«Trapped by emotions». Variability of emotions, psychoemotional states and their triggers on female Maya terracotta of the 1st millennium AD

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of emotions and psycho-emotional states represented on the female characters of the Mayan figurative plastic art of the 1st millennium AD. More than a hundred female figures of acceptable preservation were analyzed. By adapting the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), it was possible to identify a number of action units of three floors of the face, which are more or less found on the faces of women. In some cases, the presence of a plot allowed us to make assumptions about the triggers of the analyzed emotions and states. In general, it was possible to determine that the display of emotions did not depend on the status of the lady and her age. In addition, the presence of some action units was evidence not of the expression of emotion, but of being a sign of speech, accompanied by gestures or being an iconographic feature of the figurine.