Cal State L.A. 2009 Conference on Mesoamerica

2009 Conference on Mesoamerica Program

2009-04-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

2009 Conference on Mesoamerica

Continuity and Change in Mesoamerican History
From the Pre-Classic to the Colonial Era

A HOMAGE TO TATIANA A. PROSKOURIAKOFF

May 15-16, 2009
California State University, Los Angeles

This conference on Mesoamerica commemorates the first centennial of Tatiana A. Proskouriakoff’s birth. Born in 1909 in Tomsk, Siberia (Russia), Proskouriakoff migrated with her family to the United States in 1916. She studied architecture and archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, and began doing fieldwork on Maya sculpture and architectural reconstruction in Piedras Negras, Guatemala (1936-1937), Copán, Honduras (1938-1939), Chichén Itzá (1939-1940), and in Mayapán (1951-1955). In her first published article (1944), Proskouriakoff linked historical inscriptions in carved jade found in Chichén Itzá with the history of rulership in Piedras Negras, thus making it possible to undertake stylistic analysis of Classic Maya monuments and to understand the inscriptions in Maya sculptures and glyphs of the historical succession of rulers. Proskouriakoff’s work during the 1950s dealt with Mexico’s Gulf Coast, giving due emphasis to the meaning and function of the ancient ballgame as found in regional sculpture. While at the Peabody Museum (Harvard University), Proskouriakoff began her detailed stylistic analysis of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions in the belief that, more so than a record of ritual and calendric information, the contents were historical in scope. This breakthrough in Mesoamerican research led to Proskouriakoff’s historical dating of ruling dynasties in Yaxchilán, México (1964). Recognized for her fieldwork and publications on Maya inscriptions, architectural reconstructions, and the stylistic analysis of Maya sculpture, Proskouriakoff is also remembered for her contributions to the interpretation of ideological features in Mesoamerican art, religion, and native reverence toward ancestors. In 1984, Guatemala honored Proskouriakoff with the Order of the Quetzal. She died in 1985. Proskouriakoff’s book, Maya History, appeared posthumously in 1993 as a testimony of a life devoted to the study of Mesoamerica.

For questions, contact:

Dr. Roberto Cantú
Department of Chicano Studies
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032
rcantu@calstatela.edu

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Nearby Hotels: Alhambra, Pasadena, and San Gabriel, CA
Make your reservations ASAP

San Gabriel Hilton (San Gabriel, California). This hotel is close to the San Bernardino Freeway (10) and Cal State L.A. It is at the heart of nice shops and several restaurants, with luxurious rooms and beautiful décor. Highly recommended. We have been promised a corporate rate of $119 per room (one King bed, or two Queen beds), plus tax. The San Gabriel Hilton is located at 225 West Valley Boulevard, San Gabriel, CA, 91776. Telephone: (626) 270-2700. Fax (626) 270-2777. To receive the reduced corporate rate, use the code “CSLA” and let them know that you are participating in this conference. The hotel manager has graciously offered to provide breakfasts at no extra costs to conference participants.
Days Inn-Alhambra (Alhambra, California). This hotel is nearby restaurant row and very close to the University. The manager (“David”) has promised us the following special rates: 1 King Bed: $79 per night; 2 Queen Beds: $89 per night. Breakfast is included. You can make your reservation through e-mail: daysinn91801@yahoo.com
Alhambra Inn & Suites. This hotel in the City of Alhambra is a few blocks from a major shopping center and restaurants. Breakfast is included. The assistant manager (“Angelica”) has assured us that conference participants will receive a special rate: $59.36 (includes tax) per night (single or double). The manager’s name is Jeff Chu, and he and the hotel can be reached at www.hotelplusportal.com Fax: (626) 576-5937

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Conference Program
May 15-16, 2009

Friday, May 15
9:00-9:30 am
Theatre, University-Student Union

Roberto Cantú, Cal State L.A.
Welcome and Introduction
Coffee and Pan Dulce
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Session #1
A Valley Zapotec Text from 1614: What it Tells us
9:30-11:30 am
Theatre, University-Student Union

Moderator: Aaron Sonnenschein, Cal State L.A.

