Overview

For the pre-conquest Maya, sexuality was part of ritual discourse and performance, and all sex acts were understood in terms of their power to create, maintain, and destory society. As post-conquest Maya aapted to life under colonial rule, they neither fully abandoned these views nor completely adopted the formulation of sexuality prescribed by Spanish Catholicism. Instead, what evolved was a hubridised notion of sexual desire, represented in the figure of the Virgin Mary as a sexual goddess, whose sex acts embodied both creative and destructive components. This title seeks to decode the process through which colonizatio of Yucatecan Maya sexual desire occured. The author explores the history, religion and philosophy of the Yucatecan Maya communities through a series of texts.

Full Product Details

Author:   Pete Sigal
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.513kg
ISBN:  

9780292777538

ISBN 10:   0292777531
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   01 June 2000
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Notes on Transcription and Translation1. Searching for the Moon Goddess To Desire the Moon Goddess Sexual Desire Colonial Maya Sexual Acts Colonial Maya Sexual Ideas The Historian's Method2. Religion and Family Religion Family Revisiting Hybridity 3. Framing Maya Sexual Desire Defining the Hybrid Cultural Matrix Sex,Gender,and War Colonizing Sin Performing the Hybrid 4. Fornicating with Priests, Communicating with Gods Having Sex in a Church Strategic Inversions Excess Sex: Adultery, Rape, and the Commoners Thinking of Sex 5. The Unvirgin Virgin The Moon Goddess The Appearance of the Virgin Mary The Moon Goddess and the Virgin The Language of Virginity The Resilience of the Moon Goddess 6. Gender, Lineage, and the Blood of the Rulers Bodies of Kings The Blood of the Name Blood, Naming,and Masculinity 7. Blood, Semen, and Ritual Blood of the Vagina Blood of the Penis Phallic Motions and Transsexual Bodies Gendered Blood and Transsexual Bodies 8. Transsexuality and the Floating Phallus The Phallus without a Body Transsexuality Colonialism, Oedipus, and the Floating Phallus 9. Ritualized Bisexuality Sodomites, Homosexuals, Bisexuals Activity and Passivity Pedagogy, Pederasty,and Political Power Sexual Control 10. Finding the Virgin Mary Sexual Acts, Symbols, and Desires Theorizing Hybridity and Sexuality Notes Abbreviations Bibliography Index

Reviews

This is a bold, fascinating, often highly original contribution to the field of Maya studies, and Maya colonial ethnohistory in particular... Because of its subject matter, it will appeal to both specialists in Latin American history and academic and non-academic readers interested in the study of sexuality. -Susan Kellogg, Associate Professor of History, University of Houston

Author Information

Pete Sigal is Professor of History at Duke University.

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