Maya Dwellings in Hieroglyphs and Archaeology: An Integrative Approach to Ancient Architecture and Spatial Cognition

Abstract

Plank shows that Structure 23 was owned by a queen, 'Lady Xok', arguing that 'women have dwellings in epicentral Yaxchilân that are characterized as central places within the domain of the king, and[. . . ] the dwellings play out gendered spatial hierarchies of enclosure (p. 71). Some distracting errors (typos and references missing in the bibliography) should have been caught in the editing process, but these minor flaws do not alter the fact that Plank has produced an inspiring, integrative study of Maya dwellings, combining with great skill the epigraphic and archaeological data as well as ethnohistorical and ethnographic material.