soamerica’s staple food crop, fi rst grown on an intensive scale
by the Olmec.
Th e Maya of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and
Honduras continued the Olmec tradition of empowering rul-
ership through public ritual performance. Th e emergence of
elaborate public centers during the fi rst century b.c.e. refl ects
the development of a more complex social hierarchical struc-
ture that had at its top the ahaw, a ruler able to contact the an-
cestors during ritual activities. Such ceremonies were a form
of public memory and a means of fostering social cohesion.
At the site of Cerros, Belize, a large step pyramid rises
near the Atlantic shore. Four masks in two rows fl ank its cen-
tral stairway. Scholars believe the masks symbolize the pri-
mary forces of the cosmos, relating to cardinal directions and
celestial bodies. Th e temple’s facade was a backdrop for ritual
display of the ruler’s power to control natural forces. Repre-
sentations of rulers in ritual attire, holding such ritual objects
as spears and serpents, symbols of visionary abilities, appear
on all Mayan stelae. Th e frontal stance, alignment of the feet,
and position of the hands suggest ritual dance.
Although no stelae survive from Teotihuacán (near mod-
ern Mexico City), the most infl uential center in ancient Me-
soamerica, murals found inside residential compounds depict
fertility rituals, suggesting that here too fi gures with political
and religious powers existed. Walls exhibit painted images of
priests walking in procession. Th e fi gures, with large goggle
eyes typical of rain and fertility gods, are shown scattering
seeds, precious stones, and shells. Wriggly or curly shapes
indicating words and chanting come from their mouths. In
some cases green-plumed headdresses transform the priests
into feathered serpents, while black paint around the eyes in-
dicates visionary abilities.
Chavín de Huántar in the northern Peruvian Andes is
one of the oldest and largest archaeological sites of ancient
South America. Founded around 900 b.c.e., Chavín was until
500 b.c.e. the major religious center of South America, at-
tracting pilgrims from all over the Andean and coastal re-
gions. Its most important place for open-air ritual activity is a
large U-shaped mound. Immediately in front of the entrance
to this sacred place is a circular sunken plaza, accessible only
via two facing stairways. Carvings on the plaza’s wall pro-
vide one of the oldest depictions of theatrical performance
in the Americas. Two rows of carvings show processions of
feline and humanlike creatures. Curled serpents issue from
their heads and waists. Th e men-animals blow pututus, tradi-
tional Andean wind instruments made from large seashells,
and hold San Pedro cacti, a desert plant with hallucinogenic
qualities. Th is last element makes clear the shamanic nature
of the performance at Chavín. Together with music, dance,
and songs, psychoactive substances were used to induce a
trance that enabled the shaman’s transformation.See also agriculture; architecture; art; ceramics and
pottery; death and burial; festivals; literature; mu-
sic and musical instruments; religion and cosmology;
sacred sites; sports and recreation.FURTHER READING
Cora Agatucci, “African Storytelling.” Available online. URL:
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrstory.htm.
Downloaded on January 4, 2007.
Kay Ambrose, Classical Dances and Costumes of India (London:
Adam and Charles Black, 1950).
Martin Banham, ed., Th e History of Th eater in Africa (Ca mbridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Margarete Bieber, Th e History of the Greek and Roman Th eater
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961).
Jane Buikstra, Douglas K. Charles, and Gordon F. M. Rakita, Stag-
ing Ritual: Hopewell Ceremonialism at the Mound House Site,
Greene County, Illinois (Kampsville, Ill.: Center for American
Archaeology Press, 1998).
Dominique Collon, “Dance in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Near East-
ern Archaeology 66, no. 3 (September 2003): 96–105.
Eric Csapo and William J. Slater, Th e Context of Ancient Drama
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995).
Beryl de Zoete, Dance and Drama in Bali (London: Faber and Faber,
1937).
H. W. Fairman, ed. and trans., Th e Triumph of Horus: An Ancient
Egyptian Sacred Drama (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1974).
Yo s e f G a r fi nkel, “Th e Earliest Dancing Scenes of the Near East,”
Near Eastern Archaeology 66, no. 3 (September 2003): 84–95.
Robyn Gillam, Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt (London:
Duckworth, 2006).
Richard Green and Eric Handley, Images of the Greek Th eatre (Aus-
tin: University of Texas Press, 1995).
Amihai Mazar, “Ritual Dancing in the Iron Age,” Near Eastern Ar-
chaeology 66, no. 3 (September 2003): 126–134.
Jonathan Tubb, “Phoenician Dance,” Near Eastern Archaeology 66,
no. 3 (September 2003): 122–125.
Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge, Th e Dramatic Festivals of
Athens (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1953).
Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy, and
Comedy, 2nd ed., rev. by T. B. L. Webster (Oxford, U.K.: Clar-
endon Press, 1962).
David Wiles, Greek Th eatre Performance: An Introduction (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).drama and theater: further reading 339