Course information

In this class, we examine the political power of Maya women past and present at both large and small scales. Ancient queenly power in the Maya world has been a woefully underexplored topic in our field. In this class, we will consider their roles as marriage diplomats, wives, mothers, and conjurers. We will look at the interconnectedness of birth work to conjuring magic and how these formed a powerful backbone of political authority both in the past and more recently. We also consider roles of Maya women in contemporary politics and how they center ancestral authorities in their organizing efforts. This course cross-lists with WGSS (Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and LAST (Latin American Studies)