Panelists

1. Pamela Munro and Kevin Terraciano
The Zapotexts Project

2. Xóchitl Flores-Marcial, UCLA
Colonial Oaxaca: A Portrait of Daily Zapotec Life

3. Kevin Terraciano, UCLA
The Power of the Pen: How a Oaxacan Community Defended its Lands with Zapotec-
Language Writings

4. Michael Galant, CSU Domínguez Hills
Kinship Terms in Colonial Valley Zapotec

5. Aaron Huey Sonnenschein, Cal State L.A.
Joining Hands, Face of Word, Heart of the Hand, and Belly of the House: The Use of Body Part Nouns in Colonial Valley Zapotec

6. Pamela Munro, UCLA
Evidence about Proto-Zapotec from a Colonial Document

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Featured Speaker
John Pohl
Curator of the Arts of the Americas
Fowler Museum at UCLA

Title of Lecture
“The Hummingbird and the Flower Prince:
New Approaches to Identifying Regional Political
Interaction from an Analysis of the Narrative Themes on
Postclassic Polychrome Vessels”

May 15, 11:45 am.-1:00 pm. Theatre, University-Student Union _____________________________________________

1:00-2:00 pm. Lunch Break

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Session #2-A
Ulama: the Survival
of the Mesoamerican Ballgame
2:00-4:00 pm
Theatre, University-Student Union

Moderator: Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Cal State L.A.

Panelists

1. Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Cal State L.A.
The Critical Existence of the Rubber Ball in Ulama

2. Luis M. Ramírez and Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Cal State L.A.
Ulama Rules and Scoring: A Connection to the Mesoamerican Ballgame

3. Dianna Marisol Santillano, Cal State L.A.
The Heroes of Ulama

4. Ricardo García, Cal State L.A.
Lord 8 Deer’s Beard: The Mesoamerican Ballgame Tradition and Its Protective Equipment

5. Mark Van Stone, Southwestern College
The Meaning of the Ballcourt "Goal" Rings

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Session#2-B
Mesoamerican Society, Beliefs, and Myths
In Film and in Modern Chicano and
Northern Mexican Literature
2:00-4:00 pm
Salazar Hall E-184

Moderator: Lou Negrete, Cal State L.A.

Panelists

1. Manuel de Jesús Hernández G., Arizona State University
La mitologia yaqui y maya en Mummified Deer (2005) de Luis Valdez y Heart of the Earth: a Popol Vuh Story (1994) de Cherríe Moraga: la continuación del contradiscurso mítico poscolonial y las nuevas metas libertatorias

2. David C. Rubí, Paradise Valley Community College, Arizona
Antecedentes indígenas del héroe sobajado en las culturas indohispanas

3. Graciela Silva-Rodríguez, InterAmerican College, San Diego
Terramara (2004), de Alicia López Lomas: Memoria, mito e historia. Transgresión y resistencia identitaria en la frontera

4. Demetrio Anzaldo, University of Idaho
Imágenes y semblanzas sobre las cosmomenorias mayas: del Popol Vuh a Apocalypto (2007)

5. José de Jesús Torres, UC Irvine
Un análisis cinematográfico y cultural de Apocalypto (2007), de Mel Gibson

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Session #3-A
Literature & History
4:15-5:45 pm
Salazar Hall E-184

Moderator: Roberto Cantú, Cal State L.A.

Panelists

1. Citlalli H. Xochitiotzin, Seminario de Cultura Mexicana, Tlaxcala
Otra visión de la conquista en México: mitos y realidades

2. Tatiana Plikhnevich, Kyiv Municipal University, Ukraine
A Ukrainian View of the Cholulan Massacre

3. Ignacio López-Calvo, UC Merced
Unproblematic and Strategic Identifications of the Chicano Movement with a Mythicized Aztec Past

4. Alfonso González, Cal State L.A.
The Mexican Indigenous Peoples as Literary Subjects and Objects: The Culmination of a Process

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Session 3-B
Mesoamerican Landscapes, Rituals and Religious Narratives
4:15-5:45 pm
King Hall Lecture Hall 2

Moderator: Octavio Barajas, Tulane University

Panelists

1. Jessica Joyce Christie, East Carolina University
Maya Palaces and Landscape: Ideological Appropriations of Space

2. Deborah Conway de Prieto, Pacifica University
Art, Performance, Shamanic Activity, and Ritual in Mesoamerica

3. Leslie Jacobo, Cal State L.A.
Izapa and the Popol Vuh: Explorations of a Connection of Religious Narratives and Iconography

4. Stephanie Lozano, Cal State L.A.
Ancient Maya Funerary Urn Use Reveals Social Dimensions

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6:00-8:00 pm
King Hall Lecture Hall 2
Viewing of the film “Breaking the Maya Code” based
on a book by Michael Coe with references
to Tatiana Proskouriakoff’s life and work.

