As the Gods Kill
Morality and Social Violence Among the Precolonial Maya
Seiten
2025
University of Texas Press (Verlag)
978-1-4773-3194-1 (ISBN)
University of Texas Press (Verlag)
978-1-4773-3194-1 (ISBN)
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An exploration of war, violence, and sacrifice in precolonial Maya culture and its importance in religious practices.
As the Gods Kill delivers new insights into warfare, weaponry, violence, and human sacrifice among the ancient Maya. While attending to the particularity of a singular historical context, anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew Scherer also suggests that Maya practices have something to tell us about human propensities toward violence more broadly.
Focusing on moral frameworks surrounding deliberate injury and killing, Scherer examines Maya justifications of violence-in particular the obligations to one another, to ancestors, and to the gods that made violence not only permissible but necessary. The analysis isolates key themes underpinning the morality of violence-including justice, vengeance, payment, and costumbre (ritual)-and explores the ethics of violent agents, including warriors, ritual specialists, and the gods. Finally, Scherer addresses motivations for warfare, including the acquisition of spoils, tribute, captives, and slaves. An interdisciplinary case study of morality in an ancient society, As the Gods Kill synthesizes scholarship on an important dimension of precolonial American culture while taking stock of its implications for the social sciences at large.
As the Gods Kill delivers new insights into warfare, weaponry, violence, and human sacrifice among the ancient Maya. While attending to the particularity of a singular historical context, anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew Scherer also suggests that Maya practices have something to tell us about human propensities toward violence more broadly.
Focusing on moral frameworks surrounding deliberate injury and killing, Scherer examines Maya justifications of violence-in particular the obligations to one another, to ancestors, and to the gods that made violence not only permissible but necessary. The analysis isolates key themes underpinning the morality of violence-including justice, vengeance, payment, and costumbre (ritual)-and explores the ethics of violent agents, including warriors, ritual specialists, and the gods. Finally, Scherer addresses motivations for warfare, including the acquisition of spoils, tribute, captives, and slaves. An interdisciplinary case study of morality in an ancient society, As the Gods Kill synthesizes scholarship on an important dimension of precolonial American culture while taking stock of its implications for the social sciences at large.
Andrew K. Scherer is a professor of anthropology and archaeology at Brown University. He is the author of Mortuary Landscapes of the Ancient Maya and coeditor of Substance of the Ancient Maya and Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice.
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1. How the Maya Killed
Chapter 2. Morality
Chapter 3. Sociality of Killing
Chapter 4. Ontology of Killers
Chapter 5. By Tooth and Hand
Chapter 6. Justice, Punishment, and Vengeance
Departing Thoughts
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 31.12.2025 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 96 color and 9 b&w photos, 16 color and 73 b&w illustrations, 2 color maps |
| Verlagsort | Austin, TX |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 216 x 279 mm |
| Gewicht | 454 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4773-3194-8 / 1477331948 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4773-3194-1 / 9781477331941 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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