War Owl Falling

Innovation, Creativity, and Culture Change in Ancient Maya Society

By: Markus Eberl

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Paperback | 18 March 2025

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308 Pages

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23.39 x 15.6 x 1.78

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An archaeological exploration of the role of creativity and invention in the ancient Maya civilization

Drawing on archaeological findings from the Maya lowlands, War Owl Falling shows how innovation and creativity led to social change in ancient societies. Markus Eberl discusses the ways eighth-century Maya (and Maya commoners in particular) reinvented objects and signs that were associated with nobility, including scepters, ceramic vessels, ballgame equipment, and the symbol of the owl. These innovations, he argues, reflect assertions of independence and a redistribution of power that contributed to the Maya collapse in the Late Classic period.

Eberl emphasizes that decision-making--the ability to imagine alternate worlds and to act on that vision--plays a large role in changing social structure over time. Contextualizing these decisions in his "Garden of Forking Paths" model, Eberl shows how innovators were those individuals who imagined an array of possible futures and negotiated power to reach desirable outcomes. He dissects the social underpinning of Maya creativity by illustrating their situated method of learning via observation and imitation, stressing that societal constraints or opportunities dictated whether members' ideas were realized. Pinpointing where and when Maya inventions emerged, how individuals adopted them and why, War Owl Falling connects technological and social change in a novel way.

A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Industry Reviews

"This well-written book addresses innovation and social change among the Classic Maya (300-1000 A. D.) and is highly innovative in itself since it deals with an issue Mayanists have rarely addressed before. . . . This is imagination as a potential for innovation used by individuals who are embedded in a society governed by its own logic and ontology."--Anthropos "[An] engaging, valuable book. . . . Anchored in deep acquaintance and appreciation of the myriad perspectives now informing engagement with the material remains of the Maya past, its reasoned sequence of formidably intricate, yet clearly didactic critiques of ideas relevant to interpreting how innovation and creativity might have manifested over time in Maya social life and culture are the point."--Journal of Anthropological Research "Con el libro War Owl Falling, Markus Eberl ha contribuido al estudio de los mayas clasicos de una forma que combina de manera innovadora lo descriptivo y empirico con la interpretacion sociologica."--Iberoamericana: America Latina - Espana - Portugal

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