Books by Sarah E. Jackson
Papers by Sarah E. Jackson
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2001
The God C title, found in numerous hieroglyphic texts, refers to junior members of the royal cour... more The God C title, found in numerous hieroglyphic texts, refers to junior members of the royal court and is therefore crucial to our understanding of Classic Maya political structure. Over the past two decades, the amount of epigraphic work on the God C title has been significant. A ...
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2020
Given current interests in indigenous ontologies and multiple worldviews, archaeologists drawing ... more Given current interests in indigenous ontologies and multiple worldviews, archaeologists drawing on textual evidence must more fully contextualize ancient texts according to how they were perceived and experienced, and understood as capable, in the cultures that created them. This endeavour has methodological impacts for modern interpretations, shifting how we interpret textual evidence as a result of how written realities and histories might have been conceptualized in the past. I examine these topics through the case study of the Classic Maya (250–900 ad, Mexico and Central America), using imagery on painted ceramic vessels. I examine how the Classic Maya understood text and writing, asking: how were texts perceived? How did people relate to them? What capabilities were texts understood to have? Based on observations gleaned from the ways in which glyphs are shown, the ways people are shown interacting with them and the work that glyphs apparently accomplish, I argue that the Clas...
Hispanic American Historical Review, 2019
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2016
This paper explores a Classic Maya (ca. AD 250–900) “material vision”—that is, a locally determin... more This paper explores a Classic Maya (ca. AD 250–900) “material vision”—that is, a locally determined and culturally specific way of understanding the material world, its salient qualities, and associated meanings—based on evidence found in hieroglyphic texts from across the Maya world. Understanding Classic Maya ways of seeing the material world is an important undertaking as part of exploring alignments and misalignments between ancient indigenous and modern archaeological understandings of what today we view as “artifacts.” This topic is explored in the article through two related inquiries: first, I look at “artifacts” (i.e., materials that qualify as such, in an archaeological material vision) recorded in the hieroglyphic record, yielding thematic understandings of objects related to form and function, wholeness versus brokenness, and the relational potential of objects. Second, I use ten hieroglyphic property qualifiers that indicate Maya material perceptions and categories to gain explicit insight into some organizing principles within a Maya way of visualizing the material world. Throughout the article, I ask: can we envision archaeological objects using Maya conceptions, and how does this way of seeing align or misalign with archaeological material engagements?
Classic Maya Polities of the Southern Lowlands: Integration, Interaction, Dissolution, 2015
Problems relating to the size, juxtaposition, and boundedness of social integration in the easter... more Problems relating to the size, juxtaposition, and boundedness of social integration in the eastern lowlands remind us that the social scientist must be theoretically and empirically equipped to deal systematically with scale factors. He or she must be able to detect relationships among variables operating at the household level, through the local and regional levels, up to the 250,000 km 2 macroregion, and in Mesoamerica as a whole. One must see how actions at one level might accumulate into stresses that are dealt (or not) at the next level. One must be able to specify how many households, over what area, were altered [if at all] because of higher-level changes. (Blanton et al.
Reviews in Anthropology, 2014
This article explores the anthropological goals of domesticating (through naming, categorizing, o... more This article explores the anthropological goals of domesticating (through naming, categorizing, organizing) and liberating (through engagement with dynamism, process, complexity, contradiction) our data and the ways we consider culture. These complementary themes emerge in three volumes that explore Maya culture, past and present. The first theme offers powerful results by making named things real and valued. The second theme recognizes the multiple, contingent processes connected to people and cultures, with important ramifications for the use of cultural analogy over time. The two perspectives differ in how we relate to our data, and result in different ways of envisioning the Maya.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014
In this article, we look at two very different contexts of monument use – Bronze Age Inner Asia a... more In this article, we look at two very different contexts of monument use – Bronze Age Inner Asia and the Classic period Maya lowlands – in order to explore the function and meanings of monuments and the variety of ways in which they worked to mark and differentiate ancient landscapes. Our goal in uniting such disparate contexts is to examine how power and social organization in these settings were translated into monumental material forms, and how such materializations were experienced by those who viewed and re-interpreted the monuments. In particular, we explore how monuments acted as orientational markers within specific cultural contexts. Our discussion finds common ground between the disparate settings through several common interpretive frameworks focused on spatial, temporal and social orientational work accomplished by active, agentive monuments through their relationships with humans, which we frame as a ‘technology of the monument’. Monuments are instrumental in situating g...
Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2016
Archaeological documentation is in the midst of a technological shift as recording systems transi... more Archaeological documentation is in the midst of a technological shift as recording systems transition from paper-based forms to digital formats. Digital systems effectively replicate the information recorded on paper forms, while also offering recording advantages for archaeologists in the field. In addition to such logistical contributions to archaeological workflows, digital technology also has tremendous potential to transform the ways that archaeology is done by shifting how we see our sites, and how we document them through diverse data types. With the goal of exploring this potential, we developed a tablet-based relational database, using FileMaker, which provides the ability to simultaneously record specific characteristics of artifacts and features according to two cultural perspectives—modern archaeological understandings and also those of the Classic Maya. In this article, we describe the database and discuss the results of a pilot field season using the database to record...
This zine invites you to play, wonder, engage, and consider how we make, unmake and remake. It is... more This zine invites you to play, wonder, engage, and consider how we make, unmake and remake. It is about worldmaking, it is about crafting, it is about mistakes, and it is about archaeology. Join us as we move through various spaces and times and think differently about what it means to make.
https://issuu.com/worldmaking/docs/zine_making_unremaking
This zine is one of the results of a Wenner Gren funded workshop.
Norwegian Archaeological Review
Internet Archaeology, 2020
Our study uses computational archaeology tools to investigate how researchers in our field presen... more Our study uses computational archaeology tools to investigate how researchers in our field present interpretations of the past in patterned ways. We do so in order to illuminate assumptions, naturalised categories, and patterned interpretative moves that may direct or impact the ways we interact with our evidence and write about our research. We approach this topic through a meta-analysis, using large-scale textual data from archaeological publications, focusing on the case study of bone. Are there patterned ways that archaeologists write about artefacts like bone that are visible when analysing larger datasets? If so, what underlying ideas shape these shared discursive moves? We present the results of three analyses: textual groundwork, conducted manually by field experts, and two machine-based interactive topic modelling visualisations (pyLDAvis and a hierarchical tree based on a Model of Models). Our results indicate that there are, indeed, patterns in our writing around how artefactual and archaeological materials are discussed, many of which are overt and sensical. However, our analyses also identify patterned discourses that are less obvious, but still part of regularised discourses in written narratives surrounding bone. These include: the use of multiple conceptual positions within, rather than simply between, articles, and a lack of patterned centrality of indigenous ontologies in how our field writes about bone. This pilot approach identifies data-informed, applied tools that will aid reflexive practices in our field. These operate at a scale that impacts future scholarly interactions with both evidence and published interpretations by shifting observation and reflection from an individual or small group exercise to a larger and more systematic process.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2020
Given current interests in indigenous ontologies and multiple worldviews, archaeologists drawing ... more Given current interests in indigenous ontologies and multiple worldviews, archaeologists drawing on textual evidence must more fully contextualize ancient texts according to how they were perceived and experienced, and understood as capable, in the cultures that created them. This endeavour has methodological impacts for modern interpretations, shifting how we interpret textual evidence as a result of how written realities and histories might have been conceptualized in the past. I examine these topics through the case study of the Classic Maya (250-900 AD, Mexico and Central America), using imagery on painted ceramic vessels. I examine how the Classic Maya understood text and writing, asking: how were texts perceived? How did people relate to them? What capabilities were texts understood to have? Based on observations gleaned from the ways in which glyphs are shown, the ways people are shown interacting with them and the work that glyphs apparently accomplish, I argue that the Classic Maya understood texts to be real, relational and persistent. This article suggests a new direction for archaeological thinking about ancient written sources, complementary to other interpretive approaches to texts, by exploring productive possibilities that emerge when we take ancient experiential perspectives into account.
