Paul Reed Stavast and Dr. Marti Lu Allen, Anthropology
The first research objective was to study how personal, community, and culture area identities are portrayed through artifacts originating from Mesoamerica. The second objective was to integrate the research done on identity as a sub-theme into an exhibition at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures. The exhibition would include four other cultures areas from around the world.
Two types of artifacts, masks and blouses, were studied to see how objects portrayed the identity of the people who used them. The first is masks. Masking has been a tradition in Mesoamerica since at least the Olmec times (2000-600 BC) and remains an important part of modern festivals in the southern Mexican states, i.e. Guerrero. Among the Olmec, masks often incorporated features of jaguars. The Olmec used jaguar features on their masks because of the animal’s physical power. The jaguar features became a symbol of power and strength. It is not clear whether the Olmec viewed themselves as becoming a jaguar when wearing a mask or if the mask was purely symbolic of the wearer’s physical prowess. A later group of people, the Aztec (AD 1250-1620), who lived in Central Mexico, also used masks. Because of records kept by early Spanish friars, it is known that when an Aztec priest wore a mask of a god, the priest literally became that god. Thus evidence exists that for the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica masks had not only symbolic power but also transformative power. The identity of the individual who wore the mask was completely engulfed by the power of the masks; the person became the mask.
As a result of the Spanish conquest, the masking tradition of Mexico changed. The earlier native gods were replaced with Catholic saints and ideas. The power of masks also shifted to being more a part of a costume instead of the manifestation of a god. As a result of this shift, masks today are more commonly decorative elements for festivals. However, masks still retain some power. In some areas, a likeness of deceased influential community leaders or relatives is made into a mask. These masks are hung on walls for their protective power. Part of the identity of the deceased is forever connected with the carved representation of their facial features.
Most modern masks are sold to tourists. These masks are never worn in festivals. For tourists, Mexican masks are representative of Mexican identity. The masks are a point of division between two cultures, Euro-American and Mexican.
The second artifact type is the Maya woman’s blouse or huipil. These very colorful, decorative, hand-woven heavy cotton blouses are still common among Maya women. Similar to the masks, huipils are a hot tourist item. Because the huipils identify the Maya culture that tourists and mark their culture as different from the tourist’s, huipils symbolize what it means to be Mayan.
Not only do huipils serve as cultural identity markers but also as community and individuals. Each Maya town has there own unique patterns, thread colors, and use of common designs. Some towns use more red thread, others more blue thread. In large crowded markets where several towns gather to sell goods, those acquainted with the different towns are able to identify women from specific villages. Further, each individual weaver has their own unique style and upon close examination a huipil can be linked back to the weaver. Thus, huipils are identifiers of individuals, communities and the culture.
The role of a huipil as an object of identity goes beyond this physical world. Special ceremonial huipils use symbols woven in thread to identify the woman wearing it in relation to the gods. The symbols of these ceremonial huipils are often unidentifiable to anyone but the weaver. The symbols are meant to identify the person so that only the gods can understand. Most often these hidden symbols are numerical in nature. Repetition and thread placement connected with sacred numbers are the techniques used to identify the wearer as being at the center of the universe.
The Spanish conquest influence huipils like most cultural features. However, the style change from long calf-length huipils from before the conquest to shorter shirt length huipils did not change the significance of the huipil to be an identifier. Because of the moist climate, no complete pre-Hispanic huipils are known to exist. The evidence for their earlier use and meaning comes from carved hieroglyphic panels with accompanying pictures from around AD 400-500. At the site of Yaxchilan in southern Mexico, a royal woman is depicted with a huipil extending down to her calves. Around the outside of the huipil is a border containing a design known to be linked with the sky. Thus she is identified as being at the center of the sky since she is completely encircled by the sky design.
The research related above was incorporated into the exhibition entitled “Custom Made: artifacts as cultural expression” at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, open from May 2002 through April 2004. The opportunity to share my research with the public was exciting. Because of the nature of museum exhibitions, the amount of space available for relating my research was limited. However, under the direction of Mart Lu Allen I was able to produce concise and clear labels to accompany the ancient and modern masks and a modern huipil in the exhibition.
This research also opened up a theme discussed throughout the other cultures represented in the exhibition. By using the topic of identity and artifacts, the exhibition is able to act as a powerful positive teaching tool for intercultural understanding and toleration.