Examine individual changes

'The Maya religion of Chiapas and Yucatan (Mexico), Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras is an arena in which the traditional, ancestral religion coexists and interacts with pan-Mayan syncretism, the 're-invention of tradition' by the Maya Movement, and Christianity in its various denominations. In this article, however, the focus is on '''traditional Maya religion''', a southeastern variant of [[Mesoamerica]]n religion, including its pre-Spanish and Classic period (ca. 200-900 AD) antecedents. As a recognizably distinct phenomenon, traditional Maya religion exists for more than two millennia, only the last five hundred years of which witnessed a symbiosis with another, non-Mesoamerican religion. Before the advent of Christianity, it was spread over many indigenous kingdoms, each with its own local traditions. {{Maya civilization}} ==Sources of Traditional Mayan Religion== The most important sources on traditional Maya religion are the living incumbents of religious positions and tellers of tales, as well as those who shared their knowledge with anthropologists in the past. What is known of pre-Spanish Maya religion stems from heterogeneous sources: (1) Primary sources from pre-Spanish times, first of all the three surviving hieroglyphic books and the earlier petrographical texts; (2) primary sources from the early colonial period, such as the ''[[Popol Vuh]]'', the ''Ritual of the Bacabs'', and (at least partly) the various ''[[Chilam Balam]]'' books; (3) secondary sources, chiefly Spanish treatises such as those of [[Landa]] and [[Las Casas]]; (4) archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic studies; and (5) extrapolations made from anthropological reports of traditional Maya religion over the last century and a half. ==Ritual== Traditional Maya religion is often referred to as ''costumbre'', the 'custom' or habitual religious practice, in contradistinction to orthodox Roman Catholic ritual. To a large extent, Maya religion is a complex of ritual practices; therefore, the indigenous Yucatec village priest is simply called ''jmen'' 'practitioner'. The main concepts relating to Maya ritual are the following ones. ===Times and Places=== Present-day traditional Maya religion, in its public aspect, is largely governed by the Catholic feast cycle. Formerly, however, ritual had a complex organization governed by various interlocking calendars and by the lay-out of shrines and temples spread through the landscape, perhaps assigning specific numbers, or combinations of day-names and numbers, to them (as in the system described by B. Tedlock for Quichean [[Momostenango]]). An important part of the rituals took place in large caves, and in Yucatan also around karstic sinkholes (cenotes). The main calendars governing ritual were the divinatory cycle of 260 days, important for individual rituals, and the year of eighteen months (the [[Haab']]) and the monthly public feasts which, together with the elaborate New Year celebrations, have been described for the Yucatec kingdom of [[Maní]] by Diego de Landa. It is not known in how far this festival cycle was shared by the other Yucatec kingdoms, and if it was also valid for the earlier Mayan kingdoms. To the ritual geography of Maya religion belong the pilgrimages, which create a network not only connecting places regionally, but also over large distances. Nowadays, pilgrimages often involve reciprocal visits of the village saints (as represented by their statues). Around 1500, Chichen Itza used to attract pilgrims from all the surrounding kingdoms to its large cenote; other pilgrims visited local shrines, such as those of [[Ix Chel]] and other goddesses on the islands off Yucatan's east coast. ===Priesthood=== {{main|Maya priesthood}} 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 system]]'), organizations which have played a crucial role in the preservation of pre-Spanish religious traditions. In the private realm, the diviners ('seers', 'daykeepers') are active, together with the curers. The performance of many of the indigenous priests, but especially of the curers, shows features associated with [[shamanism]].<ref>Tedlock 1992:46-53</ref> Our picture of the earlier Maya priesthood is almost entirely based on what their Spanish missionary colleagues have to say about them (Landa for Yucatan, 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 knowledge. Around 1500 A.D., the priesthood was hierarchically organized, from the high priest living at the court down to the priests in the villages, and the priestly books were distributed along these lines. In the Quichean kingdom, the two most important deities (Gucumatz and Tohil) had their own high priests. Priests had multiple tasks, running from performing life crisis rituals to divination, and held special offices, such as that of ''[[katun]]''-priest, <ref>Tozzer 1941: 26n136, quoting Avendaño</ref> oracle (''chilan''), astrologer, and sacrificer of human beings (''nacom''). At all levels, access to the priesthood was apparently restricted to the nobility. Surprisingly little is known about the Classic Maya priesthood, although one surmises that the aged, ascetic figures depicted as writing and reading