LSU archaeologist co-edits collection exploring divinity and rulership

Sacred Sovereigns: Art, Divinity and Rulership in the Ancient Americas, a special issue of World Art co-edited by George F. Lau (University of East Anglia) and David Chicoine (LSU Geography & Anthropology), is now available online!

The collection, which is the outcome of a symposium held at the Sainsbury Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in October 2023, brings together eight contributions examining the visual and material expressions of divinity and authority over the last 3,000 years in Mesoamerica and the Andes. The papers offer art historical, archaeological, and anthropological perspectives into the religious construction of political authority and the complex entanglements between the cultural, natural, and supernatural worlds, especially how different forces, spirits and other such "metapersons" can become sources of power.

Lau and Chicoine co-author an introductory essay entitled "Crowning Affairs: Sacred Sovereigns in the Pre-Columbian World" that offers an overview of the aims, background and coverage of the collection and revisit key thinking behind divine rulership and position the case studies and the Pre-Columbian record.

Congratulations to all contributors!