Norwegian Archaeological Review, 2019
Norwegian Archaeological Review, 2019
This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturally- specific und... more This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturally- specific understandings of artefacts and spaces at an ancient Maya archaeological site. In the case study that we present, we use Classic Maya material categories – derived from hieroglyphic texts – to re-envision our representations of artefactual distributions and accompanying interpretations. We take inspiration from countermapping as an approach that recognizes the positionality of spatial representations and makes space for multiple/alternative spatial perspectives. We present spatial analyses based on our work at the Classic Maya archaeological site of Say Kah, Belize, juxtaposing modern modes of visualizing the results of multiple seasons of excavations with visualizations that instead draw upon reconstructed elements of ancient inhabitants’ perspectives on the site, its spaces, and usages (based on information drawn from Classic Maya textual ‘property qualifiers’). We argue that even incomplete information, such as that available for archaeological contexts, allows us to reimagine past spatial perspectives and experiences. Furthermore, doing so represents a move towards inclusion that changes our understanding of sites in terms of ancient experience and usage. The outcome is a shifted perspective on the spaces of the site that decentres the modern, archaeological vision, accompanied by a more reflexive awareness of the processes we use to construct our interpretations. We end with larger reflections useful for archaeologists curious about translating these ideas to other cultural settings.
Research on Classic Maya personhood confirms that personhood was extended to non-human entities; ... more Research on Classic Maya personhood confirms that personhood was extended to non-human entities; however, questions about its operation and impact remain. What is the nature of the linkage between human beings and object persons, and how does personhood pass between them? What is the impact on an object of becoming personed? I approach these questions through depictions in Classic Maya iconography of faces shown on non-human objects, indicating potential to act in person-like ways. Close examination of " faced " objects reveals that Classic Maya personhood represents a substance that does not require humans as a source, and acts, instead, as an untethered resource accessed by entities able to act in social, relational ways. Furthermore, object personhood represents a state of identity in which essences of persons and objects co-exist, opening possibilities for complicating categories of being in the ancient Maya world.
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2001
The God C title, found in numerous hieroglyphic texts, refers to junior members of the royal cour... more The God C title, found in numerous hieroglyphic texts, refers to junior members of the royal court and is therefore crucial to our understanding of Classic Maya political structure. Over the past two decades, the amount of epigraphic work on the God C title has been significant. A consensus on its reading and meaning, however, has yet to be reached. In this article, we build on earlier research to suggest new ideas for reading this glyph, based on semantic and grammatical re-evaluations of the title. Our proposed readings are Ajk'uhulhun, which might be read as "he of the holy paper" (expanding on previous interpretations), or, alternatively, Ajk'uhun, "one who obeys, venerates" or "one who keeps," based on a grammatical reassessment. In addition, we suggest a new understanding of the aj-and ix-agentive prefixes, traditionally understood as masculine and feminine markers, respectively. We examine these possible readings in archaeological and iconographic context, using subsidiary nobles of ancient Copan as a case study. Through our discussion we aim to illuminate the meaning and significance of the God C title, and in doing so to highlight the evolution of the methodologies employed in Maya hieroglyphic decipherment over the past two decades.
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Books by Sarah E. Jackson
Papers by Sarah E. Jackson
https://issuu.com/worldmaking/docs/zine_making_unremaking
This zine is one of the results of a Wenner Gren funded workshop.
https://issuu.com/worldmaking/docs/zine_making_unremaking
This zine is one of the results of a Wenner Gren funded workshop.
Please use this syllabus however you'd like to engage your classes in a critical analysis of race, racism, white supremacy, power asymmetries and the development of methods of challenging oppression.