books, aspersing and inaugurating officials, and overseeing human sacrifice, are likely to be representatives of the priesthood at court. [[Image:Mayan Ceremony - Blessing a child.JPG|right|thumb|Maya Ceremony - Blessing a Child.]] ===Purification=== Purificatory measures such as fasting, sexual abstention - and, especially in the pre-Spanish past, confession - generally precede major ritual events. In 16th-century Yucatan, purification (exorcism of evil spirits) often represented a ritual's initial phase. The bloodletting-rituals (see below) may also have had a purificatory function. More generally, purification is needed before entering areas inhabited by deities. In present-day Yucatan, it is customary to drink standing water from a rock depression at the first opportunity upon entering the forest. The water is then spat on the ground, and thus renders the individual 'virginal' (''suhuuy''), free to carry out the business of humankind in the sacred forest. ===Offerings and Sacrifices=== Offerings serve to establish and renew relations ('contracts', 'pacts', or 'covenants') with the other world, and the choice, number, preparation, and arrangement of the offered items (such as food, incense nodules, flowers) obey to stringent rules. An example is the 'meal' offered to the rain deities in the Yucatec Ch'a-chaac ritual. The forms sacrifice might take varies considerably. In the pre-Spanish past, it usually consisted of small animals such as quails and turkeys, of deer meat, and of fish, but on exceptional occasions (such as accession to the throne, severe illness of the ruler, royal burial, or drought) also came to include human beings. Partaking of the sacrifice was common, but ritual anthropophagy ('[[cannibalism]]') appears to have been exceedingly rare. A characteristic feature of Mayan ritual (though not exclusive to the Mayas) were the "bloodletting" sessions held by high officials and members of the royal families, during which the earlobes, tongues, and penises were cut with razor-sharp small knives. ===Prayer=== Maya prayer almost invariably accompanies acts of offering and sacrifice. It often takes the form of long litanies, in which the names of personified days, saints, features of the landscape connected with historical or mythical events, and mountains are particularly prominent. <ref>Köhler 1995</ref> These prayers, with their hypnotizing scansion, often show a dyadic couplet structure which has also been recognized in Classic period texts. The earliest prayers recorded in European script are in Quiché, and are embedded in the creation myths of the Popol Vuh. Some Maya communities in the northwestern highlands have a specialized group of 'prayermakers'. ===Impersonation of Deities=== The theatrical impersonation of deities is a Mesoamerican practice shared by the Maya, and often took place in the context of procession, dance, or ball game. With a view to such pageantry, the term 'theater state' (Geertz) has been used. Impersonation is also noticeable in the case of the Classic Maya king or queen. Quite commonly, the king, as depicted on his steles, shows the attributes and mask of the rain deity and of a rain serpent, but he (or the queen) could also represent other important deities, such as the [[Tonsured Maize God]]. Little is known about the way this impersonation was conceived, as a vicarious representation, a temporary possession, or, perhaps, as reflecting a basic identity. ==Ritual Domains== The only extensive treatment of pre-Spanish Maya ritual by a near-contemporary concerns Yucatan, particularly the kingdom of Mani, and was written by Diego de Landa (ca. 1566). However, major ritual domains, such as those of agriculture and kingship, are hardly touched upon by Landa. ===Calendar=== The [[Maya calendar]], connected to networks of sacrificial shrines, is fundamental for ritual life. The rites of the 260-day cycle are treated below (see 'Sciences of Destiny'). Among the highland Maya, the calendrical rites of the community as a whole relate to the succession of the 365-day years, and to the so-called 'Year Bearers' in particular, that is, the four named days which can serve as new year days. Conceived as divine lords, these Year Bearers were welcomed on the mountain (one of four) which was to be their seat of power, and worshipped at each recurrence of their day in the course of the year. The calendrical rites include the five-day marginal period at the end of the year (''Uayeb'') and the New Year rites (four in number). For the 16th century, these have been described in great detail by Landa, more or less as they had been depicted in the Dresden Codex several centuries earlier. During these New Year rites, the incoming patron deity of the year was installed, and the outgoing one removed. Like the Year Bearers, the twenty-year periods ([[katun]]s) were viewed as divine lords; since they had their own priests (Avendaño), they were apparently also worshipped. ===Life cycle=== The 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 marriable (''caput sihil'' 'second birth'). The Yucatec Maya continue the ritual (''hetz mek'') which marks a child's movement from cradling or carrying to the mother's hip. It is performed at about three months and has godparents of the ceremony. The child is offered implements appropriate to its gender, tools for boys and cloth or thread for girls. If the children grasp them, this is considerd a foretelling. Of course, all children are offered pencils and paper. ===Health=== The main collection of ancient Yucatec curing rituals is the so-called 'Ritual of the Bacabs'. In these texts, the world with its four trees and four carriers of earth and sky ([[Bacabs]]) located at the corners is the theatre of shamanic curing sessions, during which "the four Bacabs" are often addressed to assist the curer in his struggle with disease-causing agents. Not represented amongst these ritual texts is black sorcery. Many of the features of shamanic curing found in the 'Ritual of the Bacabs' still characterize contemporary curing ritual. ===Weather and Agriculture=== Influencing the weather, in a negative or a positive sense, includes such rituals as 'Sealing the frost' just before the sowing season (Kanjobales), <ref>LaFarge 1947: 125</ref> and the (usually secretive) rituals of the rainmakers, found all over the Maya area. The other rituals for the rain deities had a more public character. Agricultural rites focus on the sowing of the maize and the maize harvest. Particularly the seasonal rites of the Ch'orti have been described in great detail (Rafael Girard). ===Territory=== The claims on territory by social groups of varying dimensions were expressed in rituals such as those for the waterholes, ancestral lands, <ref>Vogt 1976: 97-115</ref> and the boundaries of the entire community. <ref>LaFarge 1947: 126-127</ref> The focus of these rituals were often crosses, or rather, 'cross shrines', and prayers were directed at rain and earth deities. ===Occupational Groups=== The 18 months had festivals, dedicated to specific deities, which were largely celebrated by the occupational groups concerned (in particular hunters and fishermen, bee-keepers, cacao planters, curers, and warriors). They also included a commemorative festival for the hero Kukulcan, viewed as the founder of Yucatec kingship. ===The King=== Little is known about the king's (or, as the case might be, queen's) ritual duties; the early Spanish writers have little to say about this theme. Nonetheless, one finds the Yucatec king (''halach uinic'') referred to as 'bishop', <ref>Thompson 1970: 167</ref> so that, in virtue of his office, the king appears to have participated in major public rituals, perhaps including such things as initiating the season of sowing. However, the king not only took a part in ritual, but ritual is likely to have focused on his person as well. The erection of royal steles at intervals of five 360-day years was a ritual by itself, and involved the notion of a protective 'tree of life' (Schele). Moreover, in the Classic period, the king is commonly depicted holding a cosmic serpent from whose jaws the deities of rain and lightning emerge, and the king's raising and balancing of this serpent may have been expressed in, and supported by, ritual. ===Ancestor Worship=== Around 1500 A.D., 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 upon it (Landa). In the Verapaz, a statue of the dead king was placed on his burial mound, which then became a place of worship.<ref>Miles 1957:749, quoting Fuentes y Guzmán and Las Casas</ref> In Classic courts, tombs are found integrated in the residences of the nobility, and, in the case of royal families, in funeral pyramids. Apart from the ancestral remains themselves, sacred bundles left by the ancestors were also the object of veneration.<ref>Tedlock 1996:174-175</ref> Reliefs from the Classic kingdom of [[Yaxchilan]] show that royal ancestors were sometimes approached during bloodletting rituals, and then appeared to their descendants, emerging from the mouth of a terrestrial serpent (see also [[Vision Serpent]]). ==Sciences of Destiny== ===Numerology and Calendrics=== Apart from writing, the fundamental priestly sciences were arithmetics and calendrics. Within the social group of the priests at court, it had by Classical times become customary to deify the numbers as well as the basic day-unit, and - particularly in the south-eastern kingdoms of [[Copan]] and [[Quirigua]] - to conceive the mechanism of time as an estafette in which the 'burden' of the time-units was passed on from one divine numerical 'bearer' to the next one. The numbers were not personified by distinctive numerical deities, but by some of the principal general deities, who were thus seen to be responsible for the ongoing 'march of time'. The day-units were often depicted as the patrons of the priestly scribes themselves, that is, as [[Howler Monkey Gods]], who seem to have been conceived as creator deities in their own right. 