 1991: 381)
In our daily life, it is not a surprise to see our reflection in a mirror early in the morning and identify that it is our image reproduced by this solid, reflective surface. For most people, one's reflection in a mirror is unremarkable, as we do not attribute a divine quality to seeing our double image. However, while this daily act is mundane for most of us today, reflected images were viewed as quite profound by many ancient humans around the globe, and by pre-Hispanic indigenous people in particular.
Since the beginning of time, humans have been so mesmerized and/or challenged by their physical environment that there has always been a need to understand it, to own it, and to transform it. This need applies not only to our surroundings but to ourselves as well. We like to know who and what we are, change the way we look and the things we own, and to make or acquire things that say something about us and about the community to which we belong. This need for knowledge and transformation is an essential spark for the cultural development of the human animal, creating a universe of objects that help us understand and change our environment into a familiar landscape. Among that great universe of items, mirrors or reflecting surfaces have occupied an important place in the human mind. Pendergrast (2003: 13) states that "the ability to recognize themselves in the mirror seems peculiar to superior primates." Humans are likewise captivated by the reproduction of one's own image in a mirror or other reflecting surface. Accordingly, the ancient Indus, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Inca, Aztec, and Maya civilizations created objects that fulfill the need to have and control reflective surfaces (Albenda 1985; Baboula 2000; Beasley 1949; Bulling 1960; Cameron 1979; Cammann 1949; Lilyquist 1979; Pendergrast 2003). Of course, only the gods would know exactly what the ancients would think about the parallel worlds glimpsed through the shiny surfaces of mirrors, an archaeological mystery about which we can now only make educated guesses.
Complex and time-consuming to produce, mirrors and other reflective objects made of hematite, obsidian, or pyrite material stand out within the universe of pre-Hispanic artifacts for their aesthetics, their beauty, and their complexity of production (Blainey 2007; Gallaga 2001, 2009; Healy and Blainey 2011; Pereira 2008; Salinas 1995). Yes, these artifacts were probably also used for vanity purposes in domestic contexts, to see the perfection or imperfections of the onlooker's facial features or to see what cosmetic or jewelry to use. But this was not the only purpose or objective to create and own a mirror. Due to their capacity for projecting an inverse reflection of the spectator's reality (where right becomes left and vice versa), mirrors were used as divinatory or magical portals to communicate between parallel dimensions, worlds, or realities (figure 1.1). With this idea in mind, mirrors were also endowed with the capacity to be a means of contact with the ancestors and more importantly with the gods. It is not hard to imagine complex ceremonial procedures accompanied by chants and dances in secluded locations, perhaps involving fasting and/or the ingestion of psychoactive substances. Such rituals might have been required in order to prepare and train the body and mind to be in contact with the spirits; with the help of the mirror, one presumes that such spirits' advice, guidance, or support was sought out when making important decisions about a course of action to follow. Whether as a ruler, adviser, priest, shaman, or just a brujo or curandero, the individual or group of individuals who performed these types of actions, envisioned as necessary tasks for the common good of the community, would thereby have acquired great prestige or social position.
Although past studies have acknowledged the difficulty of manufacturing these mirrors as well as their importance as objects of prestige and magical-religious worldview, very little research has been carried out concerning how ancient iron-ore mirrors were constructed. Dealing with the issue of mirror production, Emiliano Gallaga (chapter 2, this volume) presents preliminary results of an experimental archaeological project that has the aim of reproducing the operative chain of pyrite mirror manufacture using possible pre-Hispanic tools and techniques. Preliminary results illustrate that this process could take an average of 800–1200 person-hours, representing between 100 and 150 working days for a single person to make an encrusted pyrite mirror. Melgar, Gallaga, and Solis (chapter 3, this volume) also tackle this important question, and present a technological analysis of the manufacturing traces that were applied on different pyrite inlays, using experimental archaeology and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This methodology allows the authors to identify the lithic tools employed in the production of mirrors with great accuracy and to distinguish different technological styles — fundamental advancements for the study of mirrors, their uses, and the definition of Mesoamerica's artifact assemblage.
