Event: A Comparative Study of Religious Communication and Political Power in Early Chinese and the Mayan Civilizations

Event Program

Opening remarks by Lothar von Falkenhausen (UCLA)

Presentations (1:00-4:30,  20 min each):

• Li Xinwei (Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) Insect Metamorphosis in Prehistoric China
• Karl Taube (University of California Riverside) People of Corn: Maize Imagery and Symbolism among the Classic Maya
• Mayfair Yang (University of California Santa Barbara) Mauss or Bataille? Gift, Sacrifice, and Feasting Across China and the Northwest Coast
• Ge Yun (University of California Riverside) Relational Ontology of Public Buildings and Human in the Rise of Political Power--A Comparison between Aguada Fenix and Hongshan Culture
• Yifan Wang (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) Reinterpreting Collapse: The Entangled Nature-culture Dimensions in Ancestral Maya and China Sacred Watery Landscapes
• Long Xiao (Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) Jade Offerings in Early China and Mayan Mountain Pilgrimage
• Coffee Break at 3 pm
• Kellie Roddy (UCLA) Continuing Implications of Furst, Shamanism, and Ethnography in West Mexico
• Wang Zichan (UCLA) Shamans and the Invisible Metal Workers in Early China: An Ethnohistorical Perspective 
• Kirie Stromberg (UCLA) Music and Political Authority in East Asian Prehistory: A Comparative Perspective

Round Table Discussion with Panelists (4:30-6:00 pm):

• Lothar von Falkenhausen (UCLA)
• Jason De Leon (UCLA)
• Stella Nair (UCLA) 
• Li Min (UCLA)

This event was cosponsored by the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, the Institute for Global Antiquity, the Center for Chinese Studies, and the East Asian Library.