World History Encyclopedia. Brown, 'Planting the Bones: Hunting Ceremonialism at Contemporary and Nineteenth-Century Shrines in the Guatemalan Highlands'. analogous to the ancient
I will also be graduating with my degree in Anthropology August 2015. This article is about the traditional religion of the, Ritual topography and calendrical mapping, Afterlife: Underworld, paradise and the sea, Accession: see Piedras Negras stela 11; illness and burial: Las Casas, in Miles 1957: 750, 773; drought: Landa, in Tozzer 1941: 54, 180181, Stuart 2005: 3132, 123, 176; Zender 2004, e.g., Girard 1949: 819832; Redfield 1934: 138143; Vogt 1969: 386, 473; Christenson 2001: 98, 209, 164, 211, Miles 1957:749, quoting Fuentes y Guzmn and Las Casas, Braakhuis 1987; Inomata 2001; Beliaev & Davletshin 2014: 5, 8, Thompson 1960: 71, quoting Nuez de la Vega, Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934: 116; Gabriel 2000: 247, List of Maya gods and supernatural beings, Maya Religion and Gods: Relevance and Relatedness in the Animic Cosmos by Eleanor Harrison-Buck (2015), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maya_religion&oldid=1099549601, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Primary sources from pre-Hispanic times: the three surviving Maya hieroglyphic books (the, Primary sources from the early-colonial (16th-century) period, such as the, Secondary sources, chiefly Spanish treatises from the colonial period, such as those of, Archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic studies, Anthropological reports published since the late 19th century, used in combination with the sources above, gods of the weather and the crops, particularly the rain god (. Some archaeologists have
K'awil is credited with discovering cocoa and maize after striking a mountain with one of his lightning bolts. Father or Jesus Christ.
David Joralemon, 'Ritual Blood Sacrifice Among the Ancient Maya: Part I', in. [18] The role model for the high priest is likely to have been the upper god Itzamna, first priest and inventor of the art of writing. Moon and the stars; however, the Sun is clearly associated with God the
Some deities even have conflicting personality traits. This means that some Maya believe that contemporary humans will be destroyed and another creation is imminent. Sexual abstinence was rigidly observed mother figures who are honoured in the home with prayers and offerings of
If the children grasp them, this is considered a foretelling. One of the best-known spooks is an attractive woman maddening the men who give in to her lures (known in Yucatec as the xtabay 'Female Ensnarer'). iguana being among the species considered suitable offerings to Maya gods. writing, and patron of the arts and sciences. They are also associated with different cardinal directions and an individual god's importance can vary depending on historical context.
incense, black chickens, candles and liquor. [21] At all levels, access to late Postclassic priesthood seems to have been restricted to the nobility. [41], In one of the 16th-century Yucatec month feasts, hunters danced with arrows and deer skulls painted blue. In the case of the Maya, bloodletting was constrained to the royal line. The spelling of their names can vary, as can the spellings of many Maya names can. Often the Maya would wear or include ornaments such as staffs, spears, rattles, scepters, and even live snakes as dance aids.
Typically, this was in the form of taking prisoners for sacrifice. The lords challenged the twins many times, but through wit and cunning, the twins were able to best the lords of Xibalba. Young men, perhaps princes, can impersonate the four deities carrying the earth (Bacabs) while holding the four associated Year Bearer days in their hands[26] or carrying a throne; they may also substitute for the principal rain deity (Chaac).
Very little is known about the Maya
religious ceremonies. The image of the human face emerging from the jaws of Horizontally, the earth is conceived in various ways: as a square with its four directional or, perhaps, solstice points, or as a circle without such fixed points. The child is offered implements appropriate to its gender, tools for boys and cloth or thread for girls. Some have been influenced by Christianity, however, the basic events of the creations are detailed in the following explanation from the Popol Vuh of the highland Maya. Maya belief establishes the creation and sanctity of human beings, the earth, and all things sacred. In Maya belief, owls are messengers of the underworld. H.E.M. To judge by the marine faunal remains found in Classic tombs[78] and by the accompanying aquatic imagery, this sea paradise may have been the Maya variant of the rain god's paradise (Tlalocan) in Central Mexican religion. Finally, the legend of the Hero Twins entails the adventures of two brothers, Xbalanque and Hunahpu, through the underworld. [56] Moreover, in the Classic period, the king is commonly depicted holding a cosmic serpent from whose jaws deities (often those of rain, lightning and fire) emerge; the king's raising and balancing of this serpent, accompanied by his 'conjuring' of the emerging deities,[57] may well have been expressed and supported by ritual. Priests would burn incense to bring a fortuitous marriage and then a feast or other type of celebration would ensue.
