Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Latin American Studies
Episode: Vera Tiesler, "Ancient Maya Teeth: Dental Modification, Cosmology, and Social Identity in Mesoamerica" (U Texas Press, 2024)
Description: Dental modification was common across ancient societies, but perhaps none were more avid practitioners than the Maya. They filed their teeth flat or pointy, polished and drilled them, and crafted decorative inlays of jade and pyrite. Unusually, Maya of all social classes, ages, and professions engaged in dental modification. What did it mean to them?Ancient Maya Teeth: Dental Modification, Cosmology, and Social Identity in Mesoamerica (University of Texas Press, 2024) by Dr. Vera Tiesler is the most comprehensive study of Maya dental modification ever published, based on thousands of teeth recovered from 130 sites spanning three millennia. Esteemed a...