|
Item Number: 127736
Title: The Life Within : Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence
Author: Houston, Stephen
Price: Not Available
ISBN: 9780300196023
Description: New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. 27cm., hardcover, 208pp., 43 color, 72 b&w illus. Summary : For the Classic Maya, who flourished in and around the Yucatán peninsula in the first millennium AD, artistic materials were endowed with an internal life. Far from being inert substances, jade, flint, obsidian, and wood held a vital essence, agency, and even personality. To work with these materials was to coax their life into full expression and to engage in witty play. Writing, too, could shift from hieroglyphic signs into vibrant glyphs that sprouted torsos, hands, and feet. Appearing to sing, grapple, and feed, they effectively blurred the distinction between text and image. In the first full study of the nature of Maya materials and animism, renowned Mayanist scholar Stephen Houston provides startling insights into a Pre-Columbian worldview that dramatically contrasts with western perspectives. Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, images, and drawings, this beautifully written book reveals the Maya quest for transcendence in the face of inevitable death and decay.
We regret to inform you that this title is no longer available.
Please contact us if you need additional assistance.
P.O. Box 3904, Kingston, New York 12402 US
Phone: 845-331-8519
Fax: 845-331-0852
Email: michael@artbooks.com