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Go to page: Across time, geography and culture, human groups have often felt the need to develop hand gesture conventions for the purpose of complementing or substituting verbal communication or to convey coded messages accessible only to those familiar with the code. Two of the better known examples, would be Buddhist mudras and the secretive Masonic hand gestures.
Go to page: Artworks from the Maya Classic-period, particularly painted ceramic vessels, quickly make it apparent that Maya artists went to great lengths to accurately depict the way their contemporaries often use their hands to gesture towards each other when interacting. The detail and care with which certain hand and arm positions were recorded argues strongly for the existence of intentional, meaning-bearing gestures that were, quite possibly, highly conventionalized.
Go to page: Intrigued by this possibility, Patricia Ancona, Mark Van Stone and myself surveyed a large number of painted ceramic vessels to try and identify consistencies in the way these gestures were recorded. Their systematic isolation and the study of their contexts yield recognizable patterns, lending support to the notion that these gestures were indeed a means to codify and communicate meaning. This approach also suggests some ways of interpreting them.
Since the study was carried out making use exclusively of scenes painted on ceramic vessels, I have found it especially interesting to see how any conclusions deriving from it would fare when applied to the gestures found on monumental art. Before moving in this direction, I would like to offer a very quick overview of the way some gestures have been identified and of the possible meanings they may have carried.
Go to page: The first problem in attempting to establish that hand gestures did exist in the Classic period as vehicles for communicating information consists of being able to separate those arm and hand positions that could be randomly occurring from those that would have to be deliberate. For this purpose, one has to look for repetitions across large samples. If these can be established, it is reasonable to conclude that a specific gesture has been identified.
Go to page: After such an identification has been made, the second stage calls for establishing a statistically significant sample that could help to determine in what contexts, how and by whom a specific gesture is adopted. This serves to confirm consistency in gesture use and, through it, the intention of conveying a specific meaning. I will now very briefly show some examples of the use of three separate gestures. This will lay the background needed for looking at the gestures adopted by some of the characters that appear on the Palenque Temple XIX bench.
Go to page: I will refer to the first arm and hand gesture we will look at as Gesture 1. It consists of one arm leisurely resting on a thigh, while the other one, typically the right one, is held across the chest with the palm held either to one side or downward. It might be argued that this is just a relaxed pose and not a gesture, but certain constants that are present whenever it is depicted do support its identification as a gesture. No scenes have been found, for example, where more than one character adopts this gesture, and the one that adopts it is always the focal or central figure. This notwithstanding, the gesture does not appear to have been used just to mark individuals with the highest relative status in any given scene. Lords of lesser ranks who happen to be central figures in certain scenes never assume this gesture. This suggests that the gesture was a marker of absolute and not relative rank and as such reserved to the highest status lords.
Go to page: The second gesture we will look at and which I will call Gesture 2 consists of the right arm held across the chest, with the hand clasping the opposite shoulder. More than one character in a given scene can be shown displaying this gesture. This gesture has not been observed on any central or focal figures, although the spatial placement in scenes of the characters who adopt it would argue for its association with individuals of a relatively high status.
Go to page: Many scholars have referred to this gesture as signaling submission, but there are examples in which two or more characters of similar rank use the gesture to address each other with no apparent higher status person who could be the intended recipient of such submission. Given its distribution among high ranking but non-focal figures who can nevertheless display this gesture to each other, it is likely that it is the marker of an important but secondary rank, perhaps comparable to that of sajal in the inscriptions.
Go to page: The third gesture we will consider, which I will refer to as Gesture 3, involves tightly wrapping the arms around the torso, while keeping the hands under the armpits. This is not to be confused with a similar gesture that, nevertheless, requires the hands to rest on top of the arms. The gesture we are dealing with here is never displayed by central figures.
Go to page: Furthermore, in the presence of characters who adopt other gestures possibly associated with a higher rank, individuals that adopt this gesture assume a subordinate spatial placement. This would argue for their holding a status that was not particularly high in the social hierarchy.
Go to page: Only the most superficial consideration of these gestures has been offered. Space does not allow going into detail. The intention of this paper is merely to show the possibility that a plausible function of specific arm and hand gestures could have been the communication of social rank. Now, let's consider some of the characters carved on the south side of the Palenque Temple XIX bench.
