What Animal Did Priests Dress Up As During Religious Ceremonies?

Beliefs of the ancient Maya people

The traditional Maya organized religion of the extant Maya peoples of Guatemala, Belize, western Republic of honduras, and the Tabasco, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatán states of Mexico is part of the wider frame of Mesoamerican organized religion. As is the example with many other contemporary Mesoamerican religions, it results from centuries of symbiosis with Roman Catholicism. When its pre-Hispanic antecedents are taken into account, still, traditional Maya faith has already existed for more than two and a half millennia as a recognizably distinct phenomenon. Before the advent of Christianity, it was spread over many indigenous kingdoms, all with their own local traditions. Today, it coexists and interacts with pan-Mayan syncretism, the 're-invention of tradition' by the Pan-Maya motility, and Christianity in its various denominations.

Sources of traditional Mayan faith [edit]

The well-nigh important source on traditional Maya religion is the Mayas themselves: the incumbents of positions within the religious hierarchy, diviners, and tellers of tales. More than by and large, all those persons who shared their knowledge with outsiders in the by, as well every bit anthropologists and history people who studied them and go on to do so.

What is known of pre-Hispanic Maya religion stems from heterogeneous sources (the primary ones existence of Maya origin):

Principal sources from pre-Hispanic times: the three surviving Maya hieroglyphic books (the Maya codices of Dresden, Madrid and Paris) plus the Maya-Toltec Grolier Codex, all dating from the Postclassic flow (later 900 Ad); the 'ceramic codex' (the corpus of pottery scenes and texts) and mural paintings; the inscriptions in rock from the Classic (200–900 AD) and Late Preclassic (200 BC-200 AD) periods
Primary sources from the early-colonial (16th-century) period, such as the Popol Vuh, the Ritual of the Bacabs, and (at least in function) the diverse Chilam Balam books
Secondary sources, importantly Spanish treatises from the colonial menstruum, such every bit those of Landa for the Lowland Mayas and Las Casas for the Highland Mayas, only also lexicons such equally the early-colonial Motul (Yucatec) and Coto (Kaqchikel) dictionaries
Archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic studies
Anthropological reports published since the late 19th century, used in combination with the sources to a higher place

Fundamentals of ritual [edit]

Traditional Maya religion, though besides representing a conventionalities arrangement, is frequently referred to as costumbre, the 'custom' or habitual religious practice, in contradistinction to orthodox Roman Cosmic ritual. To a large extent, Maya religion is indeed a complex of ritual practices; and information technology is, therefore, fitting that the indigenous Yucatec hamlet priest is simply chosen jmen ("practitioner"). Among the chief concepts relating to Maya ritual are the following ones.

Ritual topography and calendrical mapping [edit]

The Maya landscape is a ritual topography, with landmarks such as mountains, wells and caves existence assigned to specific ancestors and deities (see too Maya cavern sites). Thus, the Tzotzil town of Zinacantan is surrounded by vii 'bathing places' of mountain-dwelling ancestors, with 1 of these sacred waterholes serving every bit the residence of the ancestors' 'nursemaids and laundresses'.^[1] As in the Pre-Hispanic by, an important part of ritual behavior takes place in or near such landmarks, in Yucatán also effectually karstic sinkholes (cenotes).

Ritual was governed not simply by the geographical lay-out of shrines and temples (see also Maya compages), only also past the projection of calendrical models onto the landscape. In contemporary Quichean Momostenango, for example, specific combinations of twenty-four hour period-names and numbers are ascribed to specialized shrines in the mountains, signalling the appropriate times for their ritual use.^[2] In the northwestern Maya highlands, the four days, or '24-hour interval Lords', that can commencement a year are assigned to four mountains. In early colonial Yucatán, the thirteen Katun periods and their deities, mapped onto a mural conceived as a 'wheel', are said to be successively 'established' in specific towns.^[iii]

Pilgrimage [edit]

Through pilgrimages, which create networks connecting places regionally every bit well every bit over larger distances, Maya religion transcends the limits of the local community. Nowadays, pilgrimages frequently involve reciprocal visits of the village saints (as represented by their statues), just too visits to farther-removed sanctuaries, as exemplified past the Q'eqchi' pilgrimages to their thirteen sacred mountains.^[4] Around 1500, Chichen Itza used to concenter pilgrims from all the surrounding kingdoms to its big cenote; other pilgrims visited local shrines, such as those of Nine Chel and other goddesses on the islands off Yucatán'southward due east coast. Eight centuries earlier, noblemen from sundry Archetype kingdoms went on pilgrimage to the caves of Naj Tunich and had their visits recorded on the sanctuary's walls.^[five]

Offerings and sacrifices [edit]

Offerings serve to establish and renew relations ('contracts', 'pacts', or 'covenants') with the other earth, and the choice, number, preparation, and arrangement of the offered items (such equally special maize breads,^[6] maize and cacao drinks and honey liquor, flowers, incense nodules, rubber figures, and also, cigars^[7]) obey to stringent rules. In the same way, a drink made of exactly 415 grains of parched maize was to be offered to participants in a pre-Hispanic New Twelvemonth ritual, and on another occasion, the precise number of 49 grains of maize mixed with copal (incense) was to exist burnt.^[8] A well-known instance of a ritual meal is the "Holy Mass of the maize farmer" (misa milpera) celebrated at an improvised altar for the Yucatec pelting deities. Particularly Lacandon ritual was entirely focused on the 'feeding' of the deities, as represented by their incense burners.^[9]

In the ancient Maya cities, all sorts of offertory items (including sacrificial implements) were also stored and cached in deposits (caches) below architectural features such equally floors, stelae, and altars; in these cases, the intention may frequently have been a dedication to a specific religious purpose, rather than an offering to a divine recipient.

