Popol Vuh Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Gabo explica como reescribió, entre otros, un cuento de James Thurber, "El unicornio en el jardín" y otro de Amado Nervo, "El ángel caído" y los convirtió en "El mar del tiempo perdido", y "Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes", respectivamente, y que "Blacamán, el bueno" se basa en el primer episodio del Lazarillo, "El barril de amontillado" de Poe y un pasaje del Popol Vuh.

- by Juan José Barrientos
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- Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, Popol Vuh, Lazarillo de Tormes

The article examines the word and acts of speaking in the Popol Vuh, a 16th century document written by the Quiché Maya in order to preserve their native beliefs. Particular episodes of the story are explored from the perspective of powerful words and speeches, revealing their potential to create, unite, glorify and deceive. Interpretations of some of the more enigmatic passages of the account are proposed.

It is the most famous Castilian edition of the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quichés of Guatemala, translated, studied and published for the first time in 1947 by Adrián Recinos Ávila, and in this third edition (2012) enriched with an... more

- by Erik Velásquez García and +1
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- Popol Vuh, Maya K'Iche, Quiche, K'iche

This course explores the discipline of religious studies by intertwining four aspects relevant to the study of religion: first, by exploring dimensions of the religious experience and the phenomenon of religion, as delineated by Ninian Smart; second, by focusing on specific religious traditions (all of which are presented as examples, with no discrimination of significance); third, by presenting students with major scholarly theories about religion; and finally, by providing a platform in which to experience a spiritual journey through an unmediated encounter with inspirational texts, broadly construed as scripture.

- by Aryeh Amihay
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- Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism

Within the scholarship concerning the Popol Vuh, the great K’iche’ Maya epic creation saga, critical questions have arisen concerning the gender of one of its most popular protagonists, Xbalanque. He is ostensibly male, like his older brother Hunahpu. These two “Hero Twins” engage in male-oriented activities, including hunting with blowguns, clearing a corn field, and playing in a rubber ball game against the Lords of Death. Nevertheless, Xbalanque’s name has a prefix that normally marks female appellations. Furthermore, the siblings are transformed into the Sun and the Moon, with Xbalanque as the Moon. Many scholars consider this impossible because the Moon is female in Maya belief. The Popol Vuh has thus been declared corrupt, and the Hero Twins have been identified instead as Venus and the Sun, elder and younger brothers respectively. Although blaming the Popol Vuh authors or transcribers for this error in astronomical assignment may satisfy some analysts, the problem of Xbalanque’s gender lies with modern scholarship’s fetishization of gender as essentialized, fixed, dyadic, isolable, and compartmentalized. The modern Western concept of gender is at odds with the structure and nature of the Popol Vuh. As a cosmogonic account it explains how the different qualities associated with gender came into existence in concert with the origins of other components of sociocosmic order. These include the gradual development of gendered agency, relations, and goods, especially in connection with marriage exchange.

La danza ritual como elemento imprescindible en el Popol Vuh ""La danza es simplemente la vida en un nivel superior: esa afirmación comprende su carácter de alcance universal y su significado último." Curt Sachs. Historia Universal de la Danza Las danzas rituales narradas en el Popol Vuh son un elemento sustancial de este texto ya que representan una forma de expresión imprescindible dentro del mito y la historia de la cultura quiché. En El libro del consejo la danza se manifiesta de dos maneras distintas y éstas cumplen con diferentes funciones. Una de estas manifestaciones dancísticas es el baile hecho por los héroes míticos Maestro Mago, Brujito ante los dioses del Xibalbá durante la última prueba de aquéllos. Tras esta decisiva prueba, los gemelos se elevaron al cielo en forma del Sol y la Luna, lo que posteriormente provocó el surgimiento del amanecer y el nacimiento del hombre sobre la Tierra. La otra forma es la danza realizada por Brujo del Envoltorio, Brujo Nocturno, Guarda-Botín y Brujo Lunar, primeros cuatro hombres creados, los cuales bailaron junto con sus pocos descendientes en el monte Volcán tras haber presenciado el surgimiento del alba. A la primera manifestación dancística explicada le atribuyo dos funciones principales: una es la ascensión de los héroes míticos a los cielos y su consumación como dioses auténticos; la otra es la renovación de la vida y la fundación de una nueva realidad. La segunda forma dancística tiene como función principal la vinculación espiritual del ser humano con los dioses, a los cuales los hombres les ofrecen danzas en forma de agradecimiento ya que las divinidades mantienen y sostendrán la vida sobre la Tierra. Ralph Linton declara que "El ritual es un método formal de recordar los actos de los seres supernaturales en tiempos pretéritos. La recitación del ritual vuelve a dirigir la atención de las

