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Maya Cosmos
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Download or read book Maya Cosmos written by David Freidel and published by William Morrow Paperbacks. This book was released on 1995-02-27 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Masterful blend of archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, and lively personal reportage, Maya Comos tells a constellation of stories, from the historical to the mythological, and envokes the awesome power of one of the richest civilizations ever to grace the earth.
Book Synopsis The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya by : Merideth Paxton
Download or read book The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya written by Merideth Paxton and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces implications of a previously unrecognized image of the solar year in the Madrid Codex to find new meanings in the Dresden Codex and the Maya calendar system and a regional settlement organization in Yucatan.
Book Synopsis Maya Political Science by : Prudence M. Rice
Download or read book Maya Political Science written by Prudence M. Rice and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2013-08-28 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the ancient Maya rule their world? Despite more than a century of archaeological investigation and glyphic decipherment, the nature of Maya political organization and political geography has remained an open question. Many debates have raged over models of centralization versus decentralization, superordinate and subordinate status—with far-flung analogies to emerging states in Europe, Asia, and Africa. But Prudence Rice asserts that neither the model of two giant "superpowers" nor that which postulates scores of small, weakly independent polities fits the accumulating body of material and cultural evidence. In this groundbreaking book, Rice builds a new model of Classic lowland Maya (AD 179-948) political organization and political geography. Using the method of direct historical analogy, she integrates ethnohistoric and ethnographic knowledge of the Colonial-period and modern Maya with archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic data from the ancient Maya. On this basis of cultural continuity, she constructs a convincing case that the fundamental ordering principles of Classic Maya geopolitical organization were the calendar (specifically a 256-year cycle of time known as the may) and the concept of quadripartition, or the division of the cosmos into four cardinal directions. Rice also examines this new model of geopolitical organization in the Preclassic and Postclassic periods and demonstrates that it offers fresh insights into the nature of rulership, ballgame ritual, and warfare among the Classic lowland Maya.
Book Synopsis Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos by : Prudence M. Rice
Download or read book Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos written by Prudence M. Rice and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2019-04-14 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos explores the sociocultural significance of more than three hundred Middle Preclassic Maya figurines uncovered at the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich' on Lake Petén Itzá in northern Guatemala. In this careful, holistic, and detailed analysis of the Petén lakes figurines—hand-modeled, terracotta anthropomorphic fragments, animal figures, and musical instruments such as whistles and ocarinas—Prudence M. Rice engages with a broad swath of theory and comparative data on Maya ritual practice. Presenting original data, Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos offers insight into the synchronous appearance of fired-clay figurines with the emergence of societal complexity in and beyond Mesoamerica. Rice situates these Preclassic Maya figurines in the broader context of Mesoamerican human figural representation, identifies possible connections between anthropomorphic figurine heads and the origins of calendrics and other writing in Mesoamerica, and examines the role of anthropomorphic figurines and zoomorphic musical instruments in Preclassic Maya ritual. The volume shows how community rituals involving the figurines helped to mitigate the uncertainties of societal transitions, including the beginnings of settled agricultural life, the emergence of social differentiation and inequalities, and the centralization of political power and decision-making in the Petén lowlands. Literature on Maya ritual, cosmology, and specialized artifacts has traditionally focused on the Classic period, with little research centering on the very beginnings of Maya sociopolitical organization and ideological beliefs in the Middle Preclassic. Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos is a welcome contribution to the understanding of the earliest Maya and will be significant to Mayanists and Mesoamericanists as well as nonspecialists with interest in these early figurines
Download or read book The Popol Vuh written by Lewis Spence and published by New York : AMS Press. This book was released on 1908 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Mayan Calendar Astrology by : Kenneth Johnson