In the social realm the possession of iron-ore items would most certainly bestow a high status or social distinction on the owner, not only due to the object's magical-religious connotations, but also for their rarity and cost of manufacturing (Blainey 2007; Gallaga 2001; Pereira 2008; Sugiyama 1992; Taube 1992). In general, items that provide a reflection of an image were not a common thing in ancient times, and yet they were conspicuously present among pre-Hispanic elites. Although pre-Hispanic artisans knew about and used metals, the use of metals was not as vital as that of other materials. Thus, the recognition of mirror craftsmanship is greater if we note the fact that the makers of mirrors almost completely lacked metal tools to fashion the finished mirrors. Due to both their highly symbolic/religious meaning/use and the cost of manufacture, we can infer that mirrors were not a common item to be found on the local markets at the plazas of pre-Hispanic communities. On the contrary, the production of mirrors was most likely restricted and controlled by elites. The craftspeople who made the mirrors would equally enjoy some prestige or recognition not only among the pre-Hispanic elites, but also among fellow artisans as well. As an example, regarding pyrite production at the site of Cancuén, Guatemala, Brigitte Kovacevich (chapter 4, this volume) addresses the techniques and social implications of producing pyrite artifacts. Kovacevich make the case that these objects could have represented high-status goods, ritual paraphernalia, gifts, inalienable possessions, and symbols of individual and collective identities among Cancuén Maya elites. A similar approach is followed by Gazzola, Gómez Chávez, and Calligaro (chapter 5, this volume) for the majestic site of Teotihuacan. The authors describe the archaeological context of thousands of objects, some of them pyrite items, deposited as apparent offerings through the ritual closure of a tunnel under the Feathered Snake Temple, the most important building in the site's Ciudadela Complex. In addition to the lack of prior research on mirror manufacture, other general problems such as lack of archaeological work in various cultural areas of ancient Mexico, lack of information about workshops for mirror production, the incorrect identification of these objects, the looting of sites, and the lack of reporting and publication of archaeological projects, makes for a very poor scholarly record of such materials. Some of these issues are addressed by Gazzola et al. (chapter 5, this volume) with their description of lapidary workshops at La Ventilla, located to the south of the old city. The remains of these workshops enable the study of raw materials, cut waste, stone and bone tools, a few finishing objects, and abrasives for understanding and interpreting the techniques employed in the manufacture of pyrite and hematite mirrors at Teotihuacan.
As a child, I remember a scene from a "western" film I saw in which Apache Indians used mirrors to communicate the arrival of the cavalry in the desert landscape of Arizona. This capacity for reflection, whereby sunlight can be caught or reflected, makes mirrors appear as an evocation of divine or diabolic qualities; in fact, as acknowledged by Lunazzi (chapter 6, this volume), some researchers claim that ancient iron-ore mirrors can set fires if one knows how to use them (see also Ekholm 1972, 1973). One can imagine the effect that the sudden appearance of a fire with the use of a mirror would have among an astonished audience: is the supernatural spirit of the sun trapped in the mirror? Is it the power of the mirror's holder that commands the sun to shine inside the mirror? Although these are not the questions Lunazzi addresses, he does present his experimental results on the reflective capacity of pre-Hispanic mirrors, the real possibility of using mirrors as communication devices, and the renowned ability of these objects to ignite fires. In a somewhat different approach to the concept of lustrous items as solar reflectors, Joseph Mountjoy presents the description of 49 iron-pyrite ornaments. Recovered from his excavations made between 2001 and 2005 in three Middle Pre-Classic period cemeteries in the Mascota valley of Jalisco, Mexico, Mountjoy dates these objects in the range of 1000 to 700 BC, among the oldest such items yet found in Mesoamerica (chapter 7, this volume). Mountjoy contends that these artifacts played a symbolic role in early agricultural societies that were ritually focused on three interrelated factors for survival: sun, water, and fertility, factors that are also symbolized in ornaments of emerald green jadeite and transparent quartz. In chapter 8 (this volume), Achim Lelgemann presents material, technical, and morphological aspects of archaeological mirror remains recovered from an elite burial inside the pyramid of the Citadel patio compound at the site of La Quemada, Zacatecas, dating to the Late or Terminal Classic period (eighth and ninth centuries AD). Lelgemann discusses these mirrors' mortuary-ceremonial contexts, as well as both their functions (as status markers, divinatory devices, lighters) and their socio-ideological dimensions (cosmograms, sun-fire cult, and shamanism) as compared to similar finds in Mesoamerica and the Greater Southwest.
