On Heads, Skulls, and Other Human Trophies in Classic Maya Culture

Abstract

This article suggests that trophy head taking among the Classic Maya was a complex phenomenon. It assesses physical anthropological analyses and archaeological data along with iconography and the comparative ethnology of Amerindian cultures that practised the taking of trophy heads, I propose a typology which comprises five variants of trophy heads in the region, all of them obtained in purely war contexts and at the moment of the battle rather than in a ‘head hunt’. These objects were not merely human trophies, but also the main actors in regenerative processes that subscribed to this activity in a complex group of productive consumption activities.