Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T14:56:09.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY: THE USE OF CLASSIC PERIOD DIVINATORY TEXTS IN THE LATE POSTCLASSIC MAYA CODICES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2011

Gabrielle Vail  and
Christine Hernández
Gabrielle Vail*
Affiliation:
Division of Social Sciences, New College of Florida, 5800 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota, FL 34243
Christine Hernández*
Affiliation:
Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, 301 Dinwiddie Hall, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118
*
E-mail correspondence to: gvail@ncf.edu; chernand@tulane.edu
E-mail correspondence to: gvail@ncf.edu; chernand@tulane.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Maya codices were important repositories of cultural knowledge and traditions passed down through the centuries. Rather than being focused on human actors, however, the Late Postclassic period Maya screenfolds contain almanacs that predict the movements of celestial bodies during earlier time periods. The purpose of these seemingly “out-of-date” tools was to predict the future based on notions of cyclical time. Recent research suggests that centuries-old astronomical almanacs do more than model the past or formulate rituals. Instead, they are formulated to integrate celestial events with other cycles of time and to contextualize them with events from the mythic past, such as the destruction of a former world by flood. The memory of this calamitous primordial event, framed in terms of astronomical and seasonal cycles, is preserved in pre-Hispanic and historic documents as a means of conveying the ill-fortune associated with like-in-kind events that are certain to repeat, and of scheduling the performance of appropriate ritual actions to mitigate their destructive potential.

Type
Special Section: Archaeology and Memory in Middle America
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , Fall 2011 , pp. 449 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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

REFERENCES

Anders, Ferdinand 1967 Codex Tro-Cortesianus (Codex Madrid). Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt, Graz.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 2001 Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bricker, Harvey M., and Bricker, Victoria R. 1992 Zodiacal References in the Maya Codices. In The Sky in Mayan Literature, edited by Aveni, Anthony F., pp. 148–183. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bricker, Harvey M., and Bricker, Victoria R. 2007 When Was the Dresden Venus Table Efficacious? In Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy, edited by Ruggles, Clive and Urton, Gary, pp. 95–119. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Bricker, Harvey M., and Bricker, Victoria R. 2011 Astronomy in the Maya Codices. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 265. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R. 1997 The “Calendar-Round” Almanac in the Madrid Codex. In Papers on the Madrid Codex, edited by Bricker, Victoria R. and Vail, Gabrielle, pp. 169–180. Middle American Research Institute, Publication No. 64. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R. 2000 Bilingualism in the Maya Codices and the Books of Chilam Balam. In Language and Dialect Variation in the Maya Hieroglyphic Script, edited by Vail, Gabrielle and Macri, Martha J.. Special Issue of Written Language and Literacy 3(1):77–115.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R. 2001 A Method for Dating Venus Almanacs in the Borgia Codex. Archaeoastronomy, 26. Supplement to Journal for the History of Astronomy 32:S21–S43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R., and Bricker, Harvey M. 1986 Archaeoastronomical Implications of an Agricultural Almanac in the Dresden Codex. Mexicon 8:29–35.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R., and Bricker, Harvey M. 1988 The Seasonal Table in the Dresden Codex and Related Almanacs. Archaeoastronomy, 12. Supplement to Journal for the History of Astronomy 19:S1–S62.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R., and Bricker, Harvey M. 1992 A Method for Cross-Dating Almanacs with Tables in the Dresden Codex. In The Sky in Mayan Literature, edited by Aveni, Anthony F., pp. 43–86. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R., and Bricker, Harvey M. 2005 Astronomical References in the Water Tables on Pages 69 to 74 of the Dresden Codex. In Painted Books and Indigenous Knowledge in Mesoamerica: Manuscript Studies in Honor of Mary Elizabeth Smith, edited by Boone, Elizabeth Hill, pp. 213–229. Middle American Research Institute, Publication No. 69. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R., and Miram, Helga-Maria 2002 An Encounter of Two Worlds: The Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua. Middle American Research Institute, Publication No. 68. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Bruce, Robert D., Robles U., Carlos, and Chao, Enriqueta Ramos 1971 Los Lacandones: Cosmovisión maya. Departamento de Investigaciones Antropológicas, No. 26. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Carlson, John 1983 The Grolier Codex: A Preliminary Report on the Content and Authenticity of a Thirteenth-Century Maya Venus Almanac. In Calendars in Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American Computations of Time, edited by Aveni, Anthony F. and Brotherston, Gordon, pp. 27–57. BAR International Series 174, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Christenson, Allen J. 2003 Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. O Books, New York.Google Scholar
Closs, Michael 1989 Cognitive Aspects of Ancient Maya Eclipse Theory. In World Archaeoastronomy, edited by Aveni, Anthony F., pp. 389–415. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Edmonson, Munro S. 1982 The Ancient Future of the Itza: The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Förstemann, Ernst 1880 Die Maya Handschrift der Königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden. Mit 74 Tafeln in Chromo-Lightdruck. Verlag der A. Naumannschen Lichtdruckeret, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Gann, Thomas 1900 Mounds in Northern Honduras. Nineteenth Annual Report, 1897–1898, Bureau of American Ethnology 2:655–692. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Grube, Nikolai, Lacadena, Alfonso, and Martin, Simon 2003 Chichen Itza and Ek Balam: Terminal Classic Inscriptions from Yucatan. In Notebook for the XXVIIth Maya Hieroglyphic Forum at Texas, Part II. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Hernández, Christine, and Bricker, Victoria R. 2004 The Inauguration of Planting in the Borgia and Madrid Codices. In The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, edited by Vail, Gabrielle and Aveni, Anthony, pp. 277–320. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Hernández, Christine, and Vail, Gabrielle 2007 Astronomical Interpretations of Maya Almanacs: A View from the Late Postclassic Maya Codices. Paper presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, Texas.Google Scholar
Hernández, Christine, and Vail, Gabrielle 2010 A Case for Scribal Interaction: Evidence from the Madrid and Borgia Group Codices. In Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual Interchange between the Northern Maya Lowlands and Highland Mexico during the Late Postclassic Period, edited by Vail, Gabrielle and Hernández, Christine, pp. 333–366. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Just, Bryan R. 2004 In Extenso Almanacs in the Madrid Codex. In The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, edited by Vail, Gabrielle and Aveni, Anthony, pp. 255–276. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
King, Mark B. 1994 Hearing the Echoes of Verbal Art in Mixtec Writing. In Writing Without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by Bonne, Elizabeth H. and Mignolo, Walter D., pp. 102–136. Duke University Press, Durham and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowlton, Timothy 2008 Back Then When There Was No Sky: The Antiquity of Celestial References in Classical Yucatecan Creation Myths. Paper prepared for the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Knowlton, Timothy 2009 Composition and Artistry in a Classical Yucatecan Maya Creation Myth: Prehispanic Ritual Narratives and Their Colonial Transmission. In The Maya and Their Sacred Narratives: Text and Context in Maya Mythologies. Proceedings of the 12th European Maya Conference, Geneva, December 7–8, 2007, edited by Fort, Geneviève Le, Gardiol, Raphaël, Matteo, Sebastian, and Helmke, Christophe, pp. 111–121. Verlag Anton Saurwein, Markt Schwaben, Germany.Google Scholar
Knowlton, Timothy 2010 Maya Creation Myths: Words and Worlds of the Chilam Balam. Mesoamerican Worlds: From the Olmecs to the Danzantes. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Lounsbury, Floyd G. 1983 The Base of the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex, and Its Significance for the Calendar-Correlation Problem. In Calendars in Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American Computations of Time, edited by Aveni, Anthony F. and Brotherston, Gordon, pp. 1–26. BAR International Series 174. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Love, Bruce 1994 The Paris Codex: Handbook for a Maya Priest. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
McGee, R. Jon 1989 The Flood Myth from a Lacandon Maya Perspective. Latin American Indian Literatures Journal 5:68–80.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 1999 Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Rätsch, Christian 1985 Bilder aus der unsichtbaren Welt. Kindler Verlag, Munich.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. (translator) 1967 [1933] The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Reprinted. Civilization of the American Indian, No. 87. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Fray Bernardino de 1953 Book 7—The Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the Binding of the Years. Monograph No. 14, Part VIII of The Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, translated and annotated by Anderson, Arthur J. O. and Dibble, Charles E.. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Grube, Nikolai 1997 The Dresden Codex. In Notebook for the XXIst Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop, pp. 79–247. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2005 The Inscriptions from Temple XIX at Palenque. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1988 The Ancient Yucatec New Year Festival: The Liminal Period in Maya Ritual and Cosmology. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1993 Aztec and Maya Myths. British Museum Press and University of Texas Press, London and Austin.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis 1996 Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Revised ed. Simon and Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1934 Sky Bearers, Colors, and Directions in Maya and Mexican Religion. Contributions to American Archaeology, Vol. 2, No. 10. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 436, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1972 A Commentary on the Dresden Codex: A Maya Hieroglyphic Book. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 93. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. 1941 Landa's Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 18. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle 2002 Haab' Rituals in the Maya Codices and the Structure of Maya Almanacs. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 53. Center for Maya Research, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle 2006 The Maya Codices. Annual Review of Anthropology 35:497–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle 2009 Cosmology and Creation in Late Postclassic Maya Literature and Art. In Maya Worldviews at Conquest, edited by Cecil, Leslie G. and Pugh, Timothy W., pp. 83–110. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle, and Aveni, Anthony F. (editors) 2004 The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle, Bricker, Victoria R., Aveni, Anthony F., Bricker, Harvey M., Chuchiak, John F., Hernández, Christine L., Just, Bryan R., Macri, Martha J., and Paxton, Merideth 2003 New Perspectives on the Madrid Codex. Current Anthropology 44:S105–S112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle, and Hernández, Christine 2009 Cords and Crocodilians: Creation Mythology in Late Postclassic Maya Iconography and Texts. In Proceedings of the 12th European Maya Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, 3–8 December 2007, edited by Fort, Geneviève Le, Gardiol, Raphaël, Matteo, Sebastian, and Helmke, Christophe, pp. 89–108. Verlag Anton Saurwein, Markt Schwaben, Germany.Google Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle, and Hernández, Christine 2012 Re-Creating Primordial Time: Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Maya Codices. University Press of Colorado, Boulder (accepted and in preparation).Google Scholar
Vail, Gabrielle, and Hernández, Christine (editors) 2010 Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual Interchange between the Northern Maya Lowlands and Highland Mexico during the Late Postclassic Period. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar