{"id":9014,"date":"2020-01-30T12:10:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T17:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9014"},"modified":"2020-01-30T12:10:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T17:10:22","slug":"incantations-by-mayan-women-a-look-into-artists-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9014","title":{"rendered":"“Incantations by Mayan Women”: A Look into Artists’ Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Emily Rusch, Research Services Archival Assistant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many students at George Mason can guess that the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) carries all sorts of books; fiction, non-fiction, history of Virginia and George Mason related materials. However, did you know that SCRC also carries artists’ books? An artists’ book is a work of art created in the form of a book, although not always. Many can look like a traditional book but some can be all different shapes and sizes, from tiny cubes to big tower constructions. At SCRC you can access artist books on a variety of subjects. These objects really intersect many different topics such as science, art, history, social justice, and cultural studies.<\/p>\n

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Cover of “Incantations by Mayan Women”, PM4466 .Z95 E533 2005, Special Collections Research Center. Cover is a three dimensional mask made from cardboard, corn, and coffee.<\/p><\/div>\n

Incantations by Mayan Women<\/a> is an artists book about female shamans. The authors of this anthology \u201cclaim their spells and songs were given to them by their ancestors, the first father-mothers\u201d (17). In this book you will find spells for almost everything, from farming and controlling the weather, contacting dead relatives, or even protection spells.<\/p>\n

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The mask represents Kaxail, the goddess of the earth, moon, and rain. In ancient Mayan images, Kaxail was usually portrayed as an older woman who had the ears of a jaguar and wore a snake as a headpiece. Mayan survival depended on agriculture, specifically growing maize, therefore honoring the earth goddess was vital.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kaxail is one of over 250 deities in the Mayan pantheon, which includes deities that were worshipped throughout southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. In Mayan legends, it is said that Kaxail and her husband, the sun god, had thirteen children. Two of those children went on to create the earth. If you are interested in seeing more of our artists’ books, you can search the catalog and limit the location search for Special Collection to see what we have. With over 370 artisits’ books and counting, you are sure to find something incredible in our holdings!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ancient.eu\/article\/415\/the-mayan-pantheon-the-many-gods-of-the-maya\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Follow SCRC on Social Media and look out for future posts in our Travel Series on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0accounts. \u00a0To search the collections\u00a0held at Special Collections Research Center, go to our\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and browse the finding aids by subject or title. You may also e-mail\u00a0us at\u00a0speccoll@gmu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or call 703-993-2220 if you would like to\u00a0schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions. Appointments are not necessary to request and view collections.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by Emily Rusch, Research Services Archival Assistant. Many students at George Mason can guess that the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) carries all sorts of books; fiction, non-fiction, history of Virginia and George Mason related materials. However, did you know that SCRC also carries artists’ books? An artists’ book is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[272,326,5,121],"tags":[518,180,832,829,831,830],"class_list":["post-9014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gmu-fairfax-campus","category-rare-books-2","category-scrc-interest","category-scrc-picks","tag-art","tag-artists-books","tag-goddess","tag-mayan","tag-spells","tag-witch-craft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/agriculture-scaled.jpg?fit=2318%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-2lo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9427,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9427","url_meta":{"origin":9014,"position":0},"title":"The Franklin Library Collection at Special Collections Research Center","author":"admin","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0This post was written by Colleen Gerrity, Research Services Assistant in SCRC. Special Collections Research Center at George Mason University is the home to a plethora of classic literature and unique literary treasures. Sometimes, the literary classics are made to be unique treasures due to their exquisite design and rarity.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GMU Fairfax Campus"","block_context":{"text":"GMU Fairfax Campus","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=272"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/stacks-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/stacks-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/stacks-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/stacks-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/stacks-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5647,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=5647","url_meta":{"origin":9014,"position":1},"title":"About the Special Collections Research Center","author":"admin","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) in George Mason University Libraries serves the scholarly community and beyond. While our services are used mainly by students and faculty, we are open to the public for research or for personal interest. The SCRC staff is dedicated to preserving, organizing, and collecting various\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "oral history"","block_context":{"text":"oral history","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=104"},"img":{"alt_text":"Poe,Edgar Allan, The Raven, PS2609 .A1 1884, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/PS2609_A1_1884FB-240x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7288,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=7288","url_meta":{"origin":9014,"position":2},"title":"Collection in Focus: Egon Verheyen","author":"admin","date":"March 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago we received almost 550\u00a0books donated to us by Gwendolyn White\u00a0in honor of her husband\u00a0as part of the\u00a0Egon Verheyen collection. Dr. Egon Verheyen was a GMU professor of Art History and named a Clarence J. Robinson professor of humanities at George Mason in 1987. He retired\u00a0in January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GMU Fairfax Campus"","block_context":{"text":"GMU Fairfax Campus","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=272"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DieStaufer-2.jpg?fit=716%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DieStaufer-2.jpg?fit=716%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DieStaufer-2.jpg?fit=716%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DieStaufer-2.jpg?fit=716%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7414,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=7414","url_meta":{"origin":9014,"position":3},"title":"Mahogani Harper: My Experience as a Student Assistant at Special Collection","author":"admin","date":"April 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Working at the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) as a student assistant has been a unique and enjoyable experience. I\u2019ve met people from many groups and departments at Mason while working at the front desk, and have encountered books that were older than my great grandmother while working in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GMU Fairfax Campus"","block_context":{"text":"GMU Fairfax Campus","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=272"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C0130B3-1-of-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C1051&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C0130B3-1-of-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C1051&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C0130B3-1-of-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C1051&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C0130B3-1-of-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C1051&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/C0130B3-1-of-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C1051&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5975,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=5975","url_meta":{"origin":9014,"position":4},"title":"National Book Awards Week","author":"admin","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"On Wednesday, November 16th, the 67th annual National Book Awards will be hosted by Larry Wilmore. In preparation, Special Collections Research Center is featuring two of our books that have previously won this award. The awards aim to \"celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rare Books"","block_context":{"text":"Rare Books","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=326"},"img":{"alt_text":"Faulkner, William, The Collected Stories of William Faulkner , PS3511 .A86 A6 1950, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University. 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