Objetual Regime of the Maya during Classic Period, a Proposal

Within the academic archaeology of the twentieth century, objects were only considered as sources for understanding human action. Based on recent theoretic anthropological proposals, this paper proposes a recursive archaeology, that is, to include the Classic Maya concepts as part of our analysis in order to understand objects as real protagonists in social relationships. In the Maya area, objects have different ways of being in the world which have been identified by the archeology of the Classic period: person- objects, parts of a dividual body and machines. These three ways are explored here through archaeologic contexts and epigraphic texts with the aim of approaching the construction of reality of the Classic Maya. With a multidisciplinary analysis that includes archaeology, epigraphy, history, linguistics and anthropology, a high number of examples coming from different regions in the Maya area is examined. Thus, an overall view of this phenomenon is presented.