- by Nadia Zulem Olguín
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- Dance Studies, Literature, Mexican Literature, Mayan Studies

Este artículo retoma la discusión sobre la autoría y la posible contaminación cristiana del Popol Vuh. Articulando esta crítica con el pensamiento del filósofo Bolívar Echeverría sobre el mestizaje en América Latina, replantea la... more

- by Brice Calsapeu Losfeld
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- Literatura Latinoamericana, Popol Vuh, Bolívar Echeverría, Mayas
- by Apab'yan Tew
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- K'iche'an Mayan Languages and Cultures, Popol Vuh, Maya K'Iche

A Jungian analysis of the Quiche Maya creation myth the Popol Vuh

The Sacred Name and the meaning of the Sacred Name has been sought by many. This Sacred Name of the Creator came out of Egypt, so we must go there to try to study not only what the pronunciation of The Sacred Name was, but more importantly What is The Meaning of The Name! These four Tetragrammaton letters have retained their names for more than 3,000 years. The link to the second part of this research on the origin of the Universe is with the Tetragrammaton letter “Heh”. In Egyptian mythology, Heh was the god of INFINITY, ETERNITY, ENDLESSNESS who was WITHOUT FORM. This should sound very familiar as a characteristic of the Creator God of the Universe in all religions! Along with the numbers π and e, the number 1.6180339… seen as the Greek letter Phi (ϕ), is a key to understanding the Creator of the Universe because we see this number in all plant life and in Galaxy formation. In the earlier papers, we explored the origin of the Tetragrammaton as far back as Egypt to try and understand the Name of the Creator of the Universe and what were the Divine Qualifying Characteristics of the Creator. BUT WHY STOP THERE??? Let us go back to how it all came about, how it all began, and find out what happened “IN THE BEGINNING” - at the moment of, or even before THE BIG BANG, The Creation of the Universe Itself!!! In this chapter we will review how many of the various religions viewed the beginning of Creation with a surprising revelation that they were all speaking the same language as modern scientists explain the Big Bang but in their own human and cultural terms.

A major debate in the history of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala revolves around Tecum (Tecún Umán), the K’iche’ captain who died in confrontation with Pedro de Alvarado, according to sixteenth-century indigenous texts. Analysis of these texts shows that Tecum’s death was recast in terms of widespread solar myths that provided an overarching framework to explain the rise and fall of Mesoamerican rulers and cities. His fate was explained as an ineludible outcome that created the conditions for the advent of a new era, marked by the introduction of Christianity and the colonial order. Thus, these texts made the conquest understandable in terms of indigenous historiography and religion. The portents described in these narratives stimulated the growth of Tecum’s legendary status, partly explaining his controversial standing in Guatemala’s historiography and politics. Modern versions of the Dance of the Conquest perpetuate the mythical motives that first appeared in the sixteenth-century narratives.

- by Oswaldo Chinchilla
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- History, Ethnohistory, Latin American Studies, Archaeology

El Titulo de Totonicapan forma parte de tino de los acervos literarios mas importantes para el conocimiento de la cultura maya. Sin embargo, este documento no ha sido examinado con la profundidad que se le ha dedicado, por ejemplo, al Popol Vuh . Excepto la traduccion que hicieron Koberi Carmak y James Mondlocb no existen estudios de este texto quiche. Por tal motivo y por la importancia que tiene como fuente para comprension de la cultura maya de tradicion prehispanica, en este articulo se propone un acercamiento al libro desde un punto de vista simbolico, mitico y religioso, asi como un cotejo con algunos otros textos quiches.

