Marvin Cohodas: Contemporary Maya Ritual Dancing and Weaving Arts

Marvin Cohodas, Professor Emeritus for the University of British Columbia’s Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory has interests that encompass both ancient American visual representation (i.e. ‘Pre-Hispanic Art’), contemporary ritual and weaving arts of Maya peoples in Southern Mexico and Guatemala, and Native American basket weaving in California and Nevada. Research on late 19th and early 20th century weaving for the curio trade resulted in a book on two Northern California basket weavers, Elizabeth and Louise Hickox. He is also an exhibited basket weaver.

Rather than assuming a single world view shared by all members of this society, Marvin Cohodas looks at Ancient Maya visual representations as comprising a series of competing discourses associated with different media, social groups, and institutions. He is particularly concerned with understanding the objects made and/or used by Maya women and children, two groups that have generally been ignored in culture-historical constructions of kings and conquests. Cohodas is also engaged in a study of popular representations of the Ancient Maya, especially in magazines and television documentaries. This project arises from concerns with the impact of knowledge produced about ancient Maya peoples on the ways in which contemporary Maya are seen by the national governments of Mexico and Central America and by foreign (particularly United States) political and economic interests in the region. Unfortunately, Cohodas’ archive of studies of Pre-Hispanic Maya arts and their contemporary representation in various media was destroyed in 2015.

• CAE2003: Marvin Cohodas: Baskets and Basket Weavers of Western North America
• CAE1906: Great Basin Native Artists