The forms sacrifice might take vary considerably. In gimmicky sacrificial rites, there is an overall emphasis on the sprinkling of blood, especially that of turkeys. In the pre-Hispanic past, sacrifice unremarkably consisted of animals such as deer, canis familiaris, quail, turkey, and fish, but on exceptional occasions (such as accretion to the throne, astringent affliction of the ruler, royal burial, or drought and famine) as well came to include human beings, adults as well as children.^[x] The sacrificed kid may have served as a 'substitute', a concept known from curing ritual.^[11] Partaking of the sacrifice was common, but ritual cannibalism appears to have been exceedingly rare. A characteristic feature of aboriginal Mayan ritual (though not exclusive to the Mayas) were the "bloodletting" sessions held by high officials and members of the regal families, during which the earlobes, tongues, and foreskins were cut with razor-abrupt small-scale knives and stingray spines;^[12] the blood fell on newspaper strips that were possibly burnt afterwards.

Purification [edit]

Purificatory measures such every bit fasting, sexual abstention, bathing, and (especially in the pre-Hispanic past) confession generally precede major ritual events. In 16th-century Yucatán, purification (exorcism of evil spirits) often represented a ritual's initial phase. The bloodletting-rituals (see below) may as well take had a purificatory function. More generally, purification is needed before entering areas inhabited by deities. In nowadays-24-hour interval Yucatán, for example, information technology is customary to drinkable continuing h2o from a rock depression at the first opportunity upon entering the forest. The h2o is and then spat on the ground, and thus renders the individual 'virginal', free to carry out the business of humankind in the sacred forest.

Prayer [edit]

Maya prayer almost invariably accompanies acts of offering and sacrifice. Information technology frequently takes the grade of long litanies, in which the names of personified days, saints, angels (rain and lightning deities), features of the mural continued with historical or mythical events, and mountains are specially prominent.^[13] Its importance is highlighted by the fact that Maya communities in the northwestern highlands of Guatemala have a specialized group of 'Prayermakers'. Prayers, with their hypnotizing scansion, often bear witness a parallel (dyadic) couplet structure which has also been recognized in Classic period texts.^[14] The earliest prayers recorded in European script are in Quiché, and are embedded in the creation myths of the Popol Vuh.

Priesthood [edit]

The traditional Maya have their own religious functionaries, often hierarchically organized, and charged with the duties of praying and sacrificing on behalf of lineages, local groups, or the entire community. In many places, they operate within the Catholic brotherhoods (or 'cofradías') and the so-called civil-religious hierarchy (or 'cargo organization'), organizations which have played a crucial role in the preservation of pre-Spanish religious traditions. The ii most of import male person deities (Martín and Maximón) of the Tz'utujil Mayas of Santiago Atitlán, for instance, take their own brotherhoods and priests.^[15] Public ritual focusing on agriculture and rain is led by the 'godfathers of the wet season' (padrinos del invierno) among the Ch'orti'south^[sixteen] – in a particularly rich and complex system – and by the village priests (jmenob) in Yucatán. In the private realm, nearly everywhere diviners ('seers', 'daykeepers') are active, together with curers. The performance of many of the indigenous priests, simply especially of the curers, shows features also associated with shamanism.^[17]

Contemporary Maya priest in a healing ritual at Tikal

Knowledge of the before Maya priesthood is almost entirely based on what their Spanish missionary colleagues have to say about them (Landa for Yucatán, Las Casas and others for the Guatemalan Highlands). The upper echelon of the priesthood was a repository of learning, also in the field of history and genealogical noesis. Around 1500, the Yucatec priesthood was hierarchically organized, from the high priest living at the courtroom down to the priests in the towns, and the priestly books were distributed along these lines.^[18] The part model for the high priest is likely to have been the upper god Itzamna, get-go priest and inventor of the fine art of writing.^[19] The virtually general word for priest, including the Yucatec loftier priest, appears to have been ah m'in 'calendrical priest'. Some priests were ordinary diviners, while others had specialized noesis of the kingly katun cycle.^[twenty] Bated from calendrical learning, yet, priests had multiple tasks, running from performing life crisis rituals to managing the monthly banquet cycle, and held special offices, such every bit that of oracle (chilan), astrologer, and sacrificer of human beings (nacom). In the K'iche' Kingdom of Q'umarkaj, the most important deities (Tohil, Awilix, Jacawitz and Gukumatz) had their own high priests.^[21] At all levels, access to late Postclassic priesthood seems to accept been restricted to the nobility.

Trivial is known with certainty concerning the Classic Maya priesthood. Iconographically, there can exist no serious dubiousness only that the aged, austere figures depicted equally writing and reading books, aspersing and inaugurating dignitaries and kings, and overseeing human cede, represent professional priests and loftier priests at court. Certain hieroglyphic titles of noblemen accept been interpreted equally priestly ones (due east.g., ajk'uhuun, mayhap 'worshipper', yajaw k'ahk 'master of fire').^[22] The king (k'uhul ajaw or 'holy lord'), as well, acted ex officio as a priest.

Dramatic operation and impersonation [edit]

Feasts would include dramatic performances and the impersonation of deities, specially by the king.

Feasting and dramatic performance [edit]

In contempo times, feasts are unremarkably organized past religious brotherhoods, with the greatest expenses existence for the higher charges. Similarly, in the pre-Hispanic kingdom of Maní, some religious feasts seem to have been sponsored by wealthy and preeminent men,^[23] perhaps reflecting a general do in Postclassic and before kingdoms. Through the feasts, capital could be redistributed in food and drink. The continual and obligatory drinking, negatively commented on by early on as well every bit contemporary outsiders, establishes community, non only amidst the human participants, but also between these and the deities.

Both in recent times and in the Classic period, more than complex rituals would include music and trip the light fantastic, processions, and theatrical play. Nowadays, the functioning of important dances and dance dramas (non e'er religious ones) often takes identify on the feast of the patron saint of the village and on certain set occasions dictated by the Cosmic calendar (such equally Corpus Christi and the 'May Cross'). For the late Postclassic period, Landa mentions specific dances executed during either the New Year rituals (east.g., the Xibalba okot 'trip the light fantastic of Xibalba') or the monthly feasts (eastward.g., the holkan okot 'dance of the state of war chiefs'). The god most often shown dancing during the Classic menses is the Tonsured Maize God, a patron of feasting.

Impersonation [edit]

The theatrical impersonation of deities and animals, a general Mesoamerican practice, also characterized pre-Hispanic Mayan performances and included the wayob (were-animals).^[24] Ritual humor (a vehicle for social criticism) could be office of these events, involving such actors equally opossums, spider monkeys, and the aged Bacabs, with women sometimes existence cast in erotic roles.^[25] Often, impersonation meant ritual representation on a state level, particularly as depicted on stelae and ball game panels. On the royal stelae – that is, at v-tun or yard'atun celebrations – the king wears the heads of important deities and forces of nature for a headdress or a mask, while carrying a sceptre in the grade of the lightning deity. The heads are frequently those of the pelting deity (Chaac) and of an aquatic ophidian. On the other manus, the reigning queen, or queen consort, usually represents the primary maize goddess, that is, a female person Tonsured Maize God. Young men, perhaps princes, tin can impersonate the four deities carrying the earth (Bacabs) while holding the four associated Year Bearer days in their easily^[26] or carrying a throne; they may also substitute for the main rain deity (Chaac). Hieroglyphic expressions of the concept of impersonation involve many other deities as well.^[27] In some cases, impersonation may relate to the individual's identity with, or transformation into, a phenomenon of nature.

Ritual domains [edit]

The but extensive handling of pre-Hispanic Maya ritual past a about-contemporary concerns Yucatán, particularly the kingdom of Mani, and was written by friar Diego de Landa (ca. 1566). Yet, major ritual domains, such as those of agronomics and kingship, are hardly touched upon by Landa.

Calendar [edit]

The Maya agenda, connected to networks of sacrificial shrines, is central for ritual life. The rites of the 260-twenty-four hours cycle are treated below ('Sciences of Destiny'). Among the highland Maya, the calendrical rites of the community as a whole relate to the succession of the 365-twenty-four hour period years, and to the and then-chosen 'Year Bearers' in particular, that is, the four named days that tin serve as new year's day days. Conceived as divine lords, these Year Bearers were welcomed on the mountain (one of 4) which was to be their seat of power, and worshipped at each recurrence of their twenty-four hours in the grade of the year.^[28]

The calendrical rites include the five-day marginal period at the cease of the twelvemonth. In 16th-century Yucatán, a straw puppet called 'granddaddy' (mam) was ready and venerated, only to exist discarded at the end of the marginal period, or Uayeb (Cogolludo). In this aforementioned interval, the incoming patron deity of the yr was installed and the outgoing one removed. Through annually shifting procession routes, the calendrical model of the iv 'Year Bearers' (New year's day days) was projected onto the four quarters of the town.^[29] Landa's detailed treatment of the New Twelvemonth rites – the well-nigh of import clarification of a pre-Hispanic Maya ritual complex to take come downwards to us – corresponds on essential points to the schematic depiction of these rites in the much earlier Dresden Codex.

Like the Yr Bearers, the thirteen twenty-yr periods (katuns) of the Short Count were viewed as divine lords in their own right and worshipped accordingly. The katuns had specific divine patrons (as mentioned in the Chilam Balam books) and their own priests.^[30]

Occupational groups [edit]

The 18 months had festivals, dedicated to specific deities, which were largely historic past occupational groups (in detail hunters and fishermen, bee-keepers, cacao planters, curers, and warriors).^[31] It is not known if and to what extent this festival cycle of the kingdom of Maní was shared by the other Yucatec kingdoms, and if it was also valid for the before Mayan kingdoms, both in Yucatán and elsewhere.

Jéets méek' ritual every bit practiced nowadays in Yucatan

Life cycle [edit]

Life cycle rituals (or rites of passage) demarcate the various stages of life. Landa details one of these rituals, destined for making young boys and girls marriageable (caput sihil '2d birth'). The Yucatec Maya continue the ritual (Hetz mek ^[32]) which marks a child'southward motility from cradling or conveying to the mother's hip. It is performed at nearly three months and has godparents of the anniversary. The child is offered implements appropriate to its gender, tools for boys and textile or thread for girls. If the children grasp them, this is considered a foretelling. All children are offered pencils and newspaper.

Health [edit]

Gimmicky healing rituals focus on the retrieval and reincorporation of the lost souls or soul particles imprisoned somewhere by specific deities or ancestors.^[33] The procedures can include the sacrifice of fowl treated as the patient's 'substitute' (Tzotzil k'exolil-helolil).^[34] The master collection of ancient Yucatec curing rituals is the and then-called Ritual of the Bacabs. In these texts, the world with its four trees and 4 carriers of globe and heaven (Bacabs) located at the corners is the theatre of shamanic curing sessions, during which "the four Bacabs" are ofttimes addressed to assist the curer in his struggle with disease-causing agents. Many of the features of shamanic curing found in the 'Ritual of the Bacabs' still narrate gimmicky curing ritual. Not represented amidst these early on ritual texts is black sorcery.

Atmospheric condition and agronomics [edit]

Influencing the conditions is the main purpose of the rain-making rituals – sometimes of a secretive character – that are found all over the Maya area^[35] and also of such rituals as 'Imprisoning the winds' ^[36] and 'Sealing the frost' ^[37] just before the sowing season. The officiating priests of the rain-making rituals are sometimes believed to ascend into the clouds and there to act like rain deities themselves.^[38] Influencing the conditions can also mean deflecting the rain clouds from neighboring areas, and thus imply black sorcery.

The principal focus of the agronomical rites is the sowing and harvesting of the maize. Particularly the rituals of the Yucatec and Ch'orti' Mayas^[39] have been described in cracking detail. For eastern Yucatán, a whole taxonomy of ritual sequences has been established,^[40] including variable rituals for protecting an surface area against evil influences (loh), thanksgiving (uhanlikol 'dinner of the maize field'), and imploring the rain deities (ch'a cháak).

An important sanctuary for Terminal Archetype rain and maize rituals was the large cavern of Balankanche near Chichén Itzá, with its numerous Tlaloc censers and miniature metates.^[41]

Chase [edit]

In one of the 16th-century Yucatec month feasts, hunters danced with arrows and deer skulls painted bluish.^[42] The focus on animal skulls is significant, since fifty-fifty today, traditional Maya hunters take the duty to preserve the skulls and bones of their booty, deposit these periodically in hunting shrines, and thus restore them to their supernatural Owners for regeneration.^[43] They should also respect certain hunting taboos, such every bit those on adultery and unnecessarily wounding the game, on penalty of supernatural sanction; for this same reason, in another month of the 16th-century Yucatec feast bike, a rite of contrition was held by the hunters.^[44]

Territory [edit]

The claims on territory past social groups of varying dimensions were expressed in rituals such as those for the waterholes, bequeathed lands,^[45] and the boundaries of the entire customs.^[46] The focus of these rituals were often crosses, or rather, 'cantankerous shrines', and prayers were directed at rain and world deities. For before periods, such crosses and shrines can, perhaps, be thought of as being connected to the fundamental 'cross', or world tree of the center,^[47] best exemplified by the arboreal crosses in the temple shrines of the Cantankerous Grouping in Palenque. The king was the prime embodiment of the central cross or world tree.

Warfare [edit]

In Maya narrative, warfare includes the warriors' transformation into animals (wayob) and the use of black magic by sorcerers.^[48] In the pre-Hispanic menstruation, war rituals focused on the state of war leaders and the weapons. The jaguar-spotted War Twin Xbalanque counted as a state of war deity in the Alta Verapaz; preceding a entrada, rituals were held for him during thirty days, so that he might imbue the weapons with his power.^[49] The Yucatec ritual for the war chief (nakom) was connected to the cult of a puma war god, and included a five-day residence of the war leader in the temple, "where they burned incense to him as to an idol."^[50] In Classic state of war rituals, the Maya jaguar gods were prominent, particularly the jaguar deity associated with burn (and patron of the number Seven), whose face normally adorns the king'southward war shield. The Palenque Temple of the Sunday, defended to war, shows in its sanctuary the emblem of such a shield, held upwards by 2 crossed spears.

Kingship [edit]

The early Spanish writers have fiddling to say nigh the king'south (or, as the case might be, queen'south) ritual duties. All the same, one finds the Yucatec king (halach uinic) referred to as 'bishop',^[51] then that, in virtue of his office, the male monarch appears to have had a leading role in major public rituals. In the Classic menstruum, the rituals of kingship were the nearly of import rituals of the Maya court. The term 'theatre state' (Geertz), originally coined for the Hindu kingdoms of Bali, could also exist used for describing the Archetype Maya kingdoms; it suggests the cohesion of the country to be dependent on elaborate royal rituals through which status differences betwixt aristocratic families could find expression. On monuments, the king sometimes assumes a dancing posture suggestive of his participation in the rituals that were staged on the large plazas where the royal stelae stood.^[52] On of import occasions, the royal impersonator would be shown to the crowd while beingness inside a shrine erected on a large palanquin (as on a wooden lintel from Tikal's Temple 4).

The specific rituals engaged in by the male monarch are simply rudimentarily known. The Postclassic Kʻicheʻ king together with his dignitaries regularly visited the temples to burn offerings and pray for the prosperity of his people, while fasting and guarding sexual abstinence.^[53] As to the Classic Menstruum king, he appears at times (often menstruation-ending dates)^[54] to exist scattering blood, incense or, perhaps, maize. At other times, the rex, represented by the hero Hunahpu, is sacrificing his own blood in front of directional copse (murals of San Bartolo), or he is officiating in forepart of such a tree (Cross temple sanctuaries of Palenque).

The male monarch not but took a leading office in ritual, simply ritual is probable to have focused on his office as well. The erection of stelae showing the male monarch and dedicated to the day 'King' (Ahaw), which ended intervals of v 360-day years, constituted a royal ritual by itself. It appears to implicate the male monarch as the divine lord of his own day.^[55] Inversely, at San Bartolo, the divine hero of the 24-hour interval 'King', Hunahpu, substitutes for the real king. Setting up a stela may additionally have involved the notion of the rex as a protective 'tree of life'.^[56] Moreover, in the Archetype menses, the king is commonly depicted belongings a cosmic ophidian from whose jaws deities (ofttimes those of rain, lightning and fire) sally; the rex'due south raising and balancing of this serpent, accompanied by his 'conjuring' of the emerging deities,^[57] may well take been expressed and supported by ritual.

Ancestor worship [edit]

During the Classic flow, Tikal's North Acropolis consisted of nucleated majestic burial temples and is even referred to as a 'necropolis'.^[58] In Classic-period regal courts, tombs are more often than not constitute integrated in the residences of the dignity. Apart from the ancestral remains themselves, sacred bundles left by the ancestors were likewise an object of veneration.^[59] Reliefs from the Archetype-catamenia kingdom of Yaxchilan also show that royal ancestors were sometimes approached during bloodletting rituals then appeared to their descendants, emerging from the rima oris of a terrestrial serpent (which has been nicknamed 'Vision Serpent').

The monthly feast bicycle of the Postclassic kingdom of Maní included a commemorative festival for an ancestral hero viewed as the founder of Yucatec kingship, Kukulcan (a proper noun corresponding to Quichean Gucumatz and Aztec Quetzalcoatl). Around 1500, the incinerated remains of the (male) members of notable Yucatec families were enclosed in wooden images which, together with the 'idols', were placed on the house altar, and ritually fed on all festive occasions; alternatively, they were placed in an urn, and a temple was built over it (Landa). In the Verapaz, a statue of the dead rex was placed on his burial mound, which and then became a place of worship.^[sixty]

Sciences of destiny [edit]

Numerology and calendrics [edit]

Autonomously from writing, the primal priestly sciences were arithmetics and calendrics. Within the social group of the priests at court, information technology had by Classical times go customary to deify the numbers as well as the basic twenty-four hours-unit, and – particularly in the southward-eastern kingdoms of Copan and Quirigua – to excogitate the mechanism of time as a sort of relay or estafette in which the 'brunt' of the time-units was passed on from ane divine numerical 'bearer' to the next one. The numbers were personified non by distinctive numerical deities, but by some of the master general deities, who were thus seen to exist responsible for the ongoing 'march of time'. The day-units (thou'in) were ofttimes depicted as the patrons of the priestly scribes and diviners (ah k'in) themselves, that is, as Howler Monkey Gods, who seem to have been conceived as creator deities in their own right.^[61] In the Postclassic period, the time-unit of measurement of the katun was imagined every bit a divine male monarch, as the 20 named days still are among the traditional '24-hour interval-keepers' of the Guatemalan Highlands. On a more than abstract level, the world was causeless to be governed by sure primal numbers, first of all the numbers 13 and 20 that, multiplied, defined both the mantic twenty-four hours count and, on a vast scale, the amount of time elapsed before the starting time 24-hour interval (five Imix ix Kumk'u) of the Long Count.^[62]

