Speaker: Cherra Wyllie
Title: "Signs and Symbols of Gulf Coast Trade:
Classic-Postclassic
Transition"
Since Mesoamerican Preclassic times the Veracruz-Tabasco
coastal plain was the source of luxury and subsistence goods distributed
through elaborate trade networks. During the Classic period Veracruz trade
and traders were under the dominion of Teotihuacan. After the fall of Teotihucan's
hegemony, these traders regained jurisdiction over their own resources.
This lecture explored how Gulf Coast Pochteca
used economic means to disseminate symbolic and ideological currency which
came to characterize the Mesoamerican Late Classic-Early Postclassic transition.
Biography:
Cherra Wyllie teaches ancient and non-Western art at the University
of Hartford. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology,
Yale University, completing her dissertation on "Signs, Symbols, and Hieroglyphs
of Ancient Veracruz and the Gulf Coast."
Ms. Wyllie instructed rock climbing and ski-mountaineering for Outward
Bound. She guided archaeological tours in Egypt and Guatemala, and has
travelled extensively on five continents.