Books and book chapters by Sarahh Scher
Pre-Columbian Pottery: A Thematic Approach to New World Ceramics, 2018
The Moche people of northern coastal Peru (circa 100 B.C.E-850 C.E.) left behind a great deal of ... more The Moche people of northern coastal Peru (circa 100 B.C.E-850 C.E.) left behind a great deal of visual communication in their art, which is unusual in its relative naturalism and realistic portrayal of human and animal figures. Although their stylistic choices appear to allow for a close study of artistic imagery and its relationship to Moche life, the Moche were selective in what they included in their iconography; their art is not a comprehensive catalogue of their culture (Donnan 1976: 67; Berezkin 1987: 273). Nevertheless, by comparing the results of a semiotic analysis of human costume in Moche ceramics (both three-dimensional sculptures and two-dimensional painted representations) with the work of scholars who have studied Moche supernatural representations in the same medium, it is possible to move toward a deeper understanding of mid- to late Moche culture as depicted in their art. By focusing mainly on art produced in the middle to late Moche periods (200-550 C.E.), this essay provides an inquiry into general ideas in Moche culture about the supernatural, ideas that of course would have varied in their details over time and space.
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In process. Chapter contribution to Arte antes de la historia, ed. Marco Curatola Petrocchi, Céci... more In process. Chapter contribution to Arte antes de la historia, ed. Marco Curatola Petrocchi, Cécile Michaud, Joanne Pillsbury, and Lisa Trever. Pontificia Universidad Católica, Lima, Peru.
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Costume can reveal a wealth of information about an individual’s identity within society. Dressin... more Costume can reveal a wealth of information about an individual’s identity within society. Dressing the Part looks at the ways individuals in the ancient Americas used clothing, hairstyle, and personal ornaments to express status and power, gender identity, and group affiliations, even from the grave.
While most gender studies of pre-Columbian societies focus on women, these essays also foreground men and persons of multiple or ambiguous gender, exploring how these various identities are part of the greater fabric of social relations, political power, and religious authority. The contributors to this volume discuss how costume elements represented empowered identities, how different costumes expressed gender and power, and how elite gendered costume elements may have been appropriated by people of other genders as symbols of power.
Dressing the Part examines how individual identity played a role in larger schemes of social relationship in the ancient Americas. Employing a variety of theories and methodologies from art history, anthropology, ethnography, semiotics, and material science, this volume considers not only how authority is gendered or related to gender but also how the dynamics between power and gender are negotiated through costume.
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Papers by Sarahh Scher
Art Institute Review
Contemporary theories of the body and clothing help press at the limits of our knowledge about ge... more Contemporary theories of the body and clothing help press at the limits of our knowledge about gender identity among the Moche, an ancient South American culture.
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World Art
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Ceramics-technical, 2009
The use of sound and music as a method of contacting the spirit world was important throughout th... more The use of sound and music as a method of contacting the spirit world was important throughout the ancient Americas and continues to be important in contemporary shamanic practice.1 Flutes, drums and rattles held ritual importance in a belief system that strove to make contact with the world of the spirits and the ancestors. Belief systems and rituals of spirit communication in the ancient Americas were related to the shamanic complex, in which a ritual specialist (the shaman) makes contact with the spirit world by entering a trance state. He transforms himself into a spirit, often a powerful animal, in order to make this dangerous journey. While in this Other World, the shaman communicates with two groups of beings: the spirits, who have always been there and often embody forces of nature such as rain, plants or animal spirits; and the ancestors, members of the society who have died and become spirits. If properly respected and memorialized, the ancestors hold a stake in the succes...
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Using the representation of costume in ceramic art, this study examines how the Moche of northern... more Using the representation of costume in ceramic art, this study examines how the Moche of northern Peru formulated ideals of gender and status, and how those ideals fit into larger Andean traditions of gender ambiguity. A synthesis of Panofskian iconography and semiotic analysis is used to understand the ways in which clothing and ornament speak to gender in Moche art. The elements of costume have been an essential part of social identity formation in the Andes for millennia, a trait that persists today. Moche ideals of gender are considered within a larger Amerindian tradition of gender ambiguity and its relationship to spirits and the divine. How the Moche upper classes negotiated between the spiritual power of the different-by-birth and the theocratic power of the noble-by-birth is visible in the treatment of sex and gender roles and the place of ambiguous gender in the art. Moche sex and gender exist in a continuum rather than in a dyad; while the poles of male and female are clearly defined, there are a number of individuals who are designated as ambiguous. Gender-ambiguous individuals in Moche art belong to three classes: performative, age-based, and diagnostically physical. All three rely on a combination of garments that erase distinctions of difference to signal this ambiguity. Gender ambiguity in Moche art is for the most part allied with private rituals, much more closely associated with the shamanic tradition than the public rites of the Sacrifice Ceremony, which were the province of the upper classes.
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Bulletin de l’Institut français d’études andines, 2012
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West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 2019
Defining foreignness is an important element of how cultures demarcate their own sense of being a... more Defining foreignness is an important element of how cultures demarcate their own sense of being and identity, and artists translate these definitions into depictions of the foreign and Other. Analyzing depictions of the Other can also aid in understanding the ways cultures interact with those outside their cultural sphere, and how they create stereotyped identities for them. Studying the representation of costume provides a way to understand how foreigners are perceived as Other, as well as how they might be perceived as similar. Two vessels excavated in 1899 hold the key to understanding a group of foreigners depicted in Moche ceramic art from Huaca de la Luna on the north coast of Peru (ca. 200–900 CE). Elements of dress and accessories point to a highland origin of these foreigners, who may themselves be indicators of trading ties between the Huacas de Moche site and their neighbors to the east.
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Andean Foodways, 2020
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Ceramics of Ancient America
The Moche people of northern coastal Peru (c. 100 B.C.E–850 C.E.) left behind a great deal of vis... more The Moche people of northern coastal Peru (c. 100 B.C.E–850 C.E.) left behind a great deal of visual communication in their art, which is unusual in its relative naturalism and realistic portrayal of human and animal figures. Although their stylistic choices appear to allow for a close study of artistic imagery and its relationship to Moche life, the Moche were selective in what they included in their iconography; their art is not a comprehensive catalogue of their culture. Nevertheless, by comparing the results of a iconographic analysis of human costume in Moche ceramics with the work of scholars who have studied Moche supernatural representations in the same medium, it is possible to move toward a deeper understanding of mid- to late Moche culture and status as depicted in their art. By focusing mainly on art produced in the middle to late Moche periods (AD 200–550), this essay provides an inquiry into general ideas in Moche culture about the supernatural, ideas which of course w...
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Ceramics of Ancient America
The Moche people of northern coastal Peru (c. 100 B.C.E–850 C.E.) left behind a great deal of vis... more The Moche people of northern coastal Peru (c. 100 B.C.E–850 C.E.) left behind a great deal of visual communication in their art, which is unusual in its relative naturalism and realistic portrayal of human and animal figures. Although their stylistic choices appear to allow for a close study of artistic imagery and its relationship to Moche life, the Moche were selective in what they included in their iconography; their art is not a comprehensive catalogue of their culture. Nevertheless, by comparing the results of a iconographic analysis of human costume in Moche ceramics with the work of scholars who have studied Moche supernatural representations in the same medium, it is possible to move toward a deeper understanding of mid- to late Moche culture and status as depicted in their art. By focusing mainly on art produced in the middle to late Moche periods (AD 200–550), this essay provides an inquiry into general ideas in Moche culture about the supernatural, ideas which of course w...
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West 86th, 2019
Defining foreignness is an important element of how cultures demarcate their own sense of being a... more Defining foreignness is an important element of how cultures demarcate their own sense of being and identity, and artists translate these definitions into depictions of the foreign and Other. Analyzing depictions of the Other can also aid in understanding the ways cultures interact with those outside their cultural sphere, and how they create stereotyped identities for them. Studying the representation of costume provides a way to understand how foreigners are perceived as Other, as well as how they might be perceived as similar. Two vessels excavated in 1899 hold the key to understanding a group of foreigners depicted in Moche ceramic art from Huaca de la Luna on the north coast of Peru (ca. 200-900 CE). Elements of dress and accessories point to a highland origin of these foreigners, who may themselves be indicators of trading ties between the Huacas de Moche site and their neighbors to the east.
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At Huaca de la Luna, an ancient Moche center in northern coastal Peru (c. A.D. 200-850), archaeol... more At Huaca de la Luna, an ancient Moche center in northern coastal Peru (c. A.D. 200-850), archaeologists excavated ceramic representations that seem to depict captive warriors defeated in battle. These effigies participate in a visual rhetoric of ritual violence that might be compared to the treatment of modern prisoners in the war on terror and to contemporary exertion of state power. Interpretation of these effigies, some with representations of costumes incised and/or painted on their bodies, is informed by the treatment of sacrificial victims found in two areas of the site. These effigies were standardized, yet malleable: made from clay pressed into moulds, fired, and then individually decorated. Their appearances and presence offer important perspectives on the polity’s discourse of power over actual humans who were found sacrificed at this same site. This essay addresses these effigies as related to the exertion of polity power. It also reveals how they manifest ideas about the relationship between the represented body and the living body. This results in a body-as-iconography that reinforces political power through repetition and regularity. These effigies favour a Foucauldian reading that writes the will of the polity on the bodies of the victims.
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Bulletin de l'Institut Français d' Études Andines, 2012
This paper examines the male body in Moche art as a locus for the ideological construction of gen... more This paper examines the male body in Moche art as a locus for the ideological construction of gender. It proposes that the male body is characterized by vitality, violence, and potency, and that an aspect of this characterization may affect the conventions for representing the phallus. These conventions specifically refer to the erect, sexually potent phallus, even when a specific phallus is not depicted as erect. This mode of representation attempt to create a fixed state out of a temporary quality, by emphasizing the eternal performance of male gender.
