The Adorned Body : Mapping Ancient Maya Dress

How we dress our bodies—through clothing, footwear, headgear, jewelry, haircuts, and more—is key to the expression of status and identity. This idea was as true for ancient Maya civilization as it is today, yet few studies have centered on what ancient Maya peoples wore and why. In The Adorned Body, Nicholas Carter, Stephen Houston, and Franco Rossi bring together contributions from a wide range of scholars, leading to the first in-depth study of Maya dress in pre-Columbian times.

Incorporating artistic, hieroglyphic, and archaeological sources, this book explores the clothing and ornaments of ancient Maya peoples, systematically examining who wore what, deducing the varied purposes and meanings of dress items and larger ensembles, and determining the methods and materials with which such items were created. Each essay investigates a category of dress—including headgear, pendants and necklaces, body painting, footwear, and facial ornaments—and considers the variations within each of these categories, as well as popular styles and trends through time. The final chapters reveal broader views and comparisons about costume ensembles and their social roles. Shedding new light on the art and archaeology of the ancient Americas, The Adorned Body offers a thorough map of Maya dress that will be of interest to scholars and fashion enthusiasts alike.

Nicholas Carter is an assistant professor of anthropology at Texas State University.

Stephen D. Houston is the Dupee Family Professor of Social Sciences at Brown University and the author of many books, including The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence, which won a PROSE Award in 2014.

Franco D. Rossi is the Austen-Stokes Ancient Americas Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History of Art at the Johns Hopkins University. His research uses archaeological approaches to explore the relationship among art, education systems, and statecraft in ancient Mesoamerica.