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. ===Divination=== Like all other cultures of [[Mesoamerica]], the Maya used a 260-day [[Maya calendar|calendar]], usually referred to as ''[[tzolkin]]''. The length of this calendar coincides with the average duration of human gestation. Its purpose was (and still is) to provide guidance in life through a consideration of the combined aspects of the 20 named days and 13 numbers, and to indicate the days on which sacrifice at specific 'number shrines' (recalling the number deities of Classic times) might lead to the desired results. The days were commonly deified and invoked as 'Lordships'. The general Yucatec word for 'priest' (''ah k'in'') referred to the counting of the days. The mantic calendar has proven to be particularly resistant to the onslaughts of time (that is, of colonial repression, liberalism, ethnocide, and free market). Nowadays, a '[[daykeeper]]' (divinatory priest) may stand in front 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 from the Popol Vuh. People also come to these daykeepers to know about baby names, wedding dates and other special occasions. Divinatory techniques included the throwing and counting of seeds, crystals, and beans, and also - apart from the count - gazing in a magical mirror, and reading the various sorts of signs (auguries) given by birds; during the Classic period, pictures of such birds were used as logograms for the larger time periods. ===Astrology=== What is often called Maya 'astronomy' was really astrology, since it was a priestly science resting on the assumption of a correspondence between earthly events and the movements of heavenly bodies and constellations. Contemporary traditional Maya astrology is extremely impoverished and fragmented. Usually, the names of certain stars and constellations is all that has been preserved, and the influence of star lore on social and professional activities can no longer be traced. The highly sophisticated pre-Spanish astrology is mainly found in the relatively late [[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. The [[Paris Codex]] contains what some consider to be a [[zodiac]]. Some of the Books of [[Chilam Balam]] testify to the great interest the colonial Maya had for the astrology of their conquerors. ==Cosmology== ===Earth, Sky, Underworld=== Horizontally, the earth could be conceived as a square with its four directional - or, perhaps, solstitial - points, each with its own colour, tree / mountain, deity, and aspect, or as a circle without such fixed points; in the centre is the tree of life / dominant mountain. The square earth could be conceived as a maize field, the circular earth as a turtle floating in the waters; the centre as a ceiba or a maize tree. Vertically, the sky was divided into thirteen layers, while the underworld is often claimed to have consisted of nine layers, even though the underworld of the Popol Vuh does not know such a division; moreover, in Classic Maya texts and iconography, it is rather common to find deities linked to some of the thirteen skies, whereas similar references to layers of the underworld have not been identified. A central axis served as a means of communication between the various spheres; the king, identified with the tree of the centre, embodied this axis. In the Classic period, earth and sky are embodied by cosmic serpents and dragons which serve as vehicles for deities and ancestors, making them appear from their maws. Dragons combine the features of serpents, crocodiles, and deer. ===Eschatology and Cosmogony=== Within the framweork of the post-Classic cycle of thirteen katuns (the so-called '[[Short Count]]'), some of the Yucatec Books of Chilam Balam describe the collapse of the sky, the subsequent deluge, and the re-establishment of the world and its five world trees. In this cosmic drama, the Lightning deity ([[Bolon Dzacab]]), the Earth Crocodile (Itzam Cab Ain), and the divine carriers of sky and earth (the [[Bacabs]]) had an important role to play. The Quichean Popol Vuh does not mention the collapse of the sky and the establishment of the five trees, but focuses instead on a a succession of previous mankinds, the last of which was destroyed by a flood. For the Classic Maya, the base date of the [[Long Count]] (4 Ahau 8 Cumku) is generally assumed to have been the focus of acts of creation especially, though not exclusively, connected to the mythology of the [[Maya maize god]] through the figures of the two so-called Paddler Gods. References to these primordial events (as on [[Quirigua]] stela C) are few in number, seemingly incoherent, and hard to interpret (among these is an obscure conclave of seven deities in the underworld, and a concept of "three stones", usually taken to refer to a hearth). ==Man== ===Soul and 'Co-essence'=== The traditional Mayas believe in the existence, within each individual, of various souls, usually described in quasi-material terms (such as 'shadow', 'breath', 'blood', and 'bone'). The loss of one or more souls results in specific diseases (generically called 'soul-loss', 'fright', or ''susto''). In Classic Maya texts, certain glyphs are read as references to the soul. Much more is known about the so-called 'co-essences', that is, animals or other natural phenomena (comets, lightnings) linked with the individual and protecting him. In some cases (often connected to black sorcery), one can change into these 'co-essences' (see also [[nagual]]). The Classic Maya grandees had a whole array of such 'soul companions', usually of a menacing nature, and called ''[[wayob]]''; these were distinguished by specific hieroglyphic names. Among them were also stars. ===Afterlife: Underworld and Paradise=== In