2015/07/01 by Judith M. Maxwell · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Latin American history and culture #Indigenous Cultures and Socio-Education #Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America #Indigenous #Literacy #Ethnohistory #Iconography #Nobility #History #Spirituality #Writing system #Mesoamerica #Reading (process) #Anthropology #Sociology #Ancient history #Archaeology #Linguistics #Politics #Political science #Philosophy #Pedagogy
paper · doi:10.1215/00141801-2890234
openalex publication_date 2015/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The Maya people have long traditions of literacy, but the evidence of this literacy varies within regions. In the highlands, literacy switched to alphabetic representations shortly after contact, and as the indigenous nobility was extinguished, writing shifted more and more toward Spanish. Indigenous literacies retreated to the domains of weaving and spirituality. Symbols from both the glyphic writing system and the iconography of precontact textiles gained new interpretations in these media.