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). The Maya believed that by dressing and acting as a god, they would be overtaken by the god's spirit and therefore would be able to communicate with him or her. destination of most Maya after death. Priests controlled learning and Maya geometric mosaic design - part of an elaborate frieze on the West (Photos courtesy of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologi e [74] The Quichean Popol Vuh does not mention the collapse of the sky and the establishment of the five trees, but focuses instead on a succession of previous mankinds, the last of which was destroyed by a flood. Maya kings and queens would participate in varying forms of bloodletting, even making sacred tools to perform the ritual. are also thought to be the homes of ancestral deities: elderly father and The different Maya groups believe in a variety of creation myths. [42] The focus on animal skulls is significant, since even today, traditional Maya hunters have 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.
Feasts would include dramatic performances and the impersonation of deities, especially by the king. Nonetheless, one finds the Yucatec king (halach uinic) referred to as 'bishop',[51] so that, in virtue of his office, the king appears to have had a leading role in major public rituals.
[90] Other mammals function as musicians. It contains text about human creation, prophecies, and traditional myths and histories. Kerry Hull, 'The Grand Ch'orti' Epic: The Story of the Kumix Angel'. Kings were thought to follow the trials of the Hero Twins after their death and make their journey to the heavens or upper world. [15] Public ritual focusing on agriculture and rain is led by the 'godfathers of the wet season' (padrinos del invierno) among the Ch'orti's[16] in a particularly rich and complex system and by the village priests (jmenob) in Yucatn. Maya marriages were typically arranged marriages within the same social class. Angels, for example, generally represent rain deities.
Entirely missing from the codices, but important in Classic iconography are, amongst others, an ocean deity characterized by a shark tooth set in the mouth (who is also the 'God I' of the Palenque Triad) and some of the Maya jaguar gods associated with warfare. Perhaps representing the transformed human beings of a former creation, they mirror human society in playing varying social roles.
[76] Among them were spook-like creatures, but also violent stars. The practice of bloodletting would often serve to commemorate and sanctify important events such as births, ascents to the throne, and anniversaries. 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 from the codices. In Maya folk religion, the members of the Catholic Trinity, the Virgin Mary, a number of saints, the archangels and the devil have usually merged with traditional deities, patron deities, and ancestral heroes. Contrary to contemporary western ideas of heaven and hell, the Maya believed in different levels of these realms. overlap between Maya and Catholic belief systems. medicine and childbirth; she was also the ancient goddess of the Moon. Sacred Round calendar, and all When they died, they only remained dead for three days and would rise from the dead.
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Among the best-known myths are those about the opening of the Maize Mountain by the Lightning deities, the struggle of Sun and his Elder Brethren, and the marriage of Sun and Moon. The legend, chronicled in the Popol Vuh, begins with the conception of the brother-gods. While there is not much direct evidence about Huracn being the supreme creator god, the Popol Vuh does imply in one of its prayers that Huracn is a giver of life. The same prayer also refers to Huracn as the Heart of Heaven and Earth, which also suggests his importance as a creator. In present-day Yucatn, for example, it is customary to drink standing water from a rock depression at the first opportunity upon entering the forest. These sources include the Popol Vuh and the Books of Chilam Balam. books. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included.
Notwithstanding the progress in hieroglyphic decipherment, the most important sources for Classic mythology are still scenes painted on pottery (the so-called 'ceramic codex') and monumental iconography. However, major ritual domains, such as those of agriculture and kingship, are hardly touched upon by Landa.