Download or read book Mayan Calendar Astrology written by Kenneth Johnson and published by Lucita Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mayan Calendar Astrology: Mapping Your Inner Cosmos" is the quintessential handbook to help you understand the art of Mayan astrology and how to harness it for a profound illumination of your personal lifepath. If you liked "Jaguar Wisdom," this book will take you even deeper into the powerful insights that Mayan astrology can offer, whether you're a seasoned expert or just a beginner. Included in the book are: - Complete information about the day signs and numbers - The importance of the Year Lord - The Mayan Destiny chart (also known as the Mayan Cross) - The complete nine-sign horoscope - Solar and lunar cycles - A unique method for determining the phases of human life - The personal compatibility matrices embedded within the Tzolk'in - A little-known technique for assessing human relationships by combining two horoscopes into a composite chart - Calendar diagrams and horoscope templates - A powerful and meditative technique called the "Path of Feathered Serpent," based on our own "personal lunar month" and designed, through a series of guided meditations, to awaken the koyopa or inner lightning we all possess. REVIEWS: "I am profoundly grateful to Kenneth Johnson for sharing his experientially based understanding of the Tzolk'in in this remarkable book. As a long-time lover of the Mayan world, 'Mayan Calendar Astrology' finally opened my eyes to the subtle workings of the 260-day calendar and led me to embrace it as a genuine path to self-understanding. The author's work is based upon his years of work with several aj q'ijab' in the Guatemalan highlands, primarily in Momostenango, the important center for contemporary Mayan calendar knowledge. Johnson's explanations of the significance of the 13 numbers, the Mayan Destiny chart, the Year Lords, and the Path of Feathered Serpent are unique in popular literature and will enrich the understanding of even dedicated scholars." - Robert Sitler, PhD, Director, Latin American Studies, Stetson University
Book Synopsis Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens by : Simon Martin
Download or read book Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens written by Simon Martin and published by Thames and Hudson. This book was released on 2008-03-25 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ideal reference on Maya archaeology."--Science News
Book Synopsis Star Gods of the Maya by : Susan Milbrath
Download or read book Star Gods of the Maya written by Susan Milbrath and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A prodigious work of unmatched interdisciplinary scholarship” on Maya astronomy and religion (Journal of Interdisciplinary History). Observations of the sun, moon, planets, and stars played a central role in ancient Maya lifeways, as they do today among contemporary Maya who maintain the traditional ways. This pathfinding book reconstructs ancient Maya astronomy and cosmology through the astronomical information encoded in Pre-Columbian Maya art and confirmed by the current practices of living Maya peoples. Susan Milbrath opens the book with a discussion of modern Maya beliefs about astronomy, along with essential information on naked-eye observation. She devotes subsequent chapters to Pre-Columbian astronomical imagery, which she traces back through time, starting from the Colonial and Postclassic eras. She delves into many aspects of the Maya astronomical images, including the major astronomical gods and their associated glyphs, astronomical almanacs in the Maya codices and changes in the imagery of the heavens over time. This investigation yields new data and a new synthesis of information about the specific astronomical events and cycles recorded in Maya art and architecture. Indeed, it constitutes the first major study of the relationship between art and astronomy in ancient Maya culture. “Milbrath has given us a comprehensive reference work that facilitates access to a very broad and varied body of literature spanning several disciplines.” ―Isis “Destined to become a standard reference work on Maya archeoastronomy . . . Utterly comprehensive.” —Andrea Stone, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Book Synopsis Transcendent Wisdom of the Maya by : Gabriela Jurosz-Landa
Download or read book Transcendent Wisdom of the Maya written by Gabriela Jurosz-Landa and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An initiate’s inside account of ancient Maya spiritual practices alive today • Includes a Foreword by José Luis Tigüilá NABÉ kaxbaltzij, spokesperson of the Maya municipality • Details the initiation process the author went through to become a Maya shaman-priestess, including rituals, prayers, and ceremonies • Explains the foundational spiritual wisdom of the Maya calendar as a living entity, its cycles of time, and the significance of “the counting of the days”, which helps keep time itself alive • Examines the power of dance and Maya ceremonies, Maya future-telling, and communication with ancestors through the sacred fire Offering an insider’s experiential account of ancient Maya spiritual wisdom and practices, initiated Maya shaman-priestess Gabriela Jurosz-Landa opens up the mysterious world of the Maya, dispelling the rampant misinformation about their beliefs and traditions, sharing the transcendent beauty of their ceremonies, and explaining the Maya understanding of time, foundational to their spiritual worldview and cosmology. The author, an anthropologist, details the initiation process she went through to become a Maya shaman-priestess in Guatemala, including rituals, prayers, the presence of numinous forces, and the transmission of sacred knowledge. She explains the spiritual wisdom of the Maya calendar as a living entity, its cycles of time, and the significance of “the counting of the days,” which helps keep time itself alive. She examines Maya spiritual and cosmological concepts such as how the universe is shaped like a triangle over a square. She reveals the profound power of dance in Maya tradition, explaining how ritual dance halts the flow of time, reactivates primordial events, and captures vital energies that keep the Maya spiritual tradition vital and alive. Exploring other Maya secret knowledge, she also details Maya ritual attire, Maya future-telling with the calendar, the reading of the Tzi’te beans, and how the Maya communicate with ancestors through the sacred fire. Illustrating how contemporary Maya life is suffused with spiritual tradition and celebration, the author shares the teachings of the Maya from her initiate and anthropologist point of view in order to help us all learn from the ancient wisdom of their beliefs and worldview. Because, to truly understand the Maya, one must think like the Maya.
