Wearing Culture: Dress and Regalia in Early Mesoamerica and Central America

Preface

Preface Costume, dress, outfit, jewelry, adornment, regalia, investiture—these words possibly conjure many and varied associations in the mind of the reader. But what was the significance of dressing and ornamenting people and objects, and of articles of regalia, for the peoples of precontact Meso- and Central America? This question lies at the heart of this volume, the outgrowth of the session entitled “Costume and Dress in Formative Period Mesoamerica and the IsthmoColombian Region,” held in 2010 at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis, Missouri. Both the originating conference session and this publication have endeavored to approach the topic in a synthetic manner, uniting scholars who have either considered issues of Formative period costuming elsewhere or whose general interests intersect with the topic. One goal has been to create a platform for scholarly exchange and discourse that traverses regional specialization and schools of thought. In fact, most of the cultures included in this book (with the exception of the Maya) are typically left out of surveys of world dress (e.g., Pendergast 2004). Moreover, while dress and regalia are investigated widely in the field,publication of results is dispersed or specialized. Therefore, the topic has yet to be treated synthetically, especially for the Formative period. Few studies focus on the cultural relationships between Mesoamerica and Central America (also known as the Isthmo-Colombian Zone or the Intermediate Zone, indicating Central America and the circum-Caribbean ), despite the clear evidence of these connections. As the various chapters of this volume indicate, there was considerable formal and technological variation PREFACE xxii in clothing and ornamentation throughout this area. Nevertheless, the early indigenous cultures of these regions shared numerous practices, attitudes, and aesthetic interests. The chapters of this book use the term “Formative” to refer to a spectrum of time (approximately 1200 BCE to 300 CE) in both regions. Traditionally, scholars indicate this epoch by regionally specific nomenclature. While “Formative” is derived from Mesoamerican studies, often alternating for “Preclassic,” we believe it is effective for this book as a broad indicator of temporal and cultural development, in which certain cultural characteristics coalesced and became reflected in costuming practices. In some parts of the Isthmo-Colombian region, the era, during which traits identifiable with the Mesoamerican Formative are found, extends much later in time—to around 950 CE (refer to Chapters 1 and 2; see also the discussion in Chapter 14). It is during this profoundly significant era in both regions that we witness the emergence of civilization in the material and artistic records, as well as the earliest evidence for interaction between Meso- and Central America—the basis for our temporal and regional focus. Terminology The wide range of cultural practices discussed by the authors prompts a brief consideration of terminology. The English language employs a number of terms to describe these practices, such as costume, clothing, dress, attire, regalia , or adornment, some of which may raise concerns in cross-cultural applications . Probably the most problematic of these would be “costume,” which some would see as having been trivialized by association with Halloween practices or other occasions of “dress-up,” as in the use of “costume jewelry ” (see Eicher and Roach-Higgins 1992). Historically, however, this term is a loan from French, where it is associated with concepts of traditional or habitual attire (> costume “custom, habit; clothes, dress”; the English “custom ” derives from the same term). In fact, nearly all the general terms for costume are French borrowings, including “attire” (> atirier “to equip, ready, prepare”),“garment”(> garnir “fit out,provide,adorn”); dress (> dresser,drecier “raise [oneself], arrange, straighten, direct”), and “adorn” (> aorner “to order, arrange, dispose, equip; adorn”). An important exception is “clothes,” originally the plural of “cloth,”a term of Germanic origin that referred to felted or woven material. Another is “regalia,” which has kingly connotations. Owing to the highly generalized meanings of many of these terms, we, as the editors of this volume, have elected not to dictate any specific terminology to the PREFACE xxiii authors of individual chapters. In this preface we employ “dress” and “body art” interchangeably and inclusively. A survey of Mesoamerican and Central American indigenous languages reveals a rich terminology for attire and adornment. As in English, some of these terms refer to dress in general, while others name specific types of garments or articles of status.In many Mesoamerican cultures woven fabric was a sign of culture and civilization...