Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities

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Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 0806185198
Total Pages : 383 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (61 download)

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Book Synopsis Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities by : Karen Bassie-Sweet

Download or read book Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities written by Karen Bassie-Sweet and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-10-22 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The K’iche’ Maya creation story preserved in the sixteenth-century manuscript Popol Vuh describes the origin of the world and its people in a setting long assumed to be the Guatemalan central highlands. Now a scholar with a deep knowledge of Maya history shows that all of these mythological events occurred at specific locations and that this landscape was the template for the Maya worldview. Examining the primary Maya deities, Karen Bassie-Sweet links geographic features to gods and beliefs. She reconstructs key elements of the Popol Vuh to argue that the three volcanoes around Lake Atitlan were the three thunderbolt gods and that the lake was the center of the world. She also shows that the Maya view of the creation of humans is centered on corn and examines core beliefs about the corn cycle to propose that the creation myth was established much earlier in Maya history than previously supposed. Generously illustrated, Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities is a detailed ethnohistorical analysis of Maya religion, cosmology, and ritual practice that convincingly links mythology to the land. A comprehensive treatment of Maya religion, it provides an essential resource for scholars and will fascinate any reader captivated by these ancient beliefs.

The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas

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Author :
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 0806149256
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (61 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas by : Karen Bassie-Sweet

Download or read book The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas written by Karen Bassie-Sweet and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ch’ol Maya who live in the western Mexican state of Chiapas are direