Articles
FLOWERS IN PALACES: THE AROMA OF MAYA ROYALTY
Article number
964_20
Pages
161 – 168
Language
English
Abstract
Ethnohistorical documents describe how flowers were related to all aspects of religious and daily life for Mesoamerican inhabitants, and even mention the existence of officials of flowers, specialized artisans who knew how to cultivate the different types of flowers required for use in administrative spaces.
This article explores the socio-biographical (multiple ways in which objects are meaningful for social individuals) aspects of the flowers and aromas of the Maya culture, and questions the sociological role and meaning of the flower and aroma, as well as the importance of the flower and scentscape in the palaces of Maya rulers.
Flowers were not only simple ornaments in the palaces of the Maya, but were metaphors for breath and the soul, and used to create aromatic atmospheres which connected terrestrial rulers with supernatural rulers.
This article explores the socio-biographical (multiple ways in which objects are meaningful for social individuals) aspects of the flowers and aromas of the Maya culture, and questions the sociological role and meaning of the flower and aroma, as well as the importance of the flower and scentscape in the palaces of Maya rulers.
Flowers were not only simple ornaments in the palaces of the Maya, but were metaphors for breath and the soul, and used to create aromatic atmospheres which connected terrestrial rulers with supernatural rulers.
Authors
L. de Batres, C. Batres
Keywords
aromatherapy, cosmology, iconography, metaphor, power, scentscape, socio-biographical
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