the pre-Spanish past, there may never have existed a unified concept of the afterlife. Among the Pokoman Maya of the Verapaz, Xbalanque was to accompany the dead king,<ref>Coe 1975:91, quoting Fuentes y Guzmán</ref> which suggests a descent into the underworld (called ''[[xibalba]]'' 'place of fright') like 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 by the 20th-century Lacandons), while others went to a sort of paradise; into such a paradise, those who had committed suicide were conducted by the goddess [[Ixtab]]. The ancestors of Maya kings (Palenque tomb of [[Pakal]], Berlin pot) are shown sprouting from the earth like fruit trees, again suggestive of some concept of paradise. To judge by the aquatic imagery associated with Classic burials and depictions of ancestors, this paradise may have been the Maya variant of the rain gods' paradise (''[[Tlalocan]]'') in Central Mexico. ==Powers of the Other World== ===Ancestors=== The traditional Maya live in the continual presence of the '(grand)fathers and (grand)mothers', the usually anonymous, bilateral ancestors, who, in the highlands, are often conceived of as inhabiting specific mountains, where they expect the offerings of their descendants. 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. Thus, the Popol Vuh lists three genealogies of upper lords descending from three ancestors and their wives. These original ancestors - ritually defined as 'bloodletters and sacrificers' - had received their private deities in a legendary land of origins called 'The Seven Caves and Seven Canyons' (Nahua [[Chicomoztoc]]), and on their disappearance, left a [[sacred bundle]]. ===Heroes=== A special category within the group of the ancestors are the heroes, best known through the sixteenth-century Quichean epic of the [[Maya hero twins]], Hunahpu and Xbalanque. In the Classic period, the adventures of these two heroes were known all over the Mayan area. Most traditional Maya groups have their own heroes, such as Juan K'anil among the Jacaltecs of the northwestern highlands, <ref>Montejo 1984</ref> and Ohoroxtotil, who defeated the jaguars, among the Tzotziles of Chiapas. <ref>Guiteras 1961: 182-183, 262</ref> The heroes' actions can belong to a relatively recent past, and be semi-historical, or have occurred in the deep past, and be primeval; but in principle, the heroes can be addressed in prayer, and receive some form of worship. Sometimes, they are merged with specific military saints.<ref>e.g., Vogt 1976: 159-161</ref> ===Deities=== In Maya folk religion, the members of the Catholic Trinity, Mary, and the saints have usually merged with traditional deities and ancestral heroes ([[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. From the multitude of deity names occurring in early-colonial sources (and especially in the medical 'Rituals of the Bacabs'), about twenty have been linked to deity figures from the codices and their correspondences in the corpus of ceramic representations; these have been assigned letter names (Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube classification). The three remaining codices are there to show that deities were permanently being arranged and rearranged according to cultic criteria which usually are not immediately accessible to us. 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]]); sky gods, particularly the sun god (Kinich Ahau), the [[Maya moon goddess]], and the Venus god; gods of the weather and the crops, particularly the rain god ([[Chaac]]), the lightning god ([[Bolon Dzacab]]), the aged deities of the underground, terrestrial water, and thunder ([[Bacabs]]), and a [[Maya maize god]]; occupational gods, particularly those of merchants, midwives ([[Ixchel]]), black sorcerers (god L); Owners, represented by an antlered god of the hunt; death gods; and the deified Twin heroes. Whereas the group of male deities is highly differentiated, the female functions seem largely to have been concentrated in a young goddess of women, marriage, and sensual love (goddess I). Missing from the three codices, but attested by Classic iconography are, amongst others, an important marine deity with the attribute of a shark teeth held in the mouth, and some of the [[Maya jaguar gods]] associated with warfare. The ancient Maya concept of 'deity' (''k'u'' in Yucatec, ''qabuvil'' in ancient Quiché) is poorly understood, but should in any case not be reduced to a mere personification of natural phenomena; the deities' functions and interactions with other deities are much too complicated for that. The life-cycle of the maize, for instance, lies at the heart of Maya belief, but the role of the [[Maya maize god]] transcends the sphere of agriculture to embrace basic aspects of civilized life in general (such as writing). More generally, deities can operate within various fields, and change attributes accordingly; they can not easily be arranged hierarchically. The goddess of midwifery, for instance, is also associated with rain and with warfare, and the god of black sorcery (god L) with mercantile riches. ===Spooks, Spectres, and Demons=== The power exercized by a deity is legitimate, and this legitimacy justifies offerings and sacrifice. Unlike the gods of disease and death, spooks and demons have no such legitimacy. Whereas spooks - like the spectres of the dead - only frighten (and in that way, can also cause disease), demons are kidnappers, rapists, and devourers; in practice, however, the borderline can be thin. 