The upper world consists of thirteen levels, the middle world is one level, and the underworld is nine levels. The Postclassic Kiche 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. of different colours and species, with the green ceiba, or World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. [20] Aside from calendrical learning, however, priests had multiple tasks, running from performing life crisis rituals to managing the monthly feast cycle, and held special offices, such as that of oracle (chilan), astrologer, and sacrificer of human beings (nacom). Already during the Classic period, ancestral deities (the three 'patron deities' of Palenque) and ancestral bundles (Yaxchilan) are in evidence. For the Maya the creation of the earth is said to have been a deed of Huracn, the wind and sky god. Axis Mundi 9-1 (2014): 2-12. it is still believed that evil winds loose in the world cause disease Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Before the advent of Christianity, it was spread over many indigenous kingdoms, all with their own local traditions. and objects they had used when alive. Of course, the Maya also participated in offering to the gods precious items such as jade, gold, masks, shells, carved human bone, and ceremonial or sacred tools. In the world's centre is a tree of life (the yaxche 'ceiba')[71] that serves as a means of communication between the various spheres. It seems apparent, by another individual called a nacom. The most high-up royals were saved for the sole purpose of recreating events from the Popol Vuh. The lords were so impressed with their trick of bringing a person back to life after they were sacrificed that they asked the twins to sacrifice them and bring them back to life. The Twins' father was the god Hun H'unahpu. a human heart in his left hand and a drinking cup in his right. [11] Partaking of the sacrifice was common, but ritual cannibalism appears to have been exceedingly rare. 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 exist amongst the Tz'utujiles.
[86], The ancient Maya concept of 'deity', or 'divinity' (k'u in Yucatec, ch'u in Ch'ol, and qabuvil in ancient Quich) is insufficiently understood, but can by no means be reduced to a mere personification of natural phenomena. [22] The king (k'uhul ajaw or 'holy lord'), too, acted ex officio as a priest. The far more sophisticated pre-Hispanic Mayan astrology is mainly found in the Early Post-Classic Dresden Codex, and concerns lunar and solar eclipses and the varying aspects of Venus in the course of its cycles; animals and deities symbolize the social groups negatively affected by Venus during its heliacal rising as the Morning Star. His wife was While we are familiar with the four cardinal directions, the Maya understood that there were five elements to the cardinal directions, the four directions and the center.
The most famous and influential books include the books of Chumayel, Tizimin, Mani, Kaua, Ixil, Tusik, and Codex Prez. [1] As in the Pre-Hispanic past, an important part of ritual behavior takes place in or near such landmarks, in Yucatn also around karstic sinkholes (cenotes). Uppermost was the muan bird, a kind of screech-owl. bloodletting rites in order to maintain their disintegrating kingdoms. of our calendar, and is expected to end in either A.D. 2011 In earlier days, nobles had been According to Maya belief, animals and plants were extant before humans. The days were commonly deified and invoked as 'Lordships'. Gomez, Maria C.. "Maya Religion."
Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. The Moon is associated with the Virgin Mary. These people could function as humans do, but had no souls and did not honor the gods. Maya Urn with Jaguar Figure & SkullsWalters Art Museum (CC BY-SA). The Popol Vuh is associated with the highland Maya of what is today Guatemala. [2] In the northwestern Maya highlands, the four days, or 'Day Lords', that can start a year are assigned to four mountains. In the past, too, the ancestors had an important role to play, with the difference that, among the nobility, genealogical memory and patrilineal descent were much more emphasized. The most important concept to understand about Maya religious belief is that time and the creation of humans are thought to be cyclical. Stone, 'Spiritual Journeys, Secular Guises: Rock Art and Elite Pilgrimage at Naj Tunich Cave'. Following the Spanish conquest, there was a great deal of For the second creation, the deities made men from wood and women from reeds. However, this does not necessarily equate to the popularized notions that the Maya believed in an end of the world event. This fearsome god sometimes is shown painted in blue and with snake-like whiskers protruding from his face. To a large extent, Maya religion is indeed a complex of ritual practices; and it is, therefore, fitting that the indigenous Yucatec village priest is simply called jmen ("practitioner"). Ordinary people were buried beneath the floors of their houses, their Two ceramic censers, used for burning incense at Maya The shaman is about to perform a cha-chac ceremony: a For earlier periods, such crosses and shrines can, perhaps, be thought of as being connected to the central 'cross', or world tree of the center,[47] best exemplified by the arboreal crosses in the temple shrines of the Cross Group in Palenque. animism and Catholicism. Nowadays, the performance of important dances and dance dramas (not always religious ones) often takes place on the feast of the patron saint of the village and on certain set occasions dictated by the Catholic calendar (such as Corpus Christi and the 'May Cross'). Books The Hero Twins and the lords of Xibalba now reside in the night sky as stars. Itzam N is often depicted as a squinty-eyed, long-nosed old man or sometimes even an iguana. While the most prevalent ritual associated to the ancient Maya is the practice of sacrifice, they also performed other kinds of rituals.
