Overview
Mesoamerican communities, past and present, are characterized by their strong inclination toward color and their expert utilization of the natural environment in order to create dyes and paints. In pre-Hispanic times, skin was among the preferred surfaces on which coloring materials would be applied. Archaeological research as well as historical and iconographic evidence show that in Mesoamerica the human body—alive or dead—was the recipient of various kinds of treatments and procedures intended to color it. Painting the Skin brings together exciting research on painted skins—human, animal, and vegetal—in Mesoamerica. Contributors explore the materiality, uses, and cultural meanings of the colors applied on a multitude of skins, including bodies, codices made of hide and vegetal paper, and even building """"skins."""" Chapters offer physicochemical analysis and compare compositions, manufactures, and attached meanings of pigments and colorants across various social and symbolic contexts and registers. They also compare these colors with those used in other ancient cultures from both the Old and New Worlds. This cross-cultural perspective reveals crucial similarities and differences in the way cultures have painted on skins of all types. Examining color in Mesoamerica broadens understandings of Native religious systems and world views. Tracing the path of color use and meaning from pre-Columbian times to the present, allows us to study the preparation, meanings, social uses, and thousand-year origins of the coloring materials used by today's Indigenous peoples.
Full Product Details
Author: Élodie Dupey García ,
María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual ,
María Isabel álvarez Icaza Longoria ,
Christine Andraud
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Imprint: University of Arizona Press
Dimensions:
Width: 18.00cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 25.60cm
Weight: 0.795kg
ISBN: 9780816538447
ISBN 10: 0816538441
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 30 June 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
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Reviews
The contributors present cutting-edge research using materials sciences to deepen our understanding of cultural practices associated with painting various types of skin, including human bodies and the surfaces of screenfold books. Each of the well-written chapters adds another layer of depth to the discussion. --Gabrielle Vail, co-author of Re-Creating Primordial Time: Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Postclassic Maya Codices
The contributors present cutting-edge research using materials sciences to deepen our understanding of cultural practices associated with painting various types of skin, including human bodies and the surfaces of screenfold books. Each of the well-written chapters adds another layer of depth to the discussion. -Gabrielle Vail, co-author of Re-Creating Primordial Time: Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Postclassic Maya Codices
Author Information
Élodie Dupey García serves as a researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas at UNAM in Mexico City. She is a co-editor of De olfato. Aproximaciones a los olores en la historia de México. María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual is a researcher and professor at the University of Valencia in Spain. Her research focuses on cultural studies and physicochemical analysis of body paint, drugs, and aromatics in antiquity.