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'). Spooks of the Tzotziles include such figures as the 'charcoal-cruncher', the 'one who drops his own flesh', and 'white-bundle', whereas the principal demon of the area is the 'Black-man' (''h?ik'al''). <ref>Blaffer 1972</ref> The 'co-essences' (''wayob'') through which the powerful of the Classic period could act, often looked like spooks, rather than like the animals, comets, and lightnings one might expect. ===Goblins and Dwarfs=== According to Yucatec belief, the indigenous priests can create goblins (''[[alux]]ob'') who, if properly attended, can assist the farmer in his work on the field, make the maize grow, and summon the rains. The child-like dwarfs of Classic iconography should perhaps be interpreted as such goblins. ==Religious Narrative== {{main|Maya mythology}} There is considerable diversity in recent religious narrative. Particularly in tales concerned with the creation of the earth and the origin of useful plants, a reworking of Catholic imagery is often noticeable. 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 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. Early creation mythology is found in the Popol Vuh and in some of the Books of [[Chilam Balam]]. 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. The two principal narratives recognized thus far are about demi-gods close to humanity (the [[Hero Twins]] and the [[Maya maize god]]), and have to be reconstructed from scenes in which often, narrative and ritual concerns are intertwined. ==Ethics== As ethical systems, polytheistic religions like those of the Maya are difficult to compare with the monotheistic world religions. However, the idea of 'covenants' <ref>Monaghan 2000: 38-39</ref> between deities and human beings is common to both. Fulfilling the ritual requirements of the 'covenants' should ideally lead to a state of harmony. The archaic practice of human sacrifice should first of all be viewed within this framework. ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References and Bibliography== *Sarah C. Blaffer, ''The Black-man of Zinacantan''. University of Texas Press, Austin 1972. *Michael D. Coe, ''Death and the Ancient Maya'', in E.P. Benson ed., Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America, pp. 87-104. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington 1975. *David Freidel, Linda Schele, Joy Parker, ''Maya Cosmos''. William Morrow, New York 1993. *Rafael Girard, ''Los mayas eternos''. LibroMex, Mexico 1962. *Calixta Guiteras Holmes, ''Perils of the Soul. The World View of a Tzotzil Indian''. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe. *Ulrich Köhler, ''Chonbilal Ch'ulelal - Alma Vendida. Elementos fundamentales de la cosmología y religión mesoamericanas en una oración en maya-tzotzil.'' Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico 1995. *Olivier LaFarge, ''Santa Eulalia. The Religion of a Cuchumatán Indian Town''. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1947. *Susan Milbrath, ''Star Gods of the Maya''. University of Texas Press, Austin 1999. *S.W. Miles, ''The Sixteenth-Century Pokom-Maya''. The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia 1957. *Mary Miller and Karl Taube, ''An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya''. Thames and Hudson, London 1993. *John D. Monaghan, ''Theology and History in the Study of Mesoamerican Religions''. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Supplement to Vol. 6. University of Texas Press, Austin 2000. *Victor Montejo, ''El Kanil, Man of Lightning''. Signal Books, Carrboro N.C. *Ralph L. Roys, ''The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel''. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1967. *Ralph L. Roys, ''Ritual of the Bacabs''. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1965. *Karl Taube, ''The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan''. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington 1992. *Barbara Tedlock, ''Time and the Highland Maya''. University of New Mexico Pres, Albuquerque 1992. * {{cite book | author={{aut|Tedlock, Dennis}} (trans.) |year = 1996 | title=Popol Vuh: the Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Revised Edition| location= New York | publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=0-671-45241-X }} *J.E.S. Thompson, ''Maya History and Religion''. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1970. *Alfred M. Tozzer, ''Landa's Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. A Translation''. Peabody Museum, Cambridge MA 1941. *Evon Z. Vogt, ''Tortillas for the Gods. A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals''. Harvard University Pres, Cambridge 1976. ==See also== *[[List of Maya gods and supernatural beings]] *[[Aztec religion]] * [http://www.atitlan.net/video/mayan-religion.htm Mayan religion] [[Category:Maya mythology and religion|*Religion]] [[Category:Maya civilization]] [[fr:Religion maya]] [[nl:Mayareligie]]'