A Film by
David Lebrun Night Fire Films

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Saturday, May 16
Coffee
9:00-9:30 am
Theatre, University-Student Union
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9:30-11:30 am
Salazar Hall C-164B
Decipherment Workshop on Maya Writing Systems (Maximum: 35 participants)

David Lebrun
NIGHT FIRE FILMS

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Session #4
Mesoamerican Cultures and Colonial
Ethnohistorical Narratives
9:30-11:30 am
Theatre, University-Student Union

Moderator: Charlotte Ekland, CSU Chico

Panelists

1. Jon Spenard, UC Riverside
Chicomoztoc: A Brief Life History of the Mesoamerican Place of Emergence

2. Danny Zborover, University of Calgary
‘Mesoamerican History X’: Reconsidering Indigenous Historical Archaeology

3. Octavio Barajas, Tulane University
Lords of the Night and Glyph G: Structural Commonalities in the Central Mexican and Maya Divinatory Cycles of Time

4. León García Garagarza, UCLA
The Birth of Disease in the Códice Borgia and in the Contemporary Narratives of the Tenan Tzizimitl: Continuity and Change of a Mesoamerican Etiology

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11:45 am-1:00 pm
Theatre, University Student Union

Featured Speaker
Viola König
Ethnologisches Museum SMB Berlin
Berlin, Germany

Title of Lecture
New Insights on Mesoamerican Iconography and Symbolism

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1:00-2:00 pm. Lunch Break
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2:00-3:15 pm
Theatre, University-Student Union

Featured Speaker
Karl Taube
UC Riverside

Title of Lecture
The Womb of the World: The Cuauhxicalli and Other Offering Bowls Of Ancient and Contemporary Mesoamerica

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Session #5-A
The Aztecs and their Cosmovision
3:30-5:15 pm
Theatre, University-Student Union

Moderator: Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Cal State L.A.

Panelists

1. Rhonda Taube, Riverside Community College
Mountains of Abundance: Early Colonial Accounts of Tlaloc Veneration

2. Leslie Negrete, Cal State L.A.
The Mexica God of Death in the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan: Two Mictlantecuhtli Sculptures in the House of Eagles

3. Jeremy Coltman, Cal State L.A.
The Stuttgart “Xolotl”Statuette and the Symbolism of Dawn in Late Postclassic Central Mexico

4. Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Cal State L.A.
The “Cuauhcalli” of Malinalco

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Session #5-B
Mesoamerican Writing Systems:
Ancient and modern
3:30-5:15 pm
Salazar Hall E-184

Moderator: Danny Zborover, University of Calgary

Panelists

1. Ivonne Heine-Balcázar, CSU Domínguez Hills
The Resurgence of Maya Writing and the Revitalization of Mayan Languages as Essential Symbols of Mayan Identity

2. Rogelio Valencia Rivera & Michela Craveri
The Voice in the Writing: Orality Traces in the Maya Codices

3. Robin Anne Lynch, Cal State L.A.
The Teotihuacán Writing System

4. Gerardo Aldana, UC Santa Barbara
K’AL as Ritual Enclosing at Copan and in the Dresden Codex Venus Pages: Revealing an 80-Year Detour in the Study of Ancient Mayan Astromy

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Reception
5:15-6:00 pm
Faculty Club

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Keynote Speaker
David Carrasco
2009 Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Lecturer
Founder and Director of the Mesoamerican Archive
Neil L. Rudenstein Professor of the Study of Latin America
Harvard University

Title of Lecture:
“Re-Discovering Aztlán and a Mesoamerican Odyssey:
An Interpretive Journey through the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan”

Book-signing after the lecture May 16, 6:00-8:00 pm Theatre, University-Student Union

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Dr. Jeanine “Gigi” Gaucher-Morales

The Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Lecture Fund has been established in memory of the late Dr. Jeanine (Gigi) Gaucher-Morales, who passed away on May 20, 2007. Born in Paris, France, Dr. Gaucher-Morales was a professor emerita of French and Spanish at Cal State L.A. She taught from 1965 till 2005, thus devoting four decades of her academic life to Cal State L.A., where her friends, students and colleagues knew her as Gigi.

