The tendency to simplify the richness and inherent hybridity of writing systems is apparent in considerations of the Maya hieroglyphic script. Orthodox approaches to Maya writing often focus exclusively on its linguistic dimensions; considerations of how imagery relates to this system—spatially and graphically—are typically restricted to art historical analyses and to the recognition of pictorial features of graphemes as clues to linguistic readings. However, the two systems are inextricably intertwined. The linguistic dimensions of graphemes must be considered together with their corresponding imagery; script and imagery form a dynamic polygraphic system that is rooted in broader systems of cultural signification and tailored to the cultural understandings of a particular audience. Examples of this interconnectedness range from figures pointing to graphemes in a script block, through the use of graphemes as costume elements, to figures holding or manipulating graphemes. Meaning is generated jointly through linguistic and artistic forms; imagery and script cannot be divorced without losing semantic nuance and, in most cases, a significant part of the message. This evokes views of texts, broadly defined, as primary cultural constructions intimately bound to the systems of cultural codes that animate their semantics. Maya writing occurs at the intersection of two of these codes—that of the script and that of the imagery— and must be understood as part of a broader tradition of literacy.
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