Este artículo investiga la representación del cuerpo masculino en el arte Mochica como un locus para la construcción ideológica del género. Se sugiere que el cuerpo masculino es caracterizado por la vitalidad, la violencia y la potencia, y que un aspecto de esta caracterización puede afectar a las representaciones del falo. Estas representaciones parecen referirse específicamente al falo erecto, con potencia sexual, incluso cuando este no está representado erecto. Este modo de representación intenta dar por perenne a un estado, en rigor, transitorio, enfatizando la eterna performance del género masculino.
Cet article propose d’assigner au corps masculin, tel qu’il est représenté dans l’art Moche la fonction de lieu de la construction idéologique du genre. Le corps masculin serait caractérisé par la vitalité, la violence, et la puissance. L’un des aspects de cette caractérisation affecterait les représentations conventionnelles du phallus. Celles-ci renvoient toujours au phallus en érection, sexuellement puissant, même s’il n’est pas représenté en érection. Ce mode de représentation tente de figer une situation temporaire, afin de suggérer l’infaillibilité du genre masculin.
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Conference papers by Sarahh Scher
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Books and book chapters by Sarahh Scher
While most gender studies of pre-Columbian societies focus on women, these essays also foreground men and persons of multiple or ambiguous gender, exploring how these various identities are part of the greater fabric of social relations, political power, and religious authority. The contributors to this volume discuss how costume elements represented empowered identities, how different costumes expressed gender and power, and how elite gendered costume elements may have been appropriated by people of other genders as symbols of power.
Dressing the Part examines how individual identity played a role in larger schemes of social relationship in the ancient Americas. Employing a variety of theories and methodologies from art history, anthropology, ethnography, semiotics, and material science, this volume considers not only how authority is gendered or related to gender but also how the dynamics between power and gender are negotiated through costume.
Papers by Sarahh Scher
Este artículo investiga la representación del cuerpo masculino en el arte Mochica como un locus para la construcción ideológica del género. Se sugiere que el cuerpo masculino es caracterizado por la vitalidad, la violencia y la potencia, y que un aspecto de esta caracterización puede afectar a las representaciones del falo. Estas representaciones parecen referirse específicamente al falo erecto, con potencia sexual, incluso cuando este no está representado erecto. Este modo de representación intenta dar por perenne a un estado, en rigor, transitorio, enfatizando la eterna performance del género masculino.
Cet article propose d’assigner au corps masculin, tel qu’il est représenté dans l’art Moche la fonction de lieu de la construction idéologique du genre. Le corps masculin serait caractérisé par la vitalité, la violence, et la puissance. L’un des aspects de cette caractérisation affecterait les représentations conventionnelles du phallus. Celles-ci renvoient toujours au phallus en érection, sexuellement puissant, même s’il n’est pas représenté en érection. Ce mode de représentation tente de figer une situation temporaire, afin de suggérer l’infaillibilité du genre masculin.
Conference papers by Sarahh Scher
While most gender studies of pre-Columbian societies focus on women, these essays also foreground men and persons of multiple or ambiguous gender, exploring how these various identities are part of the greater fabric of social relations, political power, and religious authority. The contributors to this volume discuss how costume elements represented empowered identities, how different costumes expressed gender and power, and how elite gendered costume elements may have been appropriated by people of other genders as symbols of power.
Dressing the Part examines how individual identity played a role in larger schemes of social relationship in the ancient Americas. Employing a variety of theories and methodologies from art history, anthropology, ethnography, semiotics, and material science, this volume considers not only how authority is gendered or related to gender but also how the dynamics between power and gender are negotiated through costume.
Este artículo investiga la representación del cuerpo masculino en el arte Mochica como un locus para la construcción ideológica del género. Se sugiere que el cuerpo masculino es caracterizado por la vitalidad, la violencia y la potencia, y que un aspecto de esta caracterización puede afectar a las representaciones del falo. Estas representaciones parecen referirse específicamente al falo erecto, con potencia sexual, incluso cuando este no está representado erecto. Este modo de representación intenta dar por perenne a un estado, en rigor, transitorio, enfatizando la eterna performance del género masculino.
Cet article propose d’assigner au corps masculin, tel qu’il est représenté dans l’art Moche la fonction de lieu de la construction idéologique du genre. Le corps masculin serait caractérisé par la vitalité, la violence, et la puissance. L’un des aspects de cette caractérisation affecterait les représentations conventionnelles du phallus. Celles-ci renvoient toujours au phallus en érection, sexuellement puissant, même s’il n’est pas représenté en érection. Ce mode de représentation tente de figer une situation temporaire, afin de suggérer l’infaillibilité du genre masculin.