During her long and productive tenure at this campus, Gigi taught generations of students the literature and culture of France, of the Anglophone world, and of Latin America, including the Caribbean. With her husband, Dr. Alfredo Morales, also professor emeritus of Spanish, she co-founded, directed, and served as advisor of Teatro Universitario en Español for almost 25 years, bringing to Cal State L.A. annual theater productions based on plays stemming from different traditions and languages, such as the Maya (Los enemigos), Colonial Mexico (Aguila Real), Spanish (Bodas de sangre), French (The Little Prince), and English (Under the Bridge). In addition, Gigi was the founder at Cal State L.A. of Pi Delta Phi, the national French honor society. She was recognized and honored by the French government for her contributions to the knowledge of French civilization in Latin America and the United States. Gigi was also honored by her peers at Cal State L.A. with the 1991-1992 Outstanding Professor Award.

On March 7, 1997, Gigi was recognized by the Council of the City of Los Angeles, State of California, with a resolution that in part reads as follows: “be it resolved that by the adoption of this resolution, the Los Angeles City Council does hereby commend Dr. Jeanine “Gigi” Gaucher-Morales valued Professor of Spanish and French at California State University, Los Angeles for her vision and her gift to the people of Los Angeles and for contributing to the richness of multi-cultural arts in Los Angeles.”

The Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Lectures will honor each spring Gigi’s memory as a teacher, colleague, and mentor whose academic interests and theatrical productions included pre-Columbian civilizations, Latin America, Asia, and Francophone America, such as Canada and Haiti. Gigi embodied the highest academic standards and a range of academic fields that were truly global and interdisciplinary. The Memorial Lectures shall serve as a forum for distinguished guest speakers who engage vital topics of our age in a world setting, thus offering students, staff, and faculty at Cal State L.A. an opportunity to be critically exposed to different areas of study and artistic traditions that constitute the highest cultural aspirations of humanity. In the Spring 2010, the Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Lecture Fund will sponsor a two-day conference under the theme of “Octavio Paz and France: Poetry, Essays, and Translation.” In the Spring 2011 we will host another conference on Mesoamerica. Details forthcoming.

Roberto Cantú

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Conference Organizer
Roberto Cantú, Ph.D.
Professor of Chicano Studies and English
California State University, Los Angeles

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Conference Co-Organizers
Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Ph.D.
Professor of Art History
California State University, Los Angeles

Enrique Ochoa, Ph.D.
Director of the Latin American Studies Program
California State University, Los Angeles

Aaron Sonnenschein, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
California State University, Los Angeles

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Administrative Assistant
Velia Murillo
Administrative Support Coordinator
Department of Chicano Studies
California State University, Los Angeles

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Alfredo Morales for a generous donation to the Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Lecture Fund. We are also grateful to Dr. James Henderson, Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences, to Michael Soldatenko, Chair of the Department of Chicano Studies, and to Yolanda Galván (English) for their contributions and prompt assistance on short-term notice. Thank you Michael Sedano, Joel Skidmore,, and Sean Kearns (Director of Media Relations at Cal State L.A.) for helping us from the beginning of our project with media and blog publicity. This conference is sponsored by the Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Lecture Fund, the College of Natural and Social Sciences, the Women’s History Month, the Latin American Society, M.E.Ch.A., the Departments of Anthropology, Art, Chicano Studies, History, Latin American Studies, and the faculty teaching in the Minor in Mesoamerican Studies at Cal State L.A.

This event is free and open to the public

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Cal State L.A. 2009 Conference on Mesoamerica

2009-01-18T11:57:00.000-08:00

2009 Conference on Mesoamerica

Continuity and Change in Mesoamerican History
From the Pre-Classic to the Colonial Era
AN HOMAGE TO TATIANA A. PROSKOURIAKOFF

