File:Guide leaflet (1901) (14745447906).jpg

Identifier: scienceguide7692amer (find matches)
Title: Guide leaflet
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: American Museum of Natural History Natural history
Publisher: New York : The Museum
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO

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Central Americanaesthetics. AVe can appreciate a littlemore clearly the circumstances underwhich grou))< of people, without steel tools and without draught animals, wereable to create a civilization that glorifiednot themselves but the gods who permittedthem to exist. Living in subservience totheir divinities, the Central Americansseemed little interested in their own emo-tional weaknesses or sentimentality, andthis impersonality, often austere, definestheir art. Architecture, more than any other art,symbolizes the pitiless quality of CentralAmerican civilization. However, as cold-ness also characterizes our own modernl)uildings, the architecture of the ancientMexicans and Mayas gives us the mostcomprehensive approach to their art. Wecan also understand, since the majorarchitecture of Central America is domi-nantly religious, how ritualistic and cere-monial requirements permeate the otherarts like sculpture, painting, textiles,jewelry, and pottery. 22 IMKinCAX MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET
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Relip:ic)ii was iho most viooroiis socialforce, ill Central America. Priests, notchiefs, governed ilie various tribal groups,and these liierarclis were ever consciousthat thev must placate the gods who con-trolled all natural phenomena. This))hilosophy cansed the tribal leaders toorganize ceremonies and establish placesof worship in ordei- to cultivate the favorof their di\iiiilies. Religious demands socompletely al)sorbed the sur))his energyof the Central American people, once theyhad met their needs for subsistence, that,except in the highest civilizations, onecan discern few traces of specific civilgovernment. Undei such conditions it is not sur-prising that the ceremonial architecturewas tremendously develo))ed, while dwell-ing houses, made of adobe or wattle anddaub, were of the simplest nature. Onlythe Aztecs and theii neighbors in theAalley of ^^exico sicm lo have produced a

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