Magazines - Tribal Art Autumn 2011

By Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter, editor in chief for Europe of Tribal Art magazine.

Introduction
A curious figure rendered in shell mosaic is itself sufficient reason to make a visit to the Musée du Quai Branly’s exhibition devoted to the Guatemalan Maya. Its body is lanky, its limbs atrophied, its stomach bloated, and heavy jade pendants hang from its ears. According to the experts, it is none other than “God A,” the god of death. This delicate work, discovered in a tomb at Topoxte in Peten, was part of the funerary paraphernalia of a young adult and was accompanied by numerous other precious artifacts of wood, stone, and shell. It not only illustrates this people’s fundamental belief in an afterlife, but also stands as a glaring testimony to the refinement and virtuosic technical level attained in the art of Maya of the Late Classic Period (AD 550–800). It also embodies the overall merit of this remarkable exhibition, thanks to the some 162 exceptional Guatemalan objects, all on loan. Together, they sweep away the prejudices of the first Western explorers, as well as many of the clichés about this so-called war-like and bloody people that literature has promulgated over the years. Viewing this installation, it is immediately obvious that archaeologists have made immense progress in this field. No fewer than 3,000 official Maya archaeological sites have been identified in an area that includes Belize, Honduras, Salvador, Mexico, and, of course, Guatemala. In Guatemala alone, twenty-five research projects are conducted every year, and the fruits of this work regularly enrich the collections of its Museo Nacional de Arquelogía y Etnología.