Go to page: This magnificent monument lends itself particularly well to an analysis of gesture. It shows a relatively rare scene with as many as seven characters shown in complex interaction, not unlike some of the courtly scenes depicted on painted ceramics. Furthermore, some of the characters on the bench adopt some of the already identified arm and hand gestures. The attention to detail its carvers lavished on this monument allows for an in-depth study of subtle iconography, such as minute details of headdresses, jewelry and elements of attire.
Go to page: The accuracy of the figures' rendering goes as far as to realistically show deformation of a character's fingers, which could have been due to either genetic factors, illness or even mutilation. This important scene is supplemented by a large text that is fairly well understood and by captions for every character shown. All of this permits approaching the study of each character from several different angles: the apparent role of each one as revealed from their placement in the scene, the relation of the scene's characters to the main text, the information given about them in each caption, the iconographic information given by their dress and finery and finally, the information conveyed by the gestures they adopt.
Go to page: In four of the seven characters on the bench's south side, we can readily recognize use of the three gestures I have just talked about. K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb is shown in a frontal view, adopting the leisurely pose we have called Gesture 1, which is associated not with the highest-ranking individual in a given scene, but only with the highest status lords, typically rulers of sites.
Go to page: Yok Nen(?) Tal, who carries the title Yajaw K'ak' or Lord of Fire, is the only other character in the scene also shown facing the viewer. His echoing of the central figure's frontal way of depiction would seem to underline his importance. He is recorded adopting what I have previously referred to as Gesture 2.
Go to page: Even though he is shown in a profile view, I believe that the Yax Sajal K'amaj Bate' is shown about to engage in the same Gesture 2, his left hand resting on his thigh while his right reaches for his left shoulder. If I am correct, then we are looking at an interesting instance of a gesture in progress.
Go to page: Finally, Muwaan Chatal Aan is shown adopting our Gesture 3, which consists of arms tightly wrapped around the chest with hands protruding from the armpits.
Go to page: What can we learn from these gestures? To begin, the interpretation of Gesture 1 displayed by K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb as one associated only with the highest ranking individuals in Classic-period Maya society is consistent with everything else we can observe in the scene's context. Even not knowing anything about Ahkal Mo' Nahb from other monuments, his leisurely yet conventionalized gesture underlines a long list of clues that point to the fact that he is a figure of very high rank, to wit: he occupies the focal position in the scene; he sits against a large pillow and above the level of the other six characters; every other individual in the scene addresses him; and he is the only figure shown in an unobscured frontal view.
Go to page: To reinforce those visual clues, he is the only character in the scene that the main text talks about, referring to his accession. Finally, his personal caption identifies him, of course, as a Ruler of Palenque.
Go to page: Let us now consider Yok Nen(?) Tal. He is shown sitting immediately to the left of the Ahkal Mo' Nahb and, even though he does not seem to be playing an active role in the action depicted on the monument, his importance is stated by both his close proximity to Ahkal Mo' Nahb and by the fact that he is the only other character shown in a frontal pose, even if partially obscured.
Go to page: His caption gives him the title Yajaw K'ak' or Lord of Fire. The king is not looking his way, so his adoption of our Gesture 2 is difficult to interpret as a greeting or acknowledgment of submission. I believe, instead, that it was meant to communicates his social standing or rank to viewers of the monument. Given all the previous clues (frontal pose, relative placement and lordly title), such a standing must have been quite high.
Go to page: To the left of Yok Nen(?) Tal sits K'amaj Bate'. He is shown in profile, as opposed to Yok Nen Tal's frontal view. He is also shown farther from the focal figure in the bench. All this suggests he is not as important as Yok Nen(?) Tal.
Go to page: Yet other clues contradict this suggestion: as I have already said, I think it is highly likely that he is shown in the action of adopting the same gesture displayed by Yok Nen(?) Tal; and even though the profile view of him does not allow us to confirm whether he is wearing the same kind of bar pectoral as Yok Nen(?) Tal, everything else in his attire is virtually identical to the former's: headdress, mantle, wristlets...
Go to page: As to his caption, it confers on him the title Yax Sajal or First Sajal. If I am correctly interpreting the visual clues and his and Yok Nen(?) Tal's gesture does express a specific rank, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the formal social standing of a Yajaw K'ak' and a Yax Sajal could have been equivalent. The reason for the Yajaw K'ak' to be shown closer to the king could be explained by way of a personal, more trusting relationship, by political convenience or by other, similar circumstances. Nevertheless and regardless of their placement differences and frontal as opposed to profile depictions, their virtually identical garments and the fact they are shown adopting the same gesture would seem to have the intention of equating them in the viewer's eyes.
Go to page: The last character sitting to the left of the king is the mustachioed Muwaan Chatal Aan.
Go to page: Not only is he the figure sitting the farthest from the action, but he is clearly shown not wearing a jade pectoral, but one made from a bivalve shell, probably spondylus.
Go to page: His robe appears to be identical to those worn by the two characters preceding him, but his headdress is not as complex. He is also the smallest figure in that side of the scene.
Go to page: What really separates him visually from the two preceding figures, however, is the gesture he adopts, with arms tightly wrapped around his torso and his deformed hand shown protruding from underneath his armpit.
Go to page: Judging from all these clues, he seems to enjoy the lesser status of all four. His name caption seems to confirm this: of all seven characters, he appears to be the only one who does not bear a title.
Go to page: An attempt to categorize the figures in the scene by their body attitude and by the hand and arm gestures they adopt would start at the top with the leisurely pose of Ahkal Mo' Nahb, the king, proceeding through the arm-across-chest gesture of both Yok Nen(?) Tal and K'amaj Bate' and concluding with Muwaan Chatal Aan's gesture, which stands out as the most contrived of all and certainly the least comfortable.
Go to page: Even though not directly relating to gestures, I would like to point out the subtle but crucial role played not by Ahkal Mo' Nahb, who would be the obvious choice, but by Janahb Ajaw, who sits immediately to the right of the king.
Go to page: Even though he is not shown in a frontal pose, his importance can be discerned from several clues, to wit: he is the individual whom the king addresses; of all the figures in the scene, his headdress is the most elaborate by far, quite possibly even more elaborate than the king's, although we might never know that, for a good part of the latter's headdress is missing; additionally, Janahb Ajaw is shown presenting a recognizable headband of office to the king, which strongly suggests he has the authority to bestow the highest power.
Go to page: Turning to the information of the bench's texts, even though Janahb Ajaw is not mentioned by name in the main text, we can see by the caption that accompanies his figure that he is meant to play the role of Yax Naah Itzamnaaj, the highest Maya deity, at the time when he oversaw the accession of GI the Elder, which is the first (mythological) action mentioned in the main text.
Go to page: Confirming this, the caption for Ahkal Mo' Nahb leaves no doubt as to the fact that he is replaying here the part of GI the Elder at the time of his accession, an event which Ahkal Mo' Nahb's own accession sought to replicate. We know that for the Maya this was much more than mere role playing: by assuming the attributes of a deity, humans in effect became that deity. The message here is clear: Ahkal Mo' Nahb may be GI, but Janahb Ajaw is Yax Naah Itzamnaaj.
Go to page: In many Maya monuments, rulers are shown receiving their signs of office from dead ancestors, most often parents. Neither of Ahkal Mo' Nahb's parents ever ruled Palenque. Additionally, it is possible that he acceded in the middle of a political crisis: a possible defeat of Palenque at the hands of Toniná seems to have left Palenque literally headless. He may have been confronted with the problem of acceding without the sanction of an authority high enough as to lend legitimacy to his claim to the throne. In the absence of such a high authority, he may have had to resort to ancient religious history for a precedent that would justify his unorthodox accession. That he should share the monument commemorating his taking of office with no less than six other persons suggests that complex negotiations with different factions or high-ranking families may have had to take place in order to make it possible at all. But what is truly remarkable here is the fact that, for his legitimacy to be acknowledged, he was forced to symbolically relinquish the position of highest authority in his own accession monument to a person who was neither a ruler nor a dead ancestor.