War Owl Falling: Innovation, Creativity, and Culture Change in Ancient Maya Society (Maya Studies)

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Description

Drawing on archaeological findings from the Maya lowlands, War Owl Falling shows how innovation and creativity led to social change in ancient societies. Markus Eberl discusses the ways eighth-century Maya (and Maya commoners in particular) reinvented objects and signs that were associated with nobility, including scepters, ceramic vessels, ballgame equipment, and the symbol of the owl. These innovations, he argues, reflect assertions of independence and a redistribution of power that contributed to the Maya collapse within the Late Classic period.

Eberl emphasizes that decision-making–the ability to believe alternate worlds and to act on that vision–plays a big role in changing social structure over the years. Contextualizing these decisions in his “Garden of Forking Paths” model, Eberl shows how innovators were those people who imagined an array of conceivable futures and negotiated power to succeed in desirable outcomes. He dissects the social underpinning of Maya creativity by illustrating their located method of learning by the use of remark and imitation, stressing that societal constraints or opportunities dictated whether members’ ideas were realized. Pinpointing where and when Maya inventions emerged, how individuals adopted them and why, War Owl Falling connects technological and social change in a novel way.

A volume within the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

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