National Museum of the American Indian Search this
Type:
YouTube Videos
Uploaded:
2013-03-05T20:06:24.000Z
Views:
1,920
Video Title:
Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America's Past Revealed, Opening March 29, 2013, Washington, DC
Description:
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Latino Center in Washington, D.C. present a major new exhibition, "Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America's Past Revealed," opening March 29, 2013. Over 160 ceramic, jade, gold, stone and shell objects from the museum's world-renowed collection, Cerámica de los Ancestros illuminates Central America's diverse and dynamic ancestral heritage. The exhibtion, in the third level gallery of the National Museum of the American Indian, will be open through February 1, 2015 For thousands of years, Central America has been home to vibrant civilizations, each with unique, sophisticated ways of life, value systems, and arts. The ceramics these peoples left behind, combined with recent archaeological discoveries, help tell the stories of these dynamic cultures and their achievements. The exhibit examines seven regions representing distinct Central American cultural areas which are today part of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Based on more than two years of research on the museum's Central American ceramics collections sponsored by the Smithsonian Latino Center, curator Ann McMullen and guest curator Alexander Villa Benitez of George Mason University have selected objects from the collection of over 12,000 ceramic pieces from the region, augmenting them with significant examples of work in gold, jade, shell, and stone. Altogether, these objects span the period from 1000 BC to the present and illustrate the richness, complexity, and dynamic qualities of Central American civilizations that were connected to peoples in South America, Mesoamerica, and the Caribbean through social and trade networks that shared knowledge, technology, artworks, and systems of status and political organization. Cerámica de los Ancestros is a joint effort of the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Latino Center. Accompanied by an interactive website, a landmark publication, and a full schedule of educational and public programs, Cerámica de los Ancestros represents a pioneering effort to promote a better understanding of the early lives of Central America's Native peoples and engage new Latino audiences, especially los Centroamericanos, who predominate in the Latino community of the greater Washington, D.C. area and consider these civilizations as part of their national and cultural heritage. Visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu
Video Duration:
15 min 23 sec
YouTube Keywords:
Native American Indian Museum Smithsonian "Indigenous Peoples" "Smithsonian Institution" "Smithsonian NMAI" "National Museum of the American Indian"
