Heart of Creation: The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda Schele

Abstract

Masson reviews Heart of Creation: The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda Schele edited by Andrea Stone.

Heart of Creation: The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda Schele. Andrea Stone, ed. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002. 340 pp.

Between the covers of this book, readers whose careers were shaped or whose lives were touched by Schele's eclectic approach to understanding the Mesoamerican past will find much to quench their thirst for more. The book offers three types of valuable information, including research chapters, historiographical and biographical information, and a comprehensive bibliography of Schele's publications. The historical information puts her 30 years of contributions into the context of her growth as a scholar. Much of her fame derived from her ability to communicate with the nonacademic public, and to enlist them in the quest for more knowledge about Maya art and writing, as in the case of the celebrated Maya Meetings of Texas, discussed in the piece by Elin Danien. Schele's unique and compelling efforts to return the fruits of her scholastic work to contemporary Maya groups in Guatemala and Mexico are highlighted by Nikolai Grube and Federico Fahsen. Seven of the ten research chapters are written by Schele's former students. In these chapters, one finds many new arguments for long-lived elements of Mesoamerican creation mythology, using a Schele-esque application of the direct historic approach and analogies to varied archaeological and historical sources. Included is an archival paper of Linda Schele's, edited by Andrea Stone and Barbara MacLeod.

Three chapters address the theme of Mesoamerican rulers portraying themselves as actors in creation mythology. Kent Reilly links La Venta Olmec and later Maya stelae and throne rituals of monument binding and accession iconography. The backdrop of shared Mesoamerican symbols that frame rulers shown in Izapa/Abaj Takalik monuments leads Julia Kappelman to interpret themes of Maize God creation mythology at these key Preclassic sites. Matthew Looper provides a complex iconographic and hieroglyphic reading of a zoomorphic throne from Quirigua that indicates its protagonist couched and legitimized himself in creation metaphors.

Three additional chapters explore themes of sacred geography that are tied to creation themes of either world trees or sacred mountains. Pursuing an analytical challenge presented to her by Schele, Annabeth Headrick's contribution boldly attempts to bring meaning to an eroded hulk of sculpture that is likely from Teotihuacan's Temple of the Moon Plaza, Annabeth Headrick's impressive scholarship in summarizing tree-raising rituals in late Mesoamerican history and her analysis of the Tepantitla murals is worth reading, even apart from her more conservative efforts to tie this monolith itself to Great Goddess rites. Rex Koontz provides a highly focused chapter that explores the meaning of the Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajin. It milks interpretations from a single monument to argue for this edifice's identity as a Snake Mountain, a central feature in the sacred cosmology of this center (an earlier version of the Mexica Coatepec). Kathryn Reese-Taylor suggests ways in which architecture and other features might have been organized for pilgrimage circuits throughout the Maya cities of Cerros, Uaxactun, and Tikal. Most compelling are her comparisons of similar eight-structure groups at the three sites as central symbols and performance locales.

Three other scholastic research chapters include various themes of interest, including Susan Milbrath's exploration of the overlap of Jupiter and Saturn events to God K (or k'awil, a god associated with accession and lightning). Although it is unclear what proportion of God K events do not overlap with these planetary activities beyond a few specific sites, this chapter will stimulate further analysis of the important role of God K in Maya kingship and archaeoastronomy. A chapter on new toponymie hieroglyph identifications by Marc Zender makes provocative breakthroughs in assessing previously unknown relationships between Piedras Negras and its subordinates. Constance Cortes offers a fresh look at important Colonial period documents, the "Xiu Family Tree" and a "coat of arms" originally published in 1656. She identifies artistic elements of this lineage legitimization document in terms of earlier (precolonial) Mesoamerican traditions, including the use of the tree and the mountain/cave/sacrificial offering at its base.

This book is a fitting tribute to a scholar who was a living legend, and who will remain an apotheosized ancestor in the Mesoamerican sense for those privileged to have shared her journeys of discovery, as well as for students in forthcoming generations. The Schele-ana (appendix 2) brings a personal touch, emulating an earlier commemoration of the great Mayanist Sylvanus Morley whose impact on the field and the public is compared to that of Schele's. In this section, many renowned scholars contribute their recollections of interactions with Schele, throughout various stages of her career. Editor Andrea Stone and the University of Alabama Press deserve high praise for publishing this quality fetschrift, which serves the dual purpose of marking a great scholar's place in history and offering new analyses of interest to all Mesoamericanists.