Dexterous Maya Nobles and
Left-Handed Enemies
Other intriguing effects and
reversed placement of figures occur in Maya imagery when people are shown
wielding spears and shields while in the standard frontal position. Since
warriors and “normal, superior, and good” humans use their right hands to brandish
a spear and their left hands to hold shields, some adjustments had to be made
with regards to the left/right structure, placement of individuals, and hand
use. Hence, warriors are frequently shown unconventionally on the viewer’s left
with the left sides of their bodies entering the zone of contact so that their
shields do not block their frontally viewed bodies. In this manner they can
accurately be shown as right-handed spear users and properly grabbing shields
or captives with their left hands while in unobstructed frontal view. Warriors
properly using a spear in the right hand and a shield in the left while in
frontal view can actually be shown oriented to their right and entering the
zone of contact with the right sides of their bodies, but their posture and
handedness become confused (Figure 9). The body is often shown in a contorted
manner but the use of the spear in the right hand is clear: the artist placed
the spear passing behind and to the right of the head and a right hand is shown
grasping the spear (see similar techniques in the central Mexican manuscript El
Lienzo de Tlaxcala [Chavero 1979] and in the Cacaxtla murals [Baird 1989;
McVicker 1985]).
Ostensibly, it was more important
to depict ancient Maya elites, combatants, and peak figures holding objects in
their right hands than to have the left sides of their bodies entering the zone
of contact. A fascinating illustration of Maya handedness, figure placement,
and left/right symbolism can be found in the battle scene on the Classic period
painted murals at Bonampak, Mexico (see Figure 10). The victorious Bonampak
king and army are shown on the viewer’s left so that they may wield their
spears in their right hands and be unobstructed by the shields in their left
hands. They clash with enemy soldiers on the viewer’s right. What is
particularly interesting is that the defeated enemies are all left-handed!
It is doubtful that this army of southpaws was like the feared 400 left-handed
biblical soldiers under Benjamin (“son of the right hand”) or high-status Aztec
fighters mimicking their patron deity Huitzilopochtli (“Hummingbird of
the left”). Moreover, Miller (1986:110) observes that for some perplexing
reason a few conquered enemy warriors in the Bonampak murals have two left
hands and some victors have two right hands. It seems likely that this
particular doubling of right or left hands was intentional. I suggest that the
creators of the murals emphasized that the enemy soldiers were left-handed
combatants who were inferior, lame, weak, impure, and perhaps more feminine,
and were destined to be beaten in battle. The double right-handed victors,
however, were depicted as superior, powerful, pure, and righteous.
Defeated left-handed warriors
(shields in their right hands and spears in their left hands) are also seen in
the Maya-influenced murals of Cacaxtla, Mexico (see Baird 1989; McVicker 1985)
and on decorated Maya ceramics (see Kerr 1989:14, File no. 503). In the Codex
Nuttall (Miller 1975, see codex pages 70 and 75), a Mixtec manuscript from
Oaxaca, Mexico, right hands are frequently drawn on left arms of spear-wielding
nobles to indicate the preference for right-handed warriors. Some important
deity figures in the art of ancient central Mexico are also sometimes shown
with two right hands or two left hands as in the Mexican Codex Borgia (see Diaz
and Rodgers 1993:22, Plate 56), possibly to signal their varying roles,
statuses, and behaviors. Handedness, figure orientation, and left/right
structured meaning can also be seen in Precolumbian Olmec, Teotihuacan,
Zapotec, and Aztec art in Mexico (see images in Berdan and Anawalt 1997; Berlo
1992; Marcus 1992; Tate 1999). (Joel W. Palka, “Left/Right Symbolism and the
Body in Ancient Maya Iconography and Culture,” Latin American Antiquity 13,
no. 4 [December 2002]: 432-34)
Figure 9 (p. 432):
Figure 10 (p. 433):
