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Serpents and Styles in Peten Postclassic Pottery
Author(s) -
RICE PRUDENCE M.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1983.85.4.02a00080
Subject(s) - worship , symbol (formal) , pottery , history , style (visual arts) , archaeology , aesthetics , art , philosophy , linguistics , theology
The snake is a symbol of nearly all Mayan buildings. That is astonishing, for one would have expected a people surrounded by luxuriant rampant flora to leave flower motifs behind on their stone reliefs as well. Yet loathsome snake confronts us everywhere.… How could anyone worship this repulsive creature as a god, and why could it fly as well? [VonDaniken 1974:103–104] If symbols …are strategies for encompassing situations, then we need to give more attention to how people define situations and how they go about coming to terms with them. [Geertz 1973:141]