- by Simonetta Morselli Barbieri
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- Archaeology, Anthropology, Historiography, Ancient Maya Knowledge

Sexual encounters have received little attention in previous studies of the Popol Vuh. This article is a study of sexual connotations conveyed through figures of speech in four passages of the k’iche’ text. The figures of speech include metaphors, allusions, and double entendres, whose meanings are not evident at first glance. The present analysis is based on studies of the lexicon, combined with comparisons with parallel passages in other myths from Mesoamerica, and comparisons with ethnographic data compiled in modern communities. As noted in multiple studies around the world, literary figures in the Popol Vuh are based primarily on the links between sexuality with food. The identification of sexual contents in these passages opens a new perspective in the study of the Popol Vuh. Sixteenth-century Maya myths are consistent with other Mesoamerican myths, in which the primordial creative processes often involve genesic themes and sexual transgressions.

- by Oswaldo Chinchilla
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- Mythology And Folklore, Latin American Studies, Anthropology, Mythology

The famous Toltec historical figure Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, in Yucatan known as Kukulcan and referred to as Nacxit in the Popol Vuh, appears in Mixtec historical codices and Lienzos of the Coixtlahuaca Valley as Lord 4 Jaguar, ruler of Cholula and important ally of the Mixtec ruler Lord 8 Deer. Different arguments for this identification are presented and the chronological implications are discussed in detail.

- by Maarten E.R.G.N. Jansen
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- Toltec, Mixtec Codices, Postclassic Maya, Popol Vuh

This somatic, depth psychological, intuitive inquiry explores the transformative and healing effects of the process of remembrance of blood ancestors in body, heart and mind as the Maya, the researcher’s paternal ancestors, understand na’b’al, blood memory, and the way ancestors are brought into present, living relationship through remembrance of ancestral story, culture, and ceremony. This study, based on personal experience, addresses the current lack of depth psychological research and understanding of the healing process of historical trauma within modern indigenous people who have grown up disconnected from the culture of their heritage. Methods used include data collection through journal entries, data analysis through the summary of somatic, relational, visionary, natural and synchronistic changes, and both intuitive and standard thematic analysis. Findings include changes consistent with a shamanic healing journey resulting in an expanded sense of consciousness, spirit and ancestor communication, and an overall increased sense of purpose, wholeness, and wellness. The study compares and contrasts indigenous with depth psychological understandings of ancestors, spirits, space and time, ceremony, balance, and healing. While many commonalities are found, the study suggests that depth psychological language and theory fall short in their ability to fully explain indigenous spiritual experiences. The study also illuminates the potential dangers of assuming that all cultures are the universal heritage of humanity.

- by Ruben G Mendoza
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- Aztec Art, Mesoamerica, Decapitation, Maya

Se analiza la personificación de Huk Te’ Ajaw o “Señor Siete
Árbol” en las vasijas polícromas mayas, además de diversos mitos mesoamericanos relacionados con venados, ancianos y el
juego de pelota. Todo esto permitió identificar un extenso grupo de mitos pan-mesoamericanos que conforman una estructura mítica permanente. Los mitos de los héroes gemelos del
Popol Wuj y de Huk Xib’ / Huk Te’ Ajaw también formaron parte de esta
estructura mítica permanente pan-mesoamerica.
Este enfoque permitió reconstruir, al menos parcialmente, el mito del
Clásico Tardío maya asociado con el ser sobrenatural denominado
Huk Xib’ / Huk Te’ Ajaw.

- by Macarena López Oliva
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- Maya Epigraphy, Popol Vuh, Mitos Y Religión De Mesoamerica, Maya Culture
- by Fumiko Sukikara
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- Popol Vuh, Narrativas, Japon, Mayas

Pre-Hispanic America's most celebrated literary monument, the Popol Wuj, was written in the 1550s, although our only copy is an early-eighteenth-century text by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez. We lack direct information about the Popol Wuj's authors. Some scholars have proposed that the indigenous scribe Diego Reinoso was its creator. However, Reinoso wrote another K'iche' document, the Título de Totonicapan, and a close examination of that text learns that he disapproved of the political faction represented in the Popol Wuj. Its advocates were a lineage called Nim Ch'okoj, Great Kinkajou. Dennis Tedlock has suggested that the Nim Ch'okoj were the Popol Wuj's composers. They introduce themselves at the end of the text as the Fathers and Mothers of the Word. A scrutiny of both documents and early Colonial papers reveals that, by the 1550s, a political conflict was under way between the two highest offices in the K'iche' power structure: the Keeper of the Mat and the Vice-Keeper of the Mat. The Popol Wuj seems to have supported the first faction, and the Título de Totonicapan supported the second faction.

Los antiguos mayas dejaron testimonio de sus mitos, creencias, cosmovisión, matemática y crónicas en textos sagrados que fueron compilados durante la época de la conquista. El Popol Vuh es el libro sagrado de los mayas quichés, del actual territorio de Guatemala, y uno de los últimos grupos mayas en tener territorio y poder durante el periodo posclásico1. El Chilam Balam, por su parte, son una serie de libros escritos por los sabios2 del Mayab yucateco o Yucal Peten3 que contienen relatos tan antiguos como del fin del periodo clásico4 y tan recientes como mediados del siglo XIX5. Los relatos del libro son de los mayas itzás6, los descendientes de los teotihuacanos y los toltecas y fundadores de Chichén Itzá7. Entonces, hay un problema de conmensuración entre los relatos ya que pertenecen a pueblos distintos de épocas distintas y su contenido es muy variado.

- by Carlos Carbajal
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- Popol Vuh, Metafísica, Chilam Balam of Chumayel

The Mesoamerican ballgame has been a constant source of research, due to its unique character and its presence as part of prehispanic urbanism. Very important historical texts such as the Popol Vuh, refer to the mythological and symbolic dimension of the game. In one of the scenes of this story, they narrate the moment in which young Hun Hunahpu and Xbalanque play ballgame with the lords of the underworld, which ends with the beheading of Hun Hunahpu and his triumph. In the archaeological and iconographic records, scenes related to the sacrifice, decapitation and other offerings are observed in the context of the ballgame, evidence of its high importance in the Mayan society.

- by Maria Felicia Rega
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- Iconography, Maya Archaeology, Guatemala, Popol Vuh

" This is an important book which will have a lasting influence on Mesoamerican scholarship and serve as a model for generations to come. It is a compelling study that will open up new areas for investigation of Maya art and new methods for research. " —Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago This nuanced account explores Maya mythology through the lens of art, text, and culture. It offers an important reexamination of the mid-16th-century Popol Vuh, long considered an authoritative text, which is better understood as one among many crucial sources for the interpretation of ancient Maya art and myth. Using materials gathered across Mesoamerica, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos bridges the gap between written texts and artistic representations, identifying key mythical subjects and uncovering their variations in narratives and visual depictions. Central characters—including a secluded young goddess, a malevolent grandmother, a dead father, and the young gods who became the sun and the moon—are identified in pottery, sculpture, mural painting, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Highlighting such previously overlooked topics as sexuality and generational struggles, this beautifully illustrated book paves the way for a new understanding of Maya myths and their lavish expression in ancient art.

- by Oswaldo Chinchilla
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- Religion, Archaeology, Mythology, Iconography
- by John B Carlson
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- Religion, Comparative Religion, Mythology And Folklore, Sociology
- by Chu Chu
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- Popol Vuh

El Mundo Magico de los Mayas is one of the most significant works of Leonora Carrington, who was the only foreign artist invited to decorate one of the rooms of Mexico City new National Museum of Anthropology in 1963. She was commissioned to decorate the room where artefacts coming from contemporary Maya civilization would have been displayed. The result was a multi-layered composition in which classical themes of surrealism coexisted with countless references to the Mayan culture. El Mundo Magico de los Mayas è una delle opere più significative di Leonora Carrington, unica artista straniera invitata a decorare, nel 1963, una delle sale tematiche del nuovo Museo Nazionale di Antropologia di Città del Messico. A lei viene affidata la sala che ospiterà la civiltà Maya contemporanea. Il risultato è una composizione molto complessa che rimanda a una articolata stratificazione di significati nella quale coesistono, insieme a innumerevoli riferimenti alla cultura Maya, i temi profondi del surrealismo. Parole-chiave: Carrington, surrealismo, Messico, sincretismo, Maya.

- by Giulia Ingarao
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- Syncretism, México, Popol Vuh, Leonora Carrington

While there are differences between cultures in different places and times, colonial representations of indigenous peoples generally suggest they are not capable of literature nor are they worthy of being represented as nations. Colonial representations of indigenous people continue on into the independence era and can still be detected in our time. The thesis of this book is that there are various ways to decolonize the representation of Amerindian peoples. Each chapter has its own decolonial thesis which it then resolves. Chapter 1 proves that there is coloniality in contemporary scholarship and argues that word choices can be improved to decolonize the way we describe the first Americans. Chapter 2 argues that literature in Latin American begins before 1492 and shows the long arc of Mayan expression, taking the Popol Wuj as a case study. Chapter 3 demonstrates how colonialist discourse is reinforced by a dualist rhetorical ploy of ignorance and arrogance in a Renaissance historical chronicle, Agustin de Zárate's Historia del descubrimiento y conquista del Perú. Chapter 4 shows how by inverting the Renaissance dualist configuration of civilization and barbarian, the Nahua (Aztecs) who were formerly considered barbarian can be "civilized" within Spanish norms. This is done by modeling the categories of civilization discussed at length by the Friar Bartolomé de las Casas as a template that can serve to evaluate Nahua civil society as encapsulated by the historiography of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a possibility that would have been available to Spaniards during that time. Chapter 5 maintains that the colonialities of the pre-Independence era survive, but that Criollo-indigenous dialogue is capable of excavating their roots to extirpate them. By comparing the discussions of the hacienda system by the Peruvian essayist Manuel González Prada and by the Mayan-Quiché eye-witness to history Rigoberta Menchú, this books shows that there is common ground between their viewpoints despite the different genres in which their work appears and despite the different countries and the eight decades that separated them, suggesting a universality to the problem of the hacienda which can be dissected. This book models five different decolonizing methods to extricate from the continuities of coloniality both indigenous writing and the representation of indigenous peoples by learned elites.

The sun in the Mesoamerican cosmology still plays an important roll explaining the time, the generations and the kinship. Some mythical structures working since prehispanic periods show how this idea has been vital to former Americans.... more

- by David Atienza
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- Mesoamerica, Popol Vuh, Antropología

La presente tesi di laurea intende focalizzare l'attenzione sul fenomeno del rock progressivo operando una ricerca approfondita nell'area di pertinenza germanica: i temi fondamentali dell'elaborato consistono nell'individuazione del genere in rapporto ai fattori socioculturali dell'epoca, determinando la temperie politica in cui esso potè fiorire. Il lavoro delinea le esperienze di gruppi come Can, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Amon Düül II, Faust, Ton Steine Scherben, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel e Klaus Schulze, per approfondire in merito la carriera di uno dei gruppi più interessanti di tutta la scena Kosmische, i Popol Vuh; successivamente è posta in evidenza la collaborazione del gruppo assieme a Werner Herzog, analizzando la struttura narrativa di alcuni dei film più importanti del regista assieme alle sonorizzazioni operate dal gruppo.

- by Ramona Saraceni
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- Cultural Studies, Cultural Musicology, Electronic Music, Popular musicology

In this paper, I question Francisco Ximénez’s interpretation of the colonial K'iche' god Hunahpu, as "One Blowgun Hunter." I discuss the terminology of blowgun hunting in Maya languages, explore the calendrical connotations of the name and its links to the name of God S in Maya hieroglyphic writing. I explore the connotations of God S and Hunahpu as solar heroes, and offer an interpretation of the hieroglyphic name tag of God S on the Classic Maya vase K7727 as Jun Pu’w, “One Pus.”

- by Oswaldo Chinchilla
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- Mesoamerican Archaeology, Guatemala (History), Maya Archaeology, Mesoamerica
- by Edwin Braakhuis
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- Mesoamerican Religion, Popol Vuh, Maya Iconography, Nahuas
- by Rodrigo Martinez Baracs
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- Popol Vuh, Quiche

Drawing on modern ethnography, scholars often characterize ancient Maya religion as "covenants" involving human beings generating merit through ritual activity in order to repay a primordial debt to the gods. However, models based on modern ethnography alone would not allow us to recognize the impact on Maya religions of those Christian discourses of debt and merit that accompanied sixteenth-century colonization. This article attempts to historicize our understanding of indigenous Mesoamerican theologies by examining how early Colonial indigenous language texts describe moral and ritual obligations to the gods in terms of their societies' economies. The specific case study here compares two contemporaneous sixteenth-century K'iche' Maya texts: the Popol Wuj by traditionalist K'iche' elites and the Theologia Indorum by the Dominican friar Domingo de Vico. Comparison of these texts' use of exchange-related lexicon illustrates that the traditionalist theological discourse of the Popol Wuj, which emphasizes reciprocal obligations between different beings within an ontological hierarchy, came to exist alongside Christian K'iche' discourses with a more mercantile religious language of spiritual debt payment. It is argued that these results have potential implications for our assessment of ethnohistorical sources on indigenous theology from elsewhere throughout Mesoamerica as well.

Spain and Guatemala lay claim to two of the world’s more remarkable epics. The _Poema de mio Cid_ (c.1200) and _Popol Vuh_ (c.1550) are intricate narrative poems that figuratively represent the origins of two nations: the Castilian people on the Meseta plateau of central Iberia and the Quiché-Maya people in the highlands above the Pacific coast south of Chiapas. In artistic, religious, geographic, ethnic, linguistic, military, and sociopolitical terms, these texts offer unique symbolic access to the emergence of collective consciousnesses that persist to this day. Further interest lies in the fact that versions of the groups on display in the PV and PMC collided with one another when Spanish conquistadors invaded Guatemala in the early sixteenth century.

- by James Brady
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Mesoamerican Archaeology

This paper examines the evidence and subjectively questions evidence of Mesoamerican influence in the American Southwest. I examine several aspects of Mesoamerican culture that are observed in
Southwestern cultures. These include the presence of tropical birds, the macaw and other parrots, ideological influences in the forms of religious imagery and kill-holes on ceramics, the presence of chocolate, and the presence of ballcourts along with copper bells. Some of it is undeniable, or perhaps, strong evidence of contact and influence, while others may just be reaching to find influence based on minor similarities. I also discuss the likelihood that the Southwest was influenced by two regions in Mesoamerica and under different contexts.

- by Antonio Beardall
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- Mesoamerica, Archaeology of the U.S. Southwest, Popol Vuh, Ancient Maya

- by Giulia Ingarao
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- Syncretism, México, Popol Vuh, Leonora Carrington

Through a recovery of the first or "missing" folio of the second volume of the Theologia Indorum and comparative examination of the first folios of various versions of the Theologia Indorum (in K'iche' and Kaqchikel) and the Popol Wuj (in K'iche'), this chapter argues that the sixteenth-century K'iche'an distinction between "word" (tzij) and "language" (ch'ab'al) may be understood as akin to that between high- and low-registers of discourse within highland Maya language ideology -- an indigenous distinction appropriated by some early mendicant missionaries fluent in K'iche'an languages. Finally, based on close intertextual analysis between the first folios of the first volume of the Theologia Indorum and the Popol Wuj, this chapter further argues that the Theologia Indorum was read by the Maya authors of the Popol Wuj and that they, in part, wrote the Popol Wuj as indirect reply or counterargument specifically to the Theologia Indorum rather than in reaction to Hispano-Catholicism in general.

- by Garry Sparks
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- Theology, Mayan Studies, Dominicans, Guatemala