May 15-16, 2009
California State University, Los Angeles

Call for Papers

1. Tatiana Proskouriakoff and her contributions to Mesoamerican studies.
2. Maya Epigraphy.
3. Mesoamerica and its historical periods
4. The Epiclassic and multiethnic urban centers
5. Art and ideology in Mesoamerican Artifacts
6. Mesoamerican cave archaeology
7. Landscape, skyscape, and architectural design
8. Colonial ethnohistorical narratives and the question of historical periods
9. The Mexica and the Triple Alliance during the reign of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin
10. Religion, divination, and lunar symbolism in The Codex Borgia
11. History and ideology in the work of Spanish cronistas of the 16th century.
12. Mesoamerican culture and language in the work of Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits during the Colonial era.
13. Mesoamerica as a linguistic area: continuity and change in indigenous language texts.
14. Architecture, painting, literature, and sculpture: the encoding of Mesoamerican cultural features during the Colonial Era.
15. Transculturation in Art and History of 16th Century Mesoamerica

The deadline for a one-page abstract of conference papers is April 17, 2009. Please send your abstract as an electronic attachment to rcantu@calstatela.edu or mail to the following address:

Prof. Roberto Cantú
Department of Chicano Studies
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032
Telephone: (323) 343-2195

Nearby Hotels: Alhambra, Pasadena, and San Gabriel, CA
Make your reservations ASAP

1. San Gabriel Hilton (San Gabriel, California). This hotel is close to the San Bernardino Freeway (10) and Cal State L.A. It is at the heart of nice shops and several restaurants, with luxurious rooms and beautiful décor. Highly recommended. We have been promised a corporate rate of $129 per room (one King bed, or two Queen beds). The San Gabriel Hilton is located at 225 West Valley Boulevard, San Gabriel, CA, 91776. Telephone: (626) 270-2700. Fax (626) 270-2777.

2. Days Inn-Alhambra (Alhambra, California). This hotel is nearby restaurant row and very close to the University. The manager (“David”) has promised us the following special rates: 1 King Bed: $79 per night; 2 Queen Beds: $89 per night. Breakfast is included. You can make your reservation through e-mail: daysinn91801@yahoo.com

3. Alhambra Inn & Suites. This hotel in the City of Alhambra is a few blocks from a major shopping center and restaurants. Breakfast is included. The assistant manager (“Angelica”) has assured us that conference participants will receive a special rate: $59.36 (includes tax) per night (single or double). The manager’s name is Jeff Chu, and he and the hotel can be reached at www.hotelplusportal.com Fax: (626) 576-5937.

Conference Highlights :

Featured Speaker
John Pohl
Curator of the Arts of the Americas
Fowler Museum at UCLA

Title of Lecture
“The Hummingbird and the Flower Prince:
New Approaches to Identifying Regional Political
Interaction from an Analysis of the Narrative Themes on
Postclassic Polychrome Vessels”
May 15, 11:45 am.-1:00 pm. Theatre, University-Student Union

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Viewing of the film “Breaking the Maya Code” based
on a book by Michael Coe with references
to Tatiana Proskouriakoff’s life and work.
by
David Lebrun
Night Fire Films
May 15, 6:00-8:00 pm. Salazar Hall E-184
________________________________________________________

A two-hour decipherment workshop on Maya writing systems
Presented by
David Lebrun
Night Fire Films
May 16, 9:30-11:30 am. Salazar Hall C-164B
_______________________________________________________

Featured Speaker
Citlalli H. Xochitiotzin
Presidenta del Seminario de Cultura Mexicana
Tlaxcala, México Title of Lecture
“Otra visión de la conquista en México: mitos y realidades”
May 15, 2009 Salazar Hall E-184, 4:30-5:45 pm.
_____________________________________________________________

Featured Speaker
Viola König
Ethnologisches Museum SMB Berlin
Berlin, Germany

Title of Lecture
"New Insights on Mesoamerican Iconography and Symbolism"
May 16, 2009 Theatre, University-Student Union, 11:45 am.-1:00 pm
_____________________________________________________________________

Featured Speaker

Karl Taube

UC Riverside

Title of Lecture

“The Womb of the World:

The Cuauhxicalli and Other Offering Bowls

Of Ancient and Contemporary Mesoamerica”

May 16, 2:00 pm.-3:15 pm

Theatre, University-Student Union

_____________________________________________________________________

Keynote Speaker
David Carrasco
Founder and Director of the Mesoamerican Archive
Neil L. Rudenstein Professor of the Study of Latin America
Harvard University

Title of Lecture:
“Re-Discovering Aztlán and a Mesoamerican Odyssey:
An Interpretive Journey through the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan”
May 16, 6:00-8:00 pm. Salazar Hall E-184 ____________________________________________________________________

Conference Program forthcoming in the Spring 2009.
This event will be free and open to the public