28th European Maya Conference: Bonn, Germany

“Regionalism and Unity: Exploring Intracultural Variation and Commonality in the Maya Region”

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The 28th European Maya Conference is co-organised by the European Association of Mayanists (Wayeb) together with the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn and is going to be hosted by the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas of the Institute for Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bonn, Germany, from December 4th to 10th, 2023. The conference will begin on December 4th with a welcome address, and will combine four days of workshops (Tuesday to Friday, December 5th-8th) and a two-day symposium (Saturday to Sunday, December 9th-10th).

The topic of the 28th European Maya Conference is Regionalism and Unity: Exploring Intracultural Variation and Commonality in the Maya Region. We are used to talking about “the Maya” in both popular and academic discourse. But did or does such a single homogeneous Maya culture actually exist? In fact, the idea of a large Maya culture, stretching from the highlands of Guatemala to Yucatan, only emerged in the 19th century in connection with the European desire to divide the world into cultural areas. In this regard, the term “Maya” which originally designated the language and inhabitants of Northern Yucatan, was used for an entire language family and the various peoples speaking these languages and inhabiting the territory that comprises the Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, and the countries of Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

List of Speakers:

  • Nikolai Grube & Harri Kettunen: Regionalism and Unity: Exploring Intracultural Variation and Commonality in the Maya Region
  • Juan Carlos Meléndez & Emiliano Ricardo Melgar: Lapidary Variations and Commonalities in Antiquity: An Overview of Ancient Maya Portable Greenish and Bluish Stone Mosaic Masks (CE 300 – 800)
  • Xin Lin 林忻 & Guo Peng Chen 陳國鵬: The Maya Commons
  • Catherine Nuckols: Within Arm’s Reach: Scribal Workshops and the Geographic Extent of Eighth-Century Maya Full-Figure Inscriptions
  • Lorraine A. Williams-Beck: Where an Area is More Than Land: Pre-Columbian Cultural Identity in the Chenes Region
  • Kathryn Reese-Taylor, Felix A. Kupprat, Armando Anaya Hernández, Debra S. Walker, F. C. Atasta Flores Esquivel, Joshuah Lockett-Harris, Matthew Longstaffe, Véronica A. Vázquez López, Valeria Montserrat Suasa Nuñez, Sophía Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Kyle Farquharson, Nicholas P. Dunning: Regional Identity as Reflected in the Settlement of the Bajo El Laberinto Area
  • Ivan Šprajc: Astronomical Orientations in the Lowland Maya Architecture: Common Trends, Regional Patterns, and Temporal Variations
  • Vera Tiesler: Regionalism Versus Unity: Exploring Head and Tooth Crafting Under the Backdrop of Mobility and Cultural Change in the Greater Maya Area
  • Caitlin Earley & Ulrich Wölfel: Global concepts, local expressions: Regional innovation in Chaculá ceramics and sculpture at the end of the Classic Period
  • Erin L. Sears: Making Ceramic Mayans within a Highland–Lowland Interaction Zone
  • Brent K.S. Woodfill: Dynamic Regional Relations and Local Identities at the Highland-Lowland Interface in Central Guatemala
  • Jarosław Źrałka, Juan Luis Velásquez, Vera Tiesler, Jakob Sedig, David Reich & Dorota Bojkowska: The same or different Maya? Diversity and homogeneity in the Ixil region during pre-Hispanic times
  • Victor Castillo: Kingdoms of the Highland Maya: A Reappraisal
  • Iyaxel Cojti Ren: Diversity and Integration in the Maya Highlands during the Late Postclassic Period
  • Mallory Matsumoto: Water and Baptism in K’iche’an Social Identity: From Postclassic to Colonial
  • Lolmay García & Brigittine French: Voces múltiples en las memorias históricas de los kaqchikeles y continuidades en procesos históricos de violencia en Guatemala
  • Kristell Pech Oxte: Formas de lo humano en la literatura maya contemporánea: análisis de obras de la península de Yucatán y Guatemala hacia un rastreo de lo similar y lo diverso en la naturaleza-maya
  • Nancy Alicia Martínez: Writing with Five Senses: Regional Variations in Contemporary Ts’íib
  • M. Charlotte Arnauld: Variation in Terminal Classic isthmic connections: Maya cities at the crossroad
  • Christa Schieber de Lavarreda: Tak’alik Ab’aj, Unidad Regional versus Diversidad local
  • Oswaldo Chinchilla: The Pacific Coast: Maya or Not?
  • Jan Szymański, Joachim Martecki & Gabriela Prejs: How Far Is Beyond? Social and Cultural Identities in the Preclassic Western El Salvador and Its Ties with the Maya Area
  • Philippe Nondédéo: Terminal Classic Occupation at Naachtun, Peten: An Example of Resilience and Sociopolitical Reorganization after Political Crisis
Wayeb