The Mesoamerican Chacmool in Modernity: Coloniality and Adaptation in Carlos Fuentes’ “Chac Mool” and Henry Moore’s Reclining Figures
Date of Graduation
8-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (MA)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
Advisor/Mentor
Rull, Ana P.
Committee Member
Lorenzo-Feliciano, Violeta
Second Committee Member
Sytsma, Janine A.
Keywords
Adaptation; Chacmool; Coloniality; Mesoamerica; Modernity; Primitivism
Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the ways in which the Mesoamerican chacmool’s contact with modernity causes it to experience a version of colonization through the coloniality it encounters beginning with its unearthing in 1875. Because of its intriguing posture and fascinating history, the Maya chacmool, a statue of a reclining figure adhering to a fairly strict posture that denotes the chacmool category, was rearticulated throughout the 1900s in both literature and art. Examining the history of the statue, including scholarship on its original context and the story of its unearthing, alongside Carlos Fuentes’ short story, “Chac Mool,” and Henry Moore’s reclining figure adaptations reveals some of the ways that the chacmool has been misunderstood, exoticized, and colonized by its encounters with modernity. In tracing some of the chacmool’s interactions with modernity and the resulting adaptations, this paper highlights the active role that coloniality has taken in our Western understanding of and relationship to the chacmool.
Citation
Brown, J. (2024). The Mesoamerican Chacmool in Modernity: Coloniality and Adaptation in Carlos Fuentes’ “Chac Mool” and Henry Moore’s Reclining Figures. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/5463
