The artificial shaping of the skull vault of infants expresses
fundamental aspects of crafted beauty, of identity, status and gender in
a way no other body practice does. Combining different sources of
information, this volume contributes new interpretations on Mesoamerican
head shaping traditions. Here, the head with its outer insignia was
commonly used as a metaphor for designating the "self" and personhood
and, as part of the body, served as a model for the indigenous universe.
Analogously, the outer "looks" of the head and its anatomical
constituents epitomized deeply embedded worldviews and longstanding
traditions. It is in this sense that this book explores both the
quotidian roles and long-standing ideological connotations of cultural
head modifications in Mesoamerica and beyond, setting new standards in
the discussion of the scope, caveats, and future directions involved in
this study. The systematic examination of Mesoamerican skeletal series
fosters an explained review of indigenous cultural history through the
lens of emblematic head models with their nuanced undercurrents of
religious identity and ethnicity, social organization and dynamic
cultural shift. The embodied expressions of change are explored in
different geocultural settings and epochs, being most visible in the
centuries surrounding the Maya collapse and following the cultural clash
implied by the European conquest. These glimpses on the Mesoamerican
past through head practices are novel, as is the general treatment of
methodology and theoretical frames. Although it is anchored in physical
anthropology and archaeology (specifically bioarchaeology), this volume
also integrates knowledge derived from anatomy and human physiology,
historical and iconographic sources, linguistics (polisemia) and
ethnography. The scope of this work is rounded up by the transcription
and interpretation of the many colonial eye witness accounts on
indigenous head treatments in Mesoamerica and beyond.
