13 - 14 October 2023, UEA Campus (Norwich, UK)
Friday 13 Oct (10.30-17.30) Julian Study Centre, Lecture Theatre
Saturday 14 Oct (9.30-15.00) Council Chamber, Registry Building
A symposium organised by George Lau (SRU/UEA) and David Chicoine (LSU), and sponsored by the AHRC, Sainsbury Research Unit, and the University of East Anglia
Why are some rulers seen as gods and supernatural beings? How do rulers participate in and draw power from superhuman sources? How do artworks and things express and engage their divinity? To explore these questions, this symposium welcomes presentations to consider different kinds of evidence for ‘sacred sovereigns’ in the ancient Americas. The systems in which divinely sanctioned potentates operated can be found throughout the world, spanning time and space. In this global pattern, are there distinctive Amerindian trajectories or regional distinctions? We know of special cases in the ancient Americas, such as the Classic Maya and the Incas, but broadly there has been little comparative theorisation. This symposium takes up the theme of divine rulership, with the aim of focusing on a cross-continental and comparative perspective on Pre-Columbian developments.
Divine rulership and sacred kingship are classic themes in Western scholarship. Their workings have been examined, no less, by varied disciplines and luminaries. Recent work in anthropology, history and area studies is also revitalising their relevance and purchase. Plus recent events, such as Charles the III’s coronation, underscore the timeliness for their study: they plainly make us think about repeat patterns between sovereigns, their ascensions and demise, and their religiously suffused associations. Core themes to be explored include: Polity & integration; Alterity & transcendence; Art, materiality & reception. In short, this symposium is also a timely referendum to help rethink the materiality and rhetoric of divinity in/and rulership.
Detailed symposium summary, titles and abstracts.
Full programme (pdf), with times and locations.
Speakers & Titles
- Elizabeth Baquedano (University College London, UK), Motecuhzoma II: Role as the Fire God
- Steve Bourget (Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, France), The gods among us: A tentative history of rulership and authority in the Moche society of ancient Peru
- David Chicoine (Louisiana State University, USA) and George Lau (Sainsbury Research Unit, UK) Framing the meeting: Divinity and leadership in the ancient Americas
- Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (Yale University, USA), Mythical paradigms & paradoxes in ancient Maya rulership
- Alexander Geurds (Leiden University, The Netherlands & Oxford University, UK), Pre-Columbian authority and rulership across the Isthmo-Colombian Area: Toward a synthetic interdisciplinary model of cosmology and mutualism
- Miłosz Giersz (University of Warsaw, Poland), Ruling from the grave: New insights into prehistory of Central Andean social organization
- Sabine Hyland (University of St Andrews, Scotland), Sacred cords: Khipu repositories as sites of power
- Arthur A. Joyce (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA), The emergence of divine rulership in Prehispanic Mesoamerica
- George Lau (SRU), Milton Luján (PIARP) and David Chicoine (LSU), 'Children of the Thunderbolt': Art, leadership & apotheosis in northern Peru (AD 100-600)
- Joanne Pillsbury (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA), Drinking with dead kings: Ritual and rulership in the Kingdom of Chimor
- José Oliver (Univ College London, UK), Reyes, reyezuelos & caciques: Divine & not-so-divine Taíno rulership in the Greater Antilles
- Jeffrey Quilter (Harvard Peabody Museum, USA) and Steve Hooper (Sainsbury Research Unit, UK), Discussant commentary
Registration essential - rates : Standard (£25.00), Concessional (£15.00). Online registration available here. Registration fee covers coffee break refreshments and Friday lunch.
The event is free to UEA students and staff (for UEA registrants, please contact Lesley Snell directly, email below).
UEA campus map online. Campus map pdf (on pdf: Julian Study Centre (57); Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (7); Council Chamber Registry Bldg (2)]
For any additional information and queries, please contact Lesley Snell (lesley.snell@uea.ac.uk).