Matthew G. Looper's Books

Lightning Warrior

Maya Art and Kingship at Quirigua

By: Matthew G. Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Lightning Warrior

Maya Art and Kingship at Quirigua

By: Matthew G. Looper

The ancient Maya city of Quirigua occupied a crossroads between Copan in the southeastern Maya highlands and the major centers of the Peten heartland. Though always a relatively small city, Quirigua stands out because of its public monuments, which were some of the greatest achievements of Classic Maya civilization. Impressive not only for their colossal size, high sculptural quality, and eloquent hieroglyphic texts, the sculptures of Quirigua are also one of the few complete, in situ series of Maya monuments anywhere, which makes them a crucial source of information about ancient Maya spirituality and political practice within a specific historical context. Using epigraphic, iconographic, and stylistic analyses, this study explores the integrated political-religious meanings of Quirigua's monumental sculptures during the eighth-century A.D. reign of the city's most famous ruler, K'ak' Tiliw. In particular, Matthew Looper focuses on the role of stelae and other sculpture in representing the persona of the ruler not only as a political authority but also as a manifestation of various supernatural entities with whom he was associated through ritual performance. By tracing this sculptural program from its Early Classic beginnings through the reigns of K'ak' Tiliw and his successors, and also by linking it to practices at Copan, Looper offers important new insights into the politico-religious history of Quirigua and its ties to other Classic Maya centers, the role of kingship in Maya society, and the development of Maya art.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

520

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292778171

ISBN 13

9780292778177

Wearing Culture

By: Heather Orr,Matthew Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Wearing Culture

By: Heather Orr,Matthew Looper

Wearing Culture connects scholars of divergent geographical areas and academic fields—from archaeologists and anthropologists to art historians—to show the significance of articles of regalia and of dressing and ornamenting people and objects among the Formative period cultures of ancient Mesoamerica and Central America. Documenting the elaborate practices of costume, adornment, and body modification in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Oaxaca, the Soconusco region of southern Mesoamerica, the Gulf Coast Olmec region (Olman), and the Maya lowlands, this book demonstrates that adornment was used as a tool for communicating status, social relationships, power, gender, sexuality, behavior, and political, ritual, and religious identities. Despite considerable formal and technological variation in clothing and ornamentation, the early indigenous cultures of these regions shared numerous practices, attitudes, and aesthetic interests. Contributors address technological development, manufacturing materials and methods, nonfabric ornamentation, symbolic dimensions, representational strategies, and clothing as evidence of interregional sociopolitical exchange. Focusing on an important period of cultural and artistic development through the lens of costuming and adornment, Wearing Culture will be of interest to scholars of pre-Hispanic and pre-Columbian studies.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

583

Publisher

University Press of Colorado

Published Date

ISBN 10

1492013269

ISBN 13

9781492013266

The Beast Between

Deer in Maya Art and Culture

By: Matthew G. Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Beast Between

Deer in Maya Art and Culture

By: Matthew G. Looper

The first book to focus on the multifaceted images of deer and hunting in ancient Maya art, from the award-winning author of To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization. Winner, CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2019 The white-tailed deer had a prominent status in Maya civilization: it was the most important wild-animal food source at many inland Maya sites and also functioned as a major ceremonial symbol. Offering an in-depth semantic analysis of this imagery, The Beast Between considers iconography, hieroglyphic texts, mythological discourses, and ritual narratives to translate the significance and meaning of the vibrant metaphors expressed in a variety of artifacts depicting deer and hunting. Charting the importance of deer as a key component of the Maya diet, especially for elites, and analyzing the coupling of deer and maize in the Maya worldview, The Beast Between reveals a close and long-term interdependence between the Maya and these animals. Not only are deer depicted naturalistically in hunting and ritual scenes, but also they are assigned human attributes. This rich imagery reflects the many ways in which deer hunting was linked to status, sexuality, and war as part of a deeper process to ensure the regeneration of both agriculture and ancestry. Drawing on methodologies of art history, archaeology, and ethnology, this illuminating work is poised to become a key resource for multiple fields.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

287

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477318070

ISBN 13

9781477318072

To Be Like Gods

Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization

By: Matthew G. Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

To Be Like Gods

Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization

By: Matthew G. Looper

Winner, Association for Latin American Art Book Award, 2010 The Maya of Mexico and Central America have performed ritual dances for more than two millennia. Dance is still an essential component of religious experience today, serving as a medium for communication with the supernatural. During the Late Classic period (AD 600-900), dance assumed additional importance in Maya royal courts through an association with feasting and gift exchange. These performances allowed rulers to forge political alliances and demonstrate their control of trade in luxury goods. The aesthetic values embodied in these performances were closely tied to Maya social structure, expressing notions of gender, rank, and status. Dance was thus not simply entertainment, but was fundamental to ancient Maya notions of social, religious, and political identity. Using an innovative interdisciplinary approach, Matthew Looper examines several types of data relevant to ancient Maya dance, including hieroglyphic texts, pictorial images in diverse media, and architecture. A series of case studies illustrates the application of various analytical methodologies and offers interpretations of the form, meaning, and social significance of dance performance. Although the nuances of movement in Maya dances are impossible to recover, Looper demonstrates that a wealth of other data survives which allows a detailed consideration of many aspects of performance. To Be Like Gods thus provides the first comprehensive interpretation of the role of dance in ancient Maya society and also serves as a model for comparative research in the archaeology of performance.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

295

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

029277818X

ISBN 13

9780292778184

The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: The Classic period inscriptions

By: Martha J. Macri,Matthew George Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: The Classic period inscriptions

By: Martha J. Macri,Matthew George Looper

For hundreds of years, Maya artists and scholars used hieroglyphs to record their history and culture. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, archaeologists, photographers, and artists recorded the Maya carvings that remained, often by transporting box cameras and plaster casts through the jungle on muleback. The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs, Volume I: The Classic Period Inscriptions is a guide to all the known hieroglyphic symbols of the Classic Maya script. In the New Catalog Martha J. Macri and Matthew G. Looper have produced a valuable research tool based on the latest Mesoamerican scholarship. An essential resource for all students of Maya texts, the New Catalog is also accessible to nonspecialists with an interest in Mesoamerican cultures. Macri and Looper present the combined knowledge of the most reliable scholars in Maya epigraphy. They provide currently accepted syllabic and logographic values, a history of references to published discussions of each sign, and related lexical entries from dictionaries of Maya languages, all of which were compiled through the Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project. This first volume of the New Catalog focuses on texts from the Classic Period (approximately 150-900 C.E.), which have been found on carved stone monuments, stucco wall panels, wooden lintels, carved and painted pottery, murals, and small objects of jadeite, shell, bone, and wood. The forthcoming second volume will describe the hieroglyphs of the three surviving Maya codices that date from later periods.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

412

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806134976

ISBN 13

9780806134970

Lightning Warrior

Maya Art and Kingship at Quirigua

By: Matthew G. Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Lightning Warrior

Maya Art and Kingship at Quirigua

By: Matthew G. Looper

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

520

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292778171

ISBN 13

9780292778177

To Be Like Gods

Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization

By: Matthew G. Looper

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

To Be Like Gods

Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization

By: Matthew G. Looper

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

295

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

029277818X

ISBN 13

9780292778184

Book's by Matthew G. Looper

Lightning Warrior

Lightning Warrior

Wearing Culture

Wearing Culture

The Beast Between

The Beast Between

To Be Like Gods

To Be Like Gods

The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: The Classic period inscriptions

The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: The Classic period inscriptions

Lightning Warrior

Lightning Warrior

To Be Like Gods

To Be Like Gods

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email