Divination [edit]

Like all other cultures of Mesoamerica, the Maya used a 260-day agenda, usually referred to as tzolkin. The length of this calendar coincides with the average duration of homo gestation. Its bones purpose was (and still is) to provide guidance in life through a consideration of the combined aspects of the twenty named days and 13 numbers, and to indicate the days on which cede at specific 'number shrines' (recalling the number deities of Archetype times) might atomic number 82 to the desired results. The days were usually deified and invoked as 'Lordships'. The crucial importance of divination is suggested past the fact that the full general Yucatec word for 'priest' (ah k'in) referred more than specifically to the counting of the days.

K'iche' daykeepers utilise puns to aid remember and inform the meanings of the days. Divinatory techniques include the throwing and counting of seeds, crystals, and beans, and in the past also – apart from the count – gazing in a magical mirror (scrying), and reading the signs given by birds (auguries); in the Belatedly-Classic menstruum, pictures of such birds were used as logograms for the larger time periods.

The mantic agenda has proven to exist particularly resistant to the onslaughts of time. Nowadays, a daykeeper,^[63] ^[64] or divinatory priest, may stand up in forepart of a fire, and pray in Maya to entities such as the 260 days; the cardinal directions; the ancestors of those present; important Mayan towns and archaeological sites; lakes, caves, or volcanoes; and deities taken from published editions of the Popol Vuh. People also come to these daykeepers to know virtually baby names, hymeneals dates and other special occasions.

In the pre-Hispanic by, of import divinatory dates relating to the prospects of the entire kingdom were sometimes given a mythological pedigree. At Palenque, for case, the cheering twenty-four hour period ix Ik', chosen for the enthronement of one of its kings, is likewise stated to have witnessed, in a afar, mythical past, the enthronement of some of the patron deities of the kingdom.^[65]

Astrology [edit]

What is oftentimes called Maya 'astronomy' is really astrology: that is, a priestly scientific discipline resting on the assumption of an influence exerted on earthly events by the movements of heavenly bodies and constellations. The observation of sky and horizon by nowadays-solar day Mayas relates chiefly to celestial signs of seasonal change relevant to agriculture;^[66] stars connected to the hunt and specific hunting animals;^[67] and stars sending certain illnesses.^[68] With but few exceptions, the names of stars and constellations are all that have been preserved, and the influence of star lore on social and professional activities beyond agronomics and on individual destiny can no longer be traced.^[69] In this respect, other Mesoamerican groups (such as Totonacs and Oaxacan Chontals) have fared improve. The far more sophisticated pre-Hispanic Mayan star divination is mainly establish in the Early Postal service-Classic Dresden Codex, and concerns lunar and solar eclipses and the varying aspects of Venus in the class of its cycles; animals and deities symbolize the social groups negatively affected by Venus during its heliacal rising as the Morning Star. The Paris Codex contains what some consider to exist a zodiac.^[70] In the Classic period, references to specific stars are not rare; in dynastic texts, a star glyph with rain symbols signals a decisive war ("star state of war"). Some of the Books of Chilam Balam testify to the smashing interest the colonial Maya had for the astrology of their conquerors.

Cosmology [edit]

Earth, heaven, underworld [edit]

Horizontally, the earth is conceived in various ways: as a foursquare with its four directional or, perchance, solstice points, or equally a circumvolve without such fixed points. The square earth is sometimes imagined every bit a maize field, the circular earth as a turtle floating on the waters. Each direction has its own tree, bird, deity, colour, and attribute, in the highlands also its ain mount. Vertically, the sky is divided into xiii layers, and Archetype period deities are sometimes linked to one of the thirteen skies. By illustration with the 'Ix-God' mentioned together with the 'Thirteen-God' in the Chilam Balam volume of Chumayel, the underworld is often assumed to accept consisted of nine layers. Notwithstanding, the Popol Vuh does not know such a ninefold division, and Classic flow references to layers of the underworld have not been identified.

In the earth'due south centre is a tree of life (the yaxche 'ceiba')^[71] that serves as a means of advice betwixt the various spheres. In Palenque, the tree of life is a maize tree, only as the primal world tree in the Borgia Codex; a curving bicephalic snake hovers around it, which some believe to embody the ecliptic.^[72] The king was probably identified with the tree of the heart and is usually shown to carry the bicephalic serpent as a ceremonial bar. Besides worshipping a central maize tree, the king commonly sits or stands on a mountain containing the maize, possibly as a guardian of the kingdom'due south maize supplies.

In the Archetype period, world and sky are visualized equally horizontally extended serpents and dragons (often bicephalic, more rarely feathered) which serve as vehicles for deities and ancestors, and make these appear from their maws. Other serpents, shown as vertically rising, seem to connect the various spheres, perhaps to transport the subterranean or terrestrial waters to the sky. Dragons combine features of snake, crocodile, and deer, and may show 'star' signs; they accept been variously identified equally the nocturnal heaven and as the Milky Way.

World endings and beginnings [edit]

Inside the framework of the post-Archetype cycle of thirteen katuns (the so-called 'Short Count'), some of the Yucatec Books of Chilam Balam present a deluge myth describing the collapse of the sky, the subsequent flood, and the re-establishment of the world and its v earth copse upon the bike's conclusion and resumption.^[73] The lightning deity (Bolon Dzacab), the divine carriers of sky and earth (the Bacabs), and the globe crocodile (Itzam Cab Ain) all have a office to play in this cosmic drama, to which a much before, hieroglyphic text from Palenque's Temple XIX seems to insinuate.^[74] The Quichean Popol Vuh does not mention the plummet of the sky and the establishment of the v trees, but focuses instead on a succession of previous mankinds, the last of which was destroyed past a inundation.

For the Classic Mayas, the base date of the Long Count (4 Ahau viii Cumku), following upon the completion of thirteen previous baktun eras, is idea to have been the focus of specific acts of cosmos.^[75] Through the figures of two so-chosen 'Paddler Gods', the mythology of the Maya maize god appears to have been involved. References to 4 Ahau viii Cumku events are few in number (the most important one occurring on Quirigua stela C), seemingly incoherent, and hard to interpret. They include an obscure conclave of vii deities in the underworld (among whom the deity Bolonyokte') and a concept of 'three stones' usually taken to refer to a cosmic hearth.

Humanity [edit]

Soul and 'co-essence' [edit]

The traditional Mayas believe in the existence, within each individual, of diverse souls, ordinarily described in quasi-material terms (such equally 'shadow', 'breath', 'blood', and 'os'). The loss of one or more than souls results in specific diseases (generically called 'soul-loss', 'fearfulness', or susto). In Classic Maya texts, certain glyphs are read as references to the soul. Much more than is known about the then-called 'co-essences', that is, animals or other natural phenomena (comets, lightning) linked with the individual (usually a male person) and protecting him. In some cases (often connected to blackness sorcery), one can change into co-essences interim like a sort of 'werewolves' (run into as well nagual). The Archetype Maya grandees had a whole assortment of such soul companions, which were called wayob, and carried distinct hieroglyphic names.^[76] Among them were spook-similar creatures, only as well fierce stars.

Afterlife: Underworld, paradise and the ocean [edit]

In the pre-Spanish by, there may never take existed a unified concept of the afterlife. Among the Pokoman Maya of the Verapaz, Xbalanque was to accompany the expressionless king,^[77] which suggests a descent into the underworld (called xibalba 'place of fright') similar that described in the Popol Vuh Twin myth. The Yucatec Maya had a double concept of the afterlife: Evildoers descended into an underworld (metnal) to be tormented there (a view still held past the 20th-century Lacandons), while others, such as those led by the goddess Ixtab, went to a sort of paradise. The ancestors of Maya kings (Palenque tomb of Pakal, Berlin pot) are shown sprouting from the earth like fruit trees which, together, plant a beatific orchard. The so-called 'Blossom Mountain' has more than specifically been interpreted equally a reference to an aquatic and solar paradise. To judge past the marine faunal remains establish in Classic tombs^[78] and by the accompanying aquatic imagery, this sea paradise may have been the Maya variant of the pelting god's paradise (Tlalocan) in Primal Mexican faith.^[79]

Powers of the Other Globe [edit]

Ancestors [edit]

The traditional Maya alive in the continual presence of the '(thousand)fathers and (grand)mothers', the usually bearding, bilateral ancestors, who, in the highlands, are oft conceived of as inhabiting specific mountains, where they wait the offerings of their descendants. In the by, too, the ancestors had an of import role to play, with the difference that, amongst the nobility, genealogical memory and patrilineal descent were much more than emphasized. Thus, the Popol Vuh lists iii genealogies of upper lords descending from three ancestors and their wives. These first male ancestors – ritually defined as 'bloodletters and sacrificers' – had received their private deities in a legendary country of origins called 'The Vii Caves and Seven Canyons' (Nahua Chicomoztoc), and on their disappearance, left a sacred bundle. Already during the Classic menses, ancestral deities (the three 'patron deities' of Palenque) and ancestral bundles (Yaxchilan) are in bear witness. In Chiapas at the time of the Spanish conquest, lineage ancestors were believed to have emerged from the roots of a ceiba tree;^[80] comparable beliefs still be amongst the Tz'utujiles.^[81]

Heroes [edit]

Within the grouping of the ancestors, a special category is constituted by the heroes, all-time known through the sixteenth-century Quichean epic of the Maya hero twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. In the Classic flow, the adventures of these two heroes – only partly coinciding with those of the Popol Vuh – were known all over the Mayan area. Specific ancestral heroes occur among various traditional Maya groups, such as the dwarfish Ez amid the Yucatec Mayas;^[82] Juan Thousand'anil amongst the Jacaltecs of the northwestern highlands;^[83] Ohoroxtotil, the jaguar slayer, amid the Tzotziles of Chiapas;^[84] and Kumix among the Ch'orti' Mayas.^[85] The heroes' deportment tin can belong to a relatively recent past, and be semi-historical, or have occurred in the deep past, and exist primeval; but in principle, the heroes tin can be addressed in prayer, and receive some form of worship. Sometimes, they accept merged with specific armed forces saints.^[86]

Deities [edit]

The ancient Maya concept of 'deity', or 'divinity' (thousand'u in Yucatec, ch'u in Ch'ol, and qabuvil in aboriginal Quiché) is comparatively understood, but can by no means be reduced to a mere personification of natural phenomena. The life-bike of the maize, for instance, lies at the middle of Maya belief, but the function of the principal Maya maize god transcends the sphere of agriculture to comprehend basic aspects of civilized life in general (such as writing). Deities accept all sorts of social functions, related to such human activities as agriculture, midwifery, trade, and warfare. Moreover, they tin can be the patrons of large kin-based, ethnic or localized segments of lodge, every bit shown by the four deities presiding over the 4 wards of the town of Itzamkanac;^[87] the Popol Vuh Triad of lineage gods (Tohil, Hacavitz, Avilix); and probably also by the Palenque Triad (G[God] I, 2, and Three) and its Classic Menstruation analogues elsewhere. Such patron deities - who may be either place-specific, or instances of a general deity - tend to accept an intimate relationship with the associated community and its representative (in Classic inscriptions usually the king), past whom they are bathed, dressed, and fed.^[88]

From the multitude of deity names occurring in early-colonial sources (and peculiarly in the medical 'Rituals of the Bacabs'), well-nigh twenty accept been linked to deity figures from the three Postclassic hieroglyphic books and their correspondences in the corpus of Classic ceramic representations; these have been assigned letter of the alphabet names (Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube classification). The codices demonstrate that deities were permanently existence arranged and rearranged according to cultic criteria which usually are non immediately accessible to us. Moreover, Maya deities typically operate inside various fields, irresolute attributes accordingly.^[89] With the provisos formulated above, the main deities depicted in the codices can be roughly divided into the following groups (the names given are 16th-century Yucatec):

The principal creator god (Itzamna);
heaven gods, peculiarly the dominicus god (Kinich Ahau), the Maya moon goddess, and the patrons of the Venus cycle;
gods of the weather and the crops, peculiarly the rain god (Chaac), the lightning god (Bolon Dzacab), the aged deities of the surreptitious, terrestrial water, and thunder (Bacabs), and the Maya maize god (God E);
gods guarding natural resources, such equally the Owner of the deer and god of the chase, the Sip (God Y);
occupational gods, particularly those of merchants (Ek Chuah, god L), black sorcerers (god Fifty), midwives (goddess O, Ixchel), hunters with snares (Tabay);
a immature goddess of eroticism and marriage (Goddess I);
death gods (God A and God A'); and
the deified Hero Twins.

Whereas, within the three hieroglyphic codices, the group of male deities is highly differentiated, the female person functions seem largely to accept been concentrated in the young goddess I (the 'White Woman') and the quondam goddess O (the 'Ruby Woman'). The Postclassic Maya deity Kukulcan ('Feathered Serpent'), tutelary deity of the Toltec invaders and of the Maya kings deriving their legitimacy from them, is nearly absent-minded from the codices. Although the Classic Hero Twins are among the codical deities, the associated Archetype Maize Hero (or Tonsured Maize God) seems to be absent. Entirely missing from the codices, but important in Archetype iconography are, amongst others, an body of water deity characterized by a shark tooth set in the oral cavity (who is also the 'God I' of the Palenque Triad) and some of the Maya jaguar gods associated with warfare. In the framework of the Classic period, the omnipresent lightning deity is usually referred to as K'awiil ('Powerful I').

In Maya folk religion, the members of the Cosmic Trinity, the Virgin Mary, a number of saints, the archangels and the devil take usually merged with traditional deities, patron deities, and bequeathed heroes. Angels, for example, generally correspond rain deities. The complex figure of the Mam ('Grandpa') Maximón venerated in Santiago Atitlan is some other example of such syncretism. The deities governing the wild vegetation, the game animals, and the fishes are often referred to as 'Owners' or 'Masters' (Dueños), like the 'Mountain-Valley' deities (or mountain spirits) of the highlands. More generally, the living Earth and its male personification is ofttimes called 'World' (Mundo).

Animal persons [edit]

Beast persons (unremarkably mammals and birds, merely including insects) appear to enjoy a relative autonomy which is lacking in the case of the animal 'co-essences'. Perhaps representing the transformed man beings of a former creation, they mirror human society in playing varying social roles. In the Popol Vuh, for example, granddad 'Great White Peccary' and grandmother 'Corking White Coati' human action as healers, whereas the owl messengers of the lords of the underworld wearable armed services titles. Turning to the 'ceramic codex', one finds that brute persons are often dressing and acting similar persons at court, especially that of the upper god, Itzamna. The howler monkey, for example, is commonly depicted in the social role of a writer and sculptor, and functions as a divine patron of these arts.^[ninety] Other mammals function as musicians. In the Dresden Codex, certain animals (dog, jaguar, vulture, owl, parrot, frog), most of them clothed as human beings, are seated in betwixt deities, and seem thus to exist treated on a par with the latter, while other animals, again acting equally homo beings, fulfill important ritual roles. In the New year rites, for case, an opossum traveler introduces the patron of the incoming yr. Similarly, in the Paris Codex, a turkey person alternates with deities in offer the caput of the lightning deity (god 1000) to the new king. Animal persons are repeatedly shown interacting with Goddess I.

Spooks, demons, and bush spirits [edit]

The power exercised past a deity is legitimate, and this legitimacy justifies offerings and sacrifice. Different the gods of affliction and decease, spooks (apparitions) and demons have no such legitimacy. Whereas spooks – like the specters of the expressionless – only affright (and in that mode, tin likewise cause affliction), demons are devourers; in practice, yet, the borderline can be thin. One of the best-known spooks is an attractive woman maddening the men who requite in to her lures (known in Yucatec as the xtabay 'Female Ensnarer'). Spooks of the Tzotziles include such figures every bit the 'charcoal-cruncher', the 'one who drops his own flesh', and 'white-bundle'. The boundary betwixt spooks like these and the wayob of the Classic catamenia is not ever entirely clear. The chief demon of the Tzotzil surface area is the 'Black-man' (h?ik'al), a kidnapper and rapist.^[91] An ancient Mesoamerican bird demon, which the Popol Vuh calls Vucub Caquix, severed the limbs of his victims, and was already known in Preclassic Izapa. In lodge to terrorize their enemies, kings would at times assume the shapes of spooks and demons. Bush spirits (such as the 'Wild Man' or Salvaje) belong to the frightening denizens of uninhabited areas, without, yet, being apparitions.

Goblins and dwarfs [edit]

Co-ordinate to Yucatec belief, the indigenous priests tin can create goblins (aluxob) who, if properly attended, volition assistance the farmer in his work past protecting his field, having the rain deities visit it, and thus making the maize grow.^[92] In the same surface area, dwarfs, and also hunchbacks, are associated with antediluvial times; they perished in the flood when their stone boats sank.^[93] The childlike dwarfs and hunchbacks of Archetype iconography oft back-trail the king and the Tonsured Maize God. They repeatedly bear witness aquatic features and may, in such cases, be identical to the dwarfish assistants of the deities of rain, lightning, and thunder already mentioned in Aztec sources (the Tlaloqueh).

Mythology [edit]

There is considerable diversity in recent religious narrative, which embraces stereotypical, moralizing stories about encounters with mount spirits and supernatural 'Owners', as well as myths concerning heroes and deities. Particularly in tales concerned with the creation of the earth and the origin of useful plants, a reworking of Catholic imagery is often noticeable. Amongst the all-time-known myths are those most the opening of the Maize Mountain past the Lightning deities, the struggle of Sun and his Elder Brethren, and the marriage of Sunday and Moon.^[94] The early-colonial Quichean Twin myth, set out in the Popol Vuh, has not been transmitted, although fragments are recognizable in recent narrative; the proper name of one of its heroes, Xbalanque, was around the turn of the 20th century nevertheless known in the Alta Verapaz. Early on creation mythology is found in the Popol Vuh and in some of the Books of Chilam Balam.

Nonetheless the progress in hieroglyphic decipherment, the most important sources for Classic mythology are still scenes painted on pottery (the and then-called 'ceramic codex') and monumental iconography. The two principal narratives recognized thus far are nearly demigods close to humanity (the Hero Twins and the principal Maya maize god), and have to be reconstructed from scenes in which often, narrative and ritual concerns are intertwined.

Religious mobilization [edit]

Like other Mesoamerican populations, Maya societies since the Spanish conquest have known a series of religious 'revitalization' movements, of a more or less violent graphic symbol, and in response to intolerable exploitation. These movements usually followed appearances of supernatural beings. In Chiapas (early 18th and late 19th century), the ensuing cults focused on female person saints such as the Virgin Mary in the Tzeltal Rebellion of 1712 and Saint Rose of Lima,^[95] whereas in eastern Yucatán during the late 19th-century 'Degree State of war', crosses, dressed as women,^[96] and especially a 'Talking Cantankerous', played the main roles. In the Alta Verapaz, the part of saints and crosses was assumed by male mountain deities demanding the destruction of the java plantations and a render to the ancient ways.^[97] In each case, certain individuals were recognized as mouthpieces of the supernatural entities involved.

Ethics [edit]

As ethical systems, polytheistic religions like those of the Maya are difficult to compare with the monotheistic world religions. However, the thought of 'covenants' ^[98] between deities and human beings is common to both. Fulfilling the ritual requirements of the 'covenants' should ideally lead to a country of harmony. The archaic practice of human sacrifice should starting time of all be viewed within this framework.

References [edit]

^ Vogt 1976: 63
^ Tedlock 1992: 76–85
^ Roys 1967: 132–134
^ Adams and Brady 2005:301–327
^ Stone 2014
^ Love 1989: 336–350
^ Thompson 1970:112–113
^ Tozzer 1941:141
^ Tozzer 1907: 84–93, 102–105, 105–150
^ Accession: come across Piedras Negras stela eleven; illness and burial: Las Casas, in Miles 1957: 750, 773; drought: Landa, in Tozzer 1941: 54, 180–181
^ Taube 1994: 669–671
^ Joralemon 1974: 59–75
^ Köhler 1995
^ Hull 2003
^ Christenson 2001: 157, 178
^ Girard 1949: 783–813
^ Tedlock 1992:46–53
^ Landa, in Tozzer 1941: 27
^ Tozzer 1941: 146n707
^ Tozzer 1941: 26n136, quoting Avendaño
^ Orellana 1981: 163.
^ Stuart 2005: 31–32, 123, 176; Zender 2004
^ see Dozer 1941:140, 164, 166
^ Looper 2009:132–142
^ Taube 1989: 351–382
^ Stuart 2005
^ Nehammer, Thun, Helmke
^ Tedlock 1992: 99–104
^ Coe 1965
^ Avendaño, in Tozzer 1941: 29 note 156
^ Tozzer 1941: 153–166
^ "El Jetz-Mek". www.calkini.net.
^ e.g., Köhler 1995
^ Vogt 1976: 91–94
^ due east.g., Girard 1949: 819–832; Redfield 1934: 138–143; Vogt 1969: 386, 473; Christenson 2001: 98, 209, 164, 211
^ Girard 1995: xl–41
^ LaFarge 1947: 125
^ eastward.one thousand., Christenson 2001: 70, 209
^ Girard 1995
^ Gabriel 2000
^ Andrews et al. 1970
^ Tozzer 1941: 155–156
^ Chocolate-brown 2005
^ Tozzer 1941: 162
^ Vogt 1976: 97–115
^ LaFarge 1947: 126–127
^ cf. Freidel, Schele, Parker 1993: 261
^ Montejo
^ Fuentes y Guzmán I 1969: 76–77
^ Tozzer 1941: 164–165
^ Thompson 1970: 167
^ Inomata 2006
^ Tedlock 1996: 192–193
^ Stuart 2011: 264–265
^ Stuart 2011: 256–262
^ Freidel, Schele, Parker 1993: 137–138
^ Stuart 2011: 266–267
^ Martin and Grube 2000: 43
^ Tedlock 1996:174–175
^ Miles 1957:749, quoting Fuentes y Guzmán and Las Casas
^ Braakhuis 1987; Inomata 2001; Beliaev & Davletshin 2014: 5, 8
^ Stuart 2011: 229–251
^ Barbara Tedlock (1992) Time and the Highland Maya (UNM Press) ISBN 9780826313584 pp. 46—86
^ Daniel Croles Fitjar (1988) Balancing the Globe: Contemporary Maya "ajq'ijab" in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala ISBN 978-iii-653-98074-5
^ Stuart 2011: 248–249
^ Tedlock1992: 187–190
^ Cruz Torres 1965: 356
^ Hull 2000: 2–3
^ cf. Milbrath 1999: 37–41
^ Dear 1994: 89, 93ff
^ Thompson 1960: 71
^ Freidel, Schele and Parker 1993: 78ff.
^ e.yard., Roys 1967:99–101
^ Velásquez García 2006
^ meet Freidel and Schele 1993:59–107
^ Grube and Nahm 1994
^ Coe 1975:91, quoting Fuentes y Guzmán
^ Fitzsimmons 2009: 68–71, 90–92
^ cf. Thompson 1970:301
^ Thompson 1960: 71, quoting Nuñez de la Vega
^ Carlson and Prechtel 1991
^ Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934: 335–337
^ Montejo 1984
^ Guiteras 1961: 182–183, 262
^ Hull 2009; Braakhuis and Hull 2014
^ e.g., Vogt 1976: 159–161
^ Scholes and Roys 1968: 56–57
^ Baron 2016
^ Vail 2000
^ Coe 1977; Braakhuis 1987
^ Blaffer 1972
^ Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934: 116; Gabriel 2000: 247
^ Thompson 1970: 340–341
^ Thompson 1970: 330–373
^ Reifler Bricker 1981: 53–69
^ Reifler Bricker 1981: 108
^ Dieseldorff 1926: 17–xviii
^ Monaghan 2000: 38–39

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External links [edit]

Maya Religion by David Stuart (2005)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_religion

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