But how did the peoples of the ancient New World actually conceptualize iron-ore artifacts we now call "mirrors"? As presented by Marc Blainey (chapter 9, this volume), it is reasonable to construe these iron-ore mirrors as evidence for shamanistic practices in ancient Maya society. Blainey uses archaeological and iconographic data, as well as ethnographic information from the modern Maya, to illustrate what he calls the "reflective surface complex" in Maya ritual. Similarly, John J. McGraw (chapter 10, this volume) follows Blainey's research path, but with the little twist of focusing on crystals as reflective surfaces that are important to the modern Maya. As we know, crystals have long played a role in Maya ritual. In particular, McGraw demonstrates how divination makes use of crystals to render a series of visual signs that can be interpreted by the diviner as communications from supernatural beings.
Concerning research from areas outside Mesoamerica, Carrie Dennett and Marc Blainey (chapter 11, this volume) address the issue of iron-ore "mirrors" found in Lower Central America, most likely of Maya origin, and how these prestige items arrived at such distant locales. The authors argue for a concept of developing "peer elite" relationships and reciprocity in the form of "gifting," instead of a focus on economic trade factors, which appears to parallel more general sociopolitical and socioeconomic restructuring occurring simultaneously in both areas. Of course, the Maya are not the only people known to use reflective objects as a means of seeing or communicating with other realms, but, unfortunately, there is not much research about the magic/ritual use of reflective surfaces among other Mexican Indian communities. In addressing this gap in the literature, Olivia Kindl's contribution on the ritual use of mirrors among the Huichol Indians of Mexico's West Sierra Madre (chapter 12, this volume) allows the reader to gain a different perspective on the use of these items by a living Indian group outside the Mesoamerican realm. The fact that Kindl had the luxury of speaking with shamans or curanderos who still use mirrors for their ceremonies today, and that she could actually see and participate in those celebrations, provides an intimate perspective full of ethnographic information that can inform the otherwise indirect evidence analyzed by archaeologists. For example, in examining encrypted phrases on pots and stelae, Blainey (chapter 9, this volume) goes to great lengths to identify possible candidates for the Maya glyphs that were in some way associated with mirrors (e.g., T24/T617 "reflective stone" or ilaj "was seen"). In a more contemporary mode, Kindl (chapter 12, this volume) obtains similar results from the direct quotes of a present-day Huichol curandero who still uses mirrors for divinatory activities (xik iri "things that shine," nierika "gift of seeing").
In closing, Karl Taube (chapter 13, this volume) applies his considerable expertise in a critical summary of mirror objects found among ancient and modern Mesoamericans. As Taube makes plain, these objects provide archaeologists and anthropologists with an exceptional opportunity for understanding broader norms of past and present-day Mesoamerican culture, an opportunity that has been overlooked for too long.
Mirrors and the Mesoamerica Concept
In 1943, a publication shook the minds of all the archaeologists who worked in what at that time was known as "Middle America." That publication was Mesoamerica: Its Geographical Limits, Ethnic Composition, and Cultural Character by Paul Kirchhoff (1967), based on a series of investigations undertaken by the International Committee for the Cultural Distribution in America Studies created by the XXVII International Congress of Americanists. Through this delineation of a new region called "Mesoamerica," Kirchhoff's intention was to note what the communities and cultures of a specific area of the American continent share in common and what they do not share (Kirchhoff 1967: 1). Decades later, it is now clear that this work not only achieved its original objective, but it also coined a new term that fills a previous gap in the research areas of Mexico, Central America, and parts of the United States.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Manufactured Light by Emiliano Gallaga M., Marc G. Blainey. Copyright © 2016 University Press of Colorado. Excerpted by permission of University Press of Colorado.
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