[Aztlan] 2009 Conference on Mesoamerica at California State University Los -May 15-16

[Aaron Sonnenschein]

2009
Conference on Mesoamerica
“Continuity and Change in Mesoamerican History 
From the Pre-Classic to the
Colonial Era”
An Homage to Tatiana A. Proskouriakoff
 
 
May 15-16, 2009
Salazar Hall E184
CaliforniaState University, Los Angeles
 
 
 
This conference on Mesoamerica commemorates the first centennial of Tatiana
A. Proskouriakoff’s birth. Born in 1909 in Tomsk,
Siberia (Russia),
Proskouriakoff migrated with her family to the United States in 1916. She studied
architecture and archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, and began doing
fieldwork on Maya sculpture and architectural reconstruction in Piedras Negras, Guatemala (1936-1937), Copán, Honduras (1938-1939), Chichén Itzá
(1939-1940), and in Mayapán (1951-1955). In her first published article (1944),
Proskouriakoff linked historical inscriptions in carved jade found in Chichén
Itzá with the history of rulership in Piedras Negras, thus making it possible
to undertake stylistic analysis of Classic Maya monuments and to understand the
inscriptions in Maya sculptures and glyphs of the historical succession of
rulers. Proskouriakoff’s work during the 1950s dealt with Mexico’s Gulf Coast,
giving due emphasis to the meaning and function of the ancient ballgame as
found in regional sculpture. While at the Peabody Museum (Harvard University),
Proskouriakoff began her detailed stylistic analysis of Maya hieroglyphic
inscriptions in the belief that, more so than a record of ritual and calendric
information, the contents were historical in scope.  This breakthrough in Mesoamerican research
led to Proskouriakoff’s historical dating of ruling dynasties in Yaxchilán,
México (1964). Recognized for her fieldwork and publications on Maya
inscriptions, architectural reconstructions, and the stylistic analysis of Maya
sculpture, Proskouriakoff is also remembered for her contributions to the
interpretation of ideological features in Mesoamerican art, religion, and
native reverence toward ancestors. In 1984, Guatemala honored Proskouriakoff
with the Order of the Quetzal. She died in 1985. Proskouriakoff’s book, Maya
History, appeared posthumously in 1993 as a testimony of a life devoted to
the study of Mesoamerica. In this
commemoration of Proskouriakoff’s birth, the conference organizers invite
papers on the following topics:
 
	1. Tatiana Proskouriakoff and her contributions to Mesoamerican studies.
	2. Maya Epigraphy.
	3. Mesoamerica and its historical periods
	4. The Epiclassic and multiethnic urban centers
	5. Art and ideology in Mesoamerican Artifacts
	6. Mesoamerican cave archaeology
	7. Landscape, skyscape, and architectural design
	8. Colonial ethnohistorical narratives and the question of historical periods
	9. The Mexica and the Triple Alliance during the reign of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin
	10. Religion, divination, and lunar symbolism in The Codex Borgia
	11. History and ideology in the work of Spanish cronistas of the 16th century.
	12.  Mesoamerican culture and language in the work of Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits during the Colonial era.
	13. Mesoamericaas a linguistic area: continuity and change in indigenous language texts. 
	14. Architecture, painting, literature, and sculpture: the encoding of Mesoamerican cultural features during the Colonial Era.
	15. Transculturation in Art and History of 16th Century Mesoamerica
 
The deadline for a one-page abstract of conference papers is
April 17, 2009.  Please send your
abstract as an electronic attachment to rcantu at calstatela.edu or mail to the following address:
 
Prof. Roberto Cantú
Department of Chicano
Studies
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA  90032
Telephone:  (323) 343-2195
 
 
Conference Program forthcoming in the Spring 2009.
This event will be free and open to the public.