Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T02:19:35.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Anomalous Ixil-Bypassed by the Postclassic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Benjamin N. Colby
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Ixil differ from other Mesoamerican societies in their extensive ancestor worship and their absence of a belief in animal companion spirits. The historical and archaeological evidence shows Ixil continuity with the lowland Classic Maya with comparatively little change during the Postclassic. The conclusion is tentatively drawn that the lowland Classic Maya were ancestor worshipers, and that the predominant characteristic of those Postclassic changes outside IxU country which led to the demise of Classic ceremonial centers in some areas and the later fragmentation of political units in others, derived from a basic religious change which was reflected in a change in the use of the 260-day ritual calendar. The new religion opposed ancestor worship and introduced a depersonalized soul belief system.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 74 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Richard E. W. 1968 Implications of a Maya elite class funeral at Altar de Sacrificios, Guatemala. Paper presented at 1968 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Google Scholar
Adams, Richard E. W. 1969 Maya archeology, 1958-1968, a review. Latin American Research Review 4:3-45.Google Scholar
Adams, R. E. W., and Gatling, J. L. 1964 Noreste del Petén: Un nuevo sitio y un mapa arqueológico regional Estudios de Cultura Maya 4:99-118.Google Scholar
Becquelin, Pierre 1969 Archeologie de la region de Nebaj. Mémoires de I’Institut d’Ethnologie II, Institut d’Ethnologie, Músee de l’Homme, Paris.Google Scholar
Bunzel, Ruth 1959 Chichicastenango: A Guatemalan village. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Carmack, Robert M. 1973 Quichean civilization; the ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological sources. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1956 The funerary temple among the Classic Maya. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 12:387-94.10.1086/soutjanth.12.4.3629063 Google Scholar
Colby, Benjamin N., and Pierre, L. van den Berghe 1969 Ixil country: A pluralistic society in high land Guatemala. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Colby, Benjamin N., and Lore, M. Colby 1974 Two Ixil myths. Anthropos 69:216-23.Google Scholar
De Borhegyi, Stephan F. 1965 Archeological synthesis of the Guatemalan highlands. In Archeology of Southern Mesoamerica, edited by Gordon, R. Willey. Hand book of Middle American Indians vol. 2, edited by Robert, Wauchope. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Foster, George M. 1944 Nagualism in Mexico and Guatemala. Acta Americana 2:85-103.Google Scholar
Landa, Diego de 1941 Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, edited and translated by Alfred, M. Tozzer. Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Miles, Suzanna W. 1951 An analysis of modern Middle American calendars. Acculturation in the Americas. Proceedings and Selected Papers of the XXIX International Congress of Americanists, edited by Sol, Tax. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Nash, June 1970 In the eyes of the ancestors: belief and behavior in a Maya community. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Palomino, Aquiles 1972 Marriage patterns of the Chajul Ixil. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar
Palomino, Aquiles 1972 Patrones matrimoniales entre los ixiles de Chajul Guatemala Indigena, Vol. VII, Nos. 1-2. Instituto Indigenista Nacional, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie Clews 1936 Mitla, town of the souls. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1963 Historical data in the inscriptions of Yaxchilan. Estudios de Cultura Maya 3:149-67.Google Scholar
Ruz Lhullier, A. 1954 Exploraciones en Palenque: 1952. Anales del I.N.A.H. 6:79-110. Mexico.Google Scholar
Sahagun, Fray Bernardino de 1961 Florentine Codex: General history of the things of New Spain, Book 10, The people, translated by Charles, E. Dibble and Arthur, J. O. Anderson. School of American Research and the University of Utah Publication 14, pt. 11.Google Scholar
Saler, Benson 1964 Nagual, witch, and sorcerer in a Quiche village. Ethnology, 305-28; reprinted in Magic, witchcraft, and curing, edited by John, Middleton. The Natural History Press, Garden City, NY.Google Scholar
Smith, Augustus Ledyard, and Alfred, V. Kidder 1951 Excavations at Nebaj, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 594.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1970 Maya history and religion. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. 1941 Landa’s Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. A translation. Edited with notes. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Papers, Vol. 18. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Villa Rojas, Alfonso 1945 The Maya of east central Quintana Roo. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 559.Google Scholar
Villa Rojas, Alfonso 1947 Kinship and nagualism in a Tzeltal community, southeastern Mexico. American Anthropologist 49:578-88.10.1525/aa.1947.49.4.02a00050 Google Scholar
Villa Rojas, Alfonso 1963 El nagualismo como recurso de control social entre los grupos mayances de Chiapas, México. Estudios de Cultura Maya 3:243-60.Google Scholar
Villacorta, Calderon, José, Antonio 1938 Prehistoria e historia antigua de Guatemala. Topografía Nacional, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969 Zinacantan, a Maya community in the highlands of Chiapas. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar