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Reviewed by:
  • Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm ed. by Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey
  • Anne S. Dowd (bio)
Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm. Edited by Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2016. Pp. xiii + 324. Handcover $65.

Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Blainey have neatly joined a series of thematically linked articles in this volume with as much sophistication as the ancient craftspeople that skillfully left minute spaces between polished mosaic mirror tesserae. Spanning experimental archaeology, anthropology or ethnography of religion, and iconography, the chapters illuminate technical and symbolic aspects of mirror production and use. From a chaîne operatoire or production sequence perspective, the volume is successful because it draws a wealth of examples from across Mesoamerica, giving a sense of the diverse approaches to mirror technology. The argument that sequence and horizontal separation of manufacturing tasks and workshop locations should be followed to the final disposition or lateral recycling of parts of finished products is important for understanding social roles of craftspeople through to end users.

Brigitte Kovacevich's (Chapter 4) reference to a string-saw anchor, a grooved stone found among unfinished sawn pyrite plaques, a pyrite bead, pyrite nodules, perforated limestone mirror backs, and other workshop debris in Structure K6–34, Cancuén, Guatemala, is an example of a distinctive fabrication tool. Julie Gazzola, Sergio Gómez Chávez, and Thomas Calligaro (Chapter 5) address the difficulty of recognizing the minerals left when unstable ores such as pyrite or hematite degrade in moist soil environments. Recognizing oxidized sulfate powder or other mineral residues that may be all that remains of deteriorated iron-ore artifacts such as pyrite, hematite, magnetite, or ilmenite should increase the likelihood that plaque or other materials are correctly identified. Gallaga (Chapter 2) estimates the amount of time to produce a pyrite mirror with sandstone back at about 110–160 person days. One reason fabrication is so labor intensive is that pyrite (FeS2) is 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Emiliano Melgar, Gallaga, and Reyna Solis (Chapter 3) provide syntheses of experimental [End Page 473] archaeological results, including SEM microscopic analyses to ascertain production tools and methods.

Manufactured Light authors considered how light technology was employed in depth. Gallaga (Chapter 1) discusses using mirrors in interior settings to produce light flashes or pointer beams on walls; Karl Taube (Chapter 13) credits this concept to the Greek philosopher Iamblichus. Jóse J. Lunazzi (Chapter 6) reports a test of mirror properties' refraction or reflection functions for long-range signaling at 1.4 km. One can imagine how hierophantic effects of sunlight could have been augmented by the use of mirrors to signal distant people for the timing of ritual acts.

Blainey (Chapter 9) discusses archaeological investigation of psycho-tropic substances, entheogens, which may have enabled visions or dreams while looking into a mirror. As Lunazzi mentions (Chapter 6), looking at the reflection of astronomical events in the sky though a mirror offers a perspective down and reversed from the reality above. This quality of reflecting an alternate or supernatural reality has shaped Mesoamerican thought and culture in profound ways.

Other chapters treat iron-ore mirror or ornament symbolism. Joseph B. Mountjoy (Chapter 7) makes a case for mirror use in rituals of renewal in Jalisco, Mexico, focused on the dry-to-wet season transition so important to early rainfall farmers. Achim Lelgemann (Chapter 8) describes hematite, obsidian, and turquoise mirror fragments that were the top central component in a cosmically ordered cache covering a possible human skeletal one-legged antecedent of Tezcatlipoca, Nahua god of war, at La Quemada in Zacatecas, Mexico.

John J. McGraw (Chapter 10) introduces readers to ideas about ritual ecology wherein quartz crystals play an important role, contributing to religious charisma among Tz'utujil, K'iche', and Kaqchikel diviners and daykeepers in Guatemala. Carrie L. Dennett and Blainey (Chapter 11) seek to explain "Mesoamerican" mirrors in Intermediate Area contexts using ideas about economically motivated gifting based on principles of peer elite emulation and exchange. Olivia Kindel (Chapter 12) describes contemporary mirror use—worn as chest pectorals or necklace pendants—among the indigenous Wixaritari or Huichol, Mexico...

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