Book Synopsis Heart of Creation by : Andrea Joyce Stone
Download or read book Heart of Creation written by Andrea Joyce Stone and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible, state-of-the-art review of Mayan hieroglyphics and cosmology also serves as a tribute to one of the field's most noted pioneers. The core of this book focuses on the current study of Mayan hieroglyphics as inspired by the recently deceased Mayanist Linda Schele. As author or coauthor of more than 200 books or articles on the Maya, Schele served as the chief disseminator of knowledge to the general public about this ancient Mesoamerican culture, similar to the way in which Margaret Mead introduced anthropology and the people of Borneo to the English-speaking world. Twenty-five contributors offer scholarly writings on subjects ranging from the ritual function of public space at the Olmec site and the gardens of the Great Goddess at Teotihuacan to the understanding of Jupiter in Maya astronomy and the meaning of the water throne of Quirigua Zoomorph P. The workshops on Maya history and writing that Schele conducted in Guatemala and Mexico for the highland people, modern descendants of the Mayan civilization, are thoroughly addressed as is the phenomenon termed "Maya mania"—the explosive growth of interest in Maya epigraphy, iconography, astronomy, and cosmology that Schele stimulated. An appendix provides a bibliography of Schele's publications and a collection of Scheleana, written memories of "the Rabbit Woman" by some of her colleagues and students. Of interest to professionals as well as generalists, this collection will stand as a marker of the state of Mayan studies at the turn of the 21st century and as a tribute to the remarkable personality who guided a large part of that archaeological research for more than two decades.
Download or read book Palenque written by David Stuart and published by Thames and Hudson. This book was released on 2008-11-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two leading Maya scholars tell this story of the rediscovery of the queen of Maya cities--Palenque--deep in the forest-clad mountains of southeastern Mexico. 150 illustrations.
Book Synopsis Maya Pilgrimage by : Paul John Wigowsky
Download or read book Maya Pilgrimage written by Paul John Wigowsky and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is said that travel broadens one's horizons. A pilgrimage, on the other hand, expands one's consciousness. The end result of a pilgrimage is the capacity to see the sacredness in the places that are visited. One such sacred place is the vast territory of the Maya world, where thousands of pyramid-temples form a network or web of interconnected sites. These sites - like Tikal in Guatemala and Copan in Honduras - are remnants of a complex and highly-advanced civilization that existed on the continent of the Americas, forming what was known as the Land of the Plumed Serpent. This mysterious and awe-inspiring Land of the Plumed Serpent is the subject of this book. Travel with the author on a pilgrimage of this land and explore the heart and soul of the Americas in Guatemala, where the Maya people to this day have preserved the ancient customs, traditions, and religion of their ancestors. Learn about Xibalba (the Maya underworld), the Popol Vuh (Maya Bible), 2012 (calendar cycle), Maximon (the ancient Mam of Maya mythology), the Milky Way (the double-headed serpent Kukulcan), and much more. Wander the streets of colonial Antigua, the ancient capital of the Spanish Empire. Sail the waters of Lake Atitlan, the heart center of the planet, and see the numerous indigenous Maya groups in their colorful traje (clothing). Walk on the black volcanic sand beaches of Monterrico, where the turtles reenact their eternal drama of survival. Climb the active volcano Pacaya and stand next to a flowing river of lava. Shop at the incomparable market of Chichicastenango in the Guatemala highlands. After reading this book, you will marvel at the beauty of the Maya world, and you will realize that the Maya consciousness is still alive and thrives in the Land of the Plumed Serpent.
Book Synopsis The Maya: A Very Short Introduction by : Matthew Restall
Download or read book The Maya: A Very Short Introduction written by Matthew Restall and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Maya forged one of the greatest societies in the history of the ancient Americas and in all of human history. Long before contact with Europeans, Maya communities built spectacular cities with large, well-fed large populations. They mastered the visual arts, and developed a sophisticated writing system that recorded extraordinary knowledge in calendrics, mathematics, and astronomy. The Maya achieved all this without area-wide centralized control. There was never a single, unified Maya state or empire, but always numerous, evolving ethnic groups speaking dozens of distinct Mayan languages. The people we call "Maya" never thought of themselves as such; yet something definable, unique, and endlessly fascinating - what we call Maya culture - has clearly existed for millennia. So what was their self-identity and how did Maya civilization come to be "invented?" With the Maya historically subdivided and misunderstood in so many ways, the pursuit of what made them "the Maya" is all the more important. In this Very Short Introduction, Restall and Solari explore the themes of Maya identity, city-state political culture, art and architecture, the Maya concept of the cosmos, and the Maya experience of contact with including invasion by outsiders. Despite its brevity, this book is unique for its treatment of all periods of Maya civilization, from its origins to the present.
Download or read book A Forest of Kings written by Linda Schele and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1990 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given us the first written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. Now, two central figures in the massive effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele and David Freidel, make this history available for the first time in all its detail. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution and the first great pyramid builders two thousand years ago to the decline of Maya civilization and its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great historic rulers of Precolumbian civilization come to life again with the decipherment of the writing. At its height, Maya civilization flourished under great kings like Shield-Jaguar, who ruled for over sixty years, expanding his kingdom and building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, the Maya elites are now known to have been the rulers or populous, aggressive city-states. Hailed as "a Rosetta Stone of Maya civilization" (Brian M. Fagan, author of People of the Earth), A Forest of Kings is "a must for interested readers," says Evon Vogt, professor of anthropology at Harvard University.
Book Synopsis The Book of Destiny by : Carlos Barrios
Download or read book The Book of Destiny written by Carlos Barrios and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover What the Prophecy of 2012 Means for Your Life According to the Mayan Elders, at the moment of birth every human being is given a destiny. Our life challenge is to develop ourselves and our skills in order to fulfill this destiny, thus fueling our individual contribution to the planet. At the heart of The Book of Destiny is the sacred Mayan calendar, an extraordinary tool that allows the reader to discover this destiny, along with one’s special Mayan symbol, origin, as well as the protection spirits that accompany them through life. Poetically narrated, the book describes how the calendar contains the scientific legacy of the Mayan people, preserved and transmitted over the centuries through oral tradition and written texts. Written at the request of the Mayan Elders, by member of the Guatemalan Elders Council and Mayan Priest Carlos Barrios, The Book of Destiny is a tool to help people understand their life purpose and to use this profound knowledge to make the best of their time on earth.
Book Synopsis Indigenous Cosmolectics by : Gloria Elizabeth Chacón
Download or read book Indigenous Cosmolectics written by Gloria Elizabeth Chacón and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-09-28 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America's Indigenous writers have long labored under the limits of colonialism, but in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they have constructed a literary corpus that moves them beyond those parameters. Gloria E. Chacon considers the growing number of contemporary Indigenous writers who turn to Maya and Zapotec languages alongside Spanish translations of their work to challenge the tyranny of monolingualism and cultural homogeneity. Chacon argues that these Maya and Zapotec authors reconstruct an Indigenous literary tradition rooted in an Indigenous cosmolectics, a philosophy originally grounded in pre-Columbian sacred conceptions of the cosmos, time, and place, and now expressed in creative writings. More specifically, she attends to Maya and Zapotec literary and cultural forms by theorizing kab'awil as an Indigenous philosophy. Tackling the political and literary implications of this work, Chacon argues that Indigenous writers' use of familiar genres alongside Indigenous language, use of oral traditions, and new representations of selfhood and nation all create space for expressions of cultural and political autonomy. Chacon recognizes that Indigenous writers draw from universal literary strategies but nevertheless argues that this literature is a vital center for reflecting on Indigenous ways of knowing and is a key artistic expression of decolonization.
Book Synopsis The 8 Calendars of the Maya by : Hunbatz Men
Download or read book The 8 Calendars of the Maya written by Hunbatz Men and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-29 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mayan daykeeper Hunbatz Men reveals the multi-calendar system of the Maya that guided the lives of his ancestors and how it can guide us today • The first book to reveal the secrets of the Mayan Pleiades calendar: the Tzek’eb • Explains how the Maya used their astronomical knowledge to guide their lives on Earth The Mayan Calendar has taken on special prominence with the imminent arrival of 2012, a date that many claim is the end of that calendar. However, as Mayan elder and daykeeper Hunbatz Men shows, the cosmological understanding of his ancestors was so sophisticated that they had not one, but many calendars, each based on the cycles of different systems in the cosmos. In this book he reveals for the first time the Tzek’eb, or Pleiades, Calendar of 26,000 years, which charts the revolution of our solar system around Alcyone, the central star of the Pleiades system. He also discusses the K’uuk’ulcan Calendar of the 4 seasons of the solar year and the wheel of the K’altunes Calendar, which is composed of 13 cycles of 20 years each that form a calendar of 260 years. In traditional Mayan culture the computation of time was not determined by simple economic or social motives. The calendars served the higher purpose of synchronizing the lives of human beings and their societies to the great cosmic pulsation, to the rhythm of the annual seasons, and to the other cycles that dictate changes upon Earth. Mayan understanding of the cosmic cycles was so exact that this knowledge could be used to influence all stages of life--from planning when to conceive (parents could choose not only the sex of their child but its vocation and future destiny) to plotting out the course of the entire society. Pyramids played a crucial role in applying this wisdom because, as Hunbatz Men shows, they were able to produce and transform energy in accordance with the cosmic cycles charted by the calendars. This book reveals for the first time the wisdom of the multi-calendar Mayan system and how it can help guide our modern world.