[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 name of one of its heroes, Xbalanque, was around the turn of the 20th century still known in the Alta Verapaz. The Maya deities believed these intelligent humans were a threat to their authority and almost destroyed them as well. In the pre-Hispanic past, sacrifice usually consisted of animals such as deer, dog, quail, turkey, and fish, but on exceptional occasions (such as accession to the throne, severe illness of the ruler, royal burial, or drought and famine) also came to include human beings, adults as well as children. Similarly, in the Paris Codex, a turkey person alternates with deities in offering the head of the lightning deity (god K) to the new king. The complex figure of the Mam ('Grandfather') Maximn venerated in Santiago Atitlan is another example of such syncretism. The Yucatec Maya had a double concept of the afterlife: Evildoers descended into an underworld (metnal) to be tormented there (a view still held by the 20th-century Lacandons), while others, such as those led by the goddess Ixtab, went to a sort of paradise. When a king or queen would ascend to the throne and a political prisoner had been captured, they would commemorate the life-altering event with a human sacrifice. Takeshi Inomata, 'Plazas, Performers, and Spectators'. Karl Taube, 'Ritual Humor in Classic Maya Religion'. [61] In the Postclassic period, the time-unit of the katun was imagined as a divine king, as the 20 named days still are among the traditional 'day-keepers' of the Guatemalan Highlands. The final, most popular, method was to throw a living person into a cenote, or natural well, as an offering to the gods. Chak, too, was both feared and worshipped. spirits of the forest. Maya Religion. 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. when Maya civilization began to fall, rulers with large territories are Before explaining the Maya creation myths, it is important to understand the difference between the two sources that the Maya creation stories have been found in. [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. It is performed at about three months and has godparents of the ceremony. Death from natural causes was universally dreaded among the Maya, The Palenque Temple of the Sun, dedicated to war, shows in its sanctuary the emblem of such a shield, held up by two crossed spears. [25] Often, impersonation meant ritual representation on a state level, particularly as depicted on stelae and ball game panels. In this case, however, the The temple-pyramids. The crocodile's counterpart "Bacabs". east, white for north, black for west, and yellow for south. The calendrical rites include the five-day marginal period at the end of the year.
In Maya narrative, warfare includes the warriors' transformation into animals (wayob) and the use of black magic by sorcerers. The practice of bloodletting marked significant dates in the Maya world. From there, humans were made in order to honor the gods. Particularly in tales concerned with the creation of the earth and the origin of useful plants, a reworking of Catholic imagery is often noticeable.
David Joralemon, 'Ritual Blood Sacrifice Among the Ancient Maya: Part I', in. [18] The role model for the high priest is likely to have been the upper god Itzamna, first priest and inventor of the art of writing. Moon and the stars; however, the Sun is clearly associated with God the
Some deities even have conflicting personality traits. This means that some Maya believe that contemporary humans will be destroyed and another creation is imminent. Sexual abstinence was rigidly observed mother figures who are honoured in the home with prayers and offerings of
If the children grasp them, this is considered a foretelling. One of the best-known spooks is an attractive woman maddening the men who give in to her lures (known in Yucatec as the xtabay 'Female Ensnarer'). iguana being among the species considered suitable offerings to Maya gods. writing, and patron of the arts and sciences. They are also associated with different cardinal directions and an individual god's importance can vary depending on historical context.
incense, black chickens, candles and liquor. [21] At all levels, access to late Postclassic priesthood seems to have been restricted to the nobility. [41], In one of the 16th-century Yucatec month feasts, hunters danced with arrows and deer skulls painted blue. In the case of the Maya, bloodletting was constrained to the royal line. The spelling of their names can vary, as can the spellings of many Maya names can. Often the Maya would wear or include ornaments such as staffs, spears, rattles, scepters, and even live snakes as dance aids.
Typically, this was in the form of taking prisoners for sacrifice. The lords challenged the twins many times, but through wit and cunning, the twins were able to best the lords of Xibalba. Young men, perhaps princes, can impersonate the four deities carrying the earth (Bacabs) while holding the four associated Year Bearer days in their hands[26] or carrying a throne; they may also substitute for the principal rain deity (Chaac). Very little is known about the Maya
religious ceremonies. The image of the human face emerging from the jaws of Horizontally, the earth is conceived in various ways: as a square with its four directional or, perhaps, solstice points, or as a circle without such fixed points. The child is offered implements appropriate to its gender, tools for boys and cloth or thread for girls. Some have been influenced by Christianity, however, the basic events of the creations are detailed in the following explanation from the Popol Vuh of the highland Maya. Maya belief establishes the creation and sanctity of human beings, the earth, and all things sacred. In Maya belief, owls are messengers of the underworld. H.E.M. To judge by the marine faunal remains found in Classic tombs[78] and by the accompanying aquatic imagery, this sea paradise may have been the Maya variant of the rain god's paradise (Tlalocan) in Central Mexican religion. Finally, the legend of the Hero Twins entails the adventures of two brothers, Xbalanque and Hunahpu, through the underworld. [56] Moreover, in the Classic period, the king is commonly depicted holding a cosmic serpent from whose jaws deities (often those of rain, lightning and fire) emerge; the king's raising and balancing of this serpent, accompanied by his 'conjuring' of the emerging deities,[57] may well have been expressed and supported by ritual. Priests would burn incense to bring a fortuitous marriage and then a feast or other type of celebration would ensue.
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). The Maya believed that by dressing and acting as a god, they would be overtaken by the god's spirit and therefore would be able to communicate with him or her. destination of most Maya after death. Priests controlled learning and Maya geometric mosaic design - part of an elaborate frieze on the West (Photos courtesy of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologi e [74] The Quichean Popol Vuh does not mention the collapse of the sky and the establishment of the five trees, but focuses instead on a succession of previous mankinds, the last of which was destroyed by a flood. Maya kings and queens would participate in varying forms of bloodletting, even making sacred tools to perform the ritual. are also thought to be the homes of ancestral deities: elderly father and The different Maya groups believe in a variety of creation myths. [42] The focus on animal skulls is significant, since even today, traditional Maya hunters have 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.
Feasts would include dramatic performances and the impersonation of deities, especially by the king. Nonetheless, one finds the Yucatec king (halach uinic) referred to as 'bishop',[51] so that, in virtue of his office, the king appears to have had a leading role in major public rituals.
[90] Other mammals function as musicians. It contains text about human creation, prophecies, and traditional myths and histories. Kerry Hull, 'The Grand Ch'orti' Epic: The Story of the Kumix Angel'. Kings were thought to follow the trials of the Hero Twins after their death and make their journey to the heavens or upper world. [15] Public ritual focusing on agriculture and rain is led by the 'godfathers of the wet season' (padrinos del invierno) among the Ch'orti's[16] in a particularly rich and complex system and by the village priests (jmenob) in Yucatn. Maya marriages were typically arranged marriages within the same social class. Angels, for example, generally represent rain deities.
Entirely missing from the codices, but important in Classic iconography are, amongst others, an ocean deity characterized by a shark tooth set in the mouth (who is also the 'God I' of the Palenque Triad) and some of the Maya jaguar gods associated with warfare. Perhaps representing the transformed human beings of a former creation, they mirror human society in playing varying social roles.
[76] Among them were spook-like creatures, but also violent stars. The practice of bloodletting would often serve to commemorate and sanctify important events such as births, ascents to the throne, and anniversaries. 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 from the codices. In Maya folk religion, the members of the Catholic Trinity, the Virgin Mary, a number of saints, the archangels and the devil have usually merged with traditional deities, patron deities, and ancestral heroes. Contrary to contemporary western ideas of heaven and hell, the Maya believed in different levels of these realms. overlap between Maya and Catholic belief systems. medicine and childbirth; she was also the ancient goddess of the Moon. Sacred Round calendar, and all When they died, they only remained dead for three days and would rise from the dead.
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Among the best-known myths are those about the opening of the Maize Mountain by the Lightning deities, the struggle of Sun and his Elder Brethren, and the marriage of Sun and Moon. The legend, chronicled in the Popol Vuh, begins with the conception of the brother-gods. While there is not much direct evidence about Huracn being the supreme creator god, the Popol Vuh does imply in one of its prayers that Huracn is a giver of life. The same prayer also refers to Huracn as the Heart of Heaven and Earth, which also suggests his importance as a creator. In present-day Yucatn, for example, it is customary to drink standing water from a rock depression at the first opportunity upon entering the forest. These sources include the Popol Vuh and the Books of Chilam Balam. books. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included.
Notwithstanding the progress in hieroglyphic decipherment, the most important sources for Classic mythology are still scenes painted on pottery (the so-called 'ceramic codex') and monumental iconography. However, major ritual domains, such as those of agriculture and kingship, are hardly touched upon by Landa.
The upper world consists of thirteen levels, the middle world is one level, and the underworld is nine levels. The Postclassic Kiche 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. of different colours and species, with the green ceiba, or World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. [20] Aside from calendrical learning, however, priests had multiple tasks, running from performing life crisis rituals to managing the monthly feast cycle, and held special offices, such as that of oracle (chilan), astrologer, and sacrificer of human beings (nacom). Already during the Classic period, ancestral deities (the three 'patron deities' of Palenque) and ancestral bundles (Yaxchilan) are in evidence. For the Maya the creation of the earth is said to have been a deed of Huracn, the wind and sky god. Axis Mundi 9-1 (2014): 2-12. it is still believed that evil winds loose in the world cause disease Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Before the advent of Christianity, it was spread over many indigenous kingdoms, all with their own local traditions. and objects they had used when alive. Of course, the Maya also participated in offering to the gods precious items such as jade, gold, masks, shells, carved human bone, and ceremonial or sacred tools. In the world's centre is a tree of life (the yaxche 'ceiba')[71] that serves as a means of communication between the various spheres. It seems apparent, by another individual called a nacom. The most high-up royals were saved for the sole purpose of recreating events from the Popol Vuh. The lords were so impressed with their trick of bringing a person back to life after they were sacrificed that they asked the twins to sacrifice them and bring them back to life. The Twins' father was the god Hun H'unahpu. a human heart in his left hand and a drinking cup in his right. [11] Partaking of the sacrifice was common, but ritual cannibalism appears to have been exceedingly rare. 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 exist amongst the Tz'utujiles.
[86], The ancient Maya concept of 'deity', or 'divinity' (k'u in Yucatec, ch'u in Ch'ol, and qabuvil in ancient Quich) is insufficiently understood, but can by no means be reduced to a mere personification of natural phenomena. [22] The king (k'uhul ajaw or 'holy lord'), too, acted ex officio as a priest. The far more sophisticated pre-Hispanic Mayan astrology is mainly found in the Early Post-Classic Dresden Codex, and concerns lunar and solar eclipses and the varying aspects of Venus in the course of its cycles; animals and deities symbolize the social groups negatively affected by Venus during its heliacal rising as the Morning Star. His wife was While we are familiar with the four cardinal directions, the Maya understood that there were five elements to the cardinal directions, the four directions and the center.
The most famous and influential books include the books of Chumayel, Tizimin, Mani, Kaua, Ixil, Tusik, and Codex Prez. [1] As in the Pre-Hispanic past, an important part of ritual behavior takes place in or near such landmarks, in Yucatn also around karstic sinkholes (cenotes). Uppermost was the muan bird, a kind of screech-owl. bloodletting rites in order to maintain their disintegrating kingdoms. of our calendar, and is expected to end in either A.D. 2011 In earlier days, nobles had been According to Maya belief, animals and plants were extant before humans. The days were commonly deified and invoked as 'Lordships'. Gomez, Maria C.. "Maya Religion."
Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. The Moon is associated with the Virgin Mary. These people could function as humans do, but had no souls and did not honor the gods. Maya Urn with Jaguar Figure & SkullsWalters Art Museum (CC BY-SA). The Popol Vuh is associated with the highland Maya of what is today Guatemala. [2] In the northwestern Maya highlands, the four days, or 'Day Lords', that can start a year are assigned to four mountains. In the past, too, the ancestors had an important role to play, with the difference that, among the nobility, genealogical memory and patrilineal descent were much more emphasized. The most important concept to understand about Maya religious belief is that time and the creation of humans are thought to be cyclical. Stone, 'Spiritual Journeys, Secular Guises: Rock Art and Elite Pilgrimage at Naj Tunich Cave'. Following the Spanish conquest, there was a great deal of For the second creation, the deities made men from wood and women from reeds. However, this does not necessarily equate to the popularized notions that the Maya believed in an end of the world event. This fearsome god sometimes is shown painted in blue and with snake-like whiskers protruding from his face. To a large extent, Maya religion is indeed a complex of ritual practices; and it is, therefore, fitting that the indigenous Yucatec village priest is simply called jmen ("practitioner"). Ordinary people were buried beneath the floors of their houses, their Two ceramic censers, used for burning incense at Maya The shaman is about to perform a cha-chac ceremony: a For earlier periods, such crosses and shrines can, perhaps, be thought of as being connected to the central 'cross', or world tree of the center,[47] best exemplified by the arboreal crosses in the temple shrines of the Cross Group in Palenque. animism and Catholicism. Nowadays, the performance of important dances and dance dramas (not always religious ones) often takes place on the feast of the patron saint of the village and on certain set occasions dictated by the Catholic calendar (such as Corpus Christi and the 'May Cross'). Books The Hero Twins and the lords of Xibalba now reside in the night sky as stars. Itzam N is often depicted as a squinty-eyed, long-nosed old man or sometimes even an iguana. While the most prevalent ritual associated to the ancient Maya is the practice of sacrifice, they also performed other kinds of rituals.
[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 name of one of its heroes, Xbalanque, was around the turn of the 20th century still known in the Alta Verapaz. The Maya deities believed these intelligent humans were a threat to their authority and almost destroyed them as well. In the pre-Hispanic past, sacrifice usually consisted of animals such as deer, dog, quail, turkey, and fish, but on exceptional occasions (such as accession to the throne, severe illness of the ruler, royal burial, or drought and famine) also came to include human beings, adults as well as children. Similarly, in the Paris Codex, a turkey person alternates with deities in offering the head of the lightning deity (god K) to the new king. The complex figure of the Mam ('Grandfather') Maximn venerated in Santiago Atitlan is another example of such syncretism. The Yucatec Maya had a double concept of the afterlife: Evildoers descended into an underworld (metnal) to be tormented there (a view still held by the 20th-century Lacandons), while others, such as those led by the goddess Ixtab, went to a sort of paradise. When a king or queen would ascend to the throne and a political prisoner had been captured, they would commemorate the life-altering event with a human sacrifice. Takeshi Inomata, 'Plazas, Performers, and Spectators'. Karl Taube, 'Ritual Humor in Classic Maya Religion'. [61] In the Postclassic period, the time-unit of the katun was imagined as a divine king, as the 20 named days still are among the traditional 'day-keepers' of the Guatemalan Highlands. The final, most popular, method was to throw a living person into a cenote, or natural well, as an offering to the gods. Chak, too, was both feared and worshipped. spirits of the forest. Maya Religion. 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. when Maya civilization began to fall, rulers with large territories are Before explaining the Maya creation myths, it is important to understand the difference between the two sources that the Maya creation stories have been found in. [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. It is performed at about three months and has godparents of the ceremony. Death from natural causes was universally dreaded among the Maya, The Palenque Temple of the Sun, dedicated to war, shows in its sanctuary the emblem of such a shield, held up by two crossed spears. [25] Often, impersonation meant ritual representation on a state level, particularly as depicted on stelae and ball game panels. In this case, however, the The temple-pyramids. The crocodile's counterpart "Bacabs". east, white for north, black for west, and yellow for south. The calendrical rites include the five-day marginal period at the end of the year.
In Maya narrative, warfare includes the warriors' transformation into animals (wayob) and the use of black magic by sorcerers. The practice of bloodletting marked significant dates in the Maya world. From there, humans were made in order to honor the gods. Particularly in tales concerned with the creation of the earth and the origin of useful plants, a reworking of Catholic imagery is often noticeable.