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Boozing and Burping for God: The Material Transformation of Maya Religious Food Practices from the Spanish Conquest to the Present

Mechanicus, Kiriko
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Abstract
This thesis will analyze the transformation of material expression in Maya religious rites influenced by Spanish and American intervention. It will do so by comparing religious rites involving the usage of beverage from the pre-Columbian era up to the present. Through an evaluation of anthropological definitions of ritual complexion by Edmund Leach and Marcel Mauss, religion by Emile Durkheim and cultural imperialism by John Tomlinson, this thesis will attempt to understand the material interpretation of immaterial beliefs in light of cultural imperialism and cultural hybridity. Based on these theoretical precedents, this thesis will argue that the transformation of the usage of beverage in Maya religious rites is a case of cultural hybridity. This conclusion is founded on the durability of the ancient Maya belief system that is visible in either material or immaterial testament in each case-study. Food usage in Maya rites are therefore flexible in their material adaptation to their current circumstances. They change according to new systems of cultural exchange, consumption and production, set in motion by changes in political or economic power.
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Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Communications)--John Cabot University, Fall 2017.
Date
2017
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Keywords
Mayas, Rites and ceremonies
Citation
Mechanicus, Kiriko. "Boozing and Burping for God: The Material Transformation of Maya Religious Food Practices from the Spanish Conquest to the Present". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2017.
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