[Aztlan] Sexuality in Mesoamerica

[David Hixson]

Robert, you may be correct.  This led to my conclusion that the distinction between public and private displays of male nudity remains ambiguous based upon current data.  There are some images that appear to degrade public male nudity, while other images from ancient Maya art appear to celebrate the penis in public arenas.  Thus, the few available sculptures and ceramic vessels do not provide a definitive answer to our collective question (as commented upon by Justin Kerr).

-Dave
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David, you say "one regularly finds depictions of fully nude males as captives across the Maya realm (from Palenque to Uxmal), implying that public displays of nudity may have carried a similar humiliating context as one finds in Western society."

We modern-day Westerners latch on to the nudity as humiliation. It's fair to imply some sort of public humiliation for a captive to be paraded around by his captors but the "nudity in public" might not be the humiliating factor. Perhaps nudity in public was not humiliating at all, particularly for those of lower social status. Perhaps the "humiliation" in these cases was for a warrior to be dis-armed and without symbols or armor, the nudity being merely coincidental?

Cheers, 

Robert Evans
revans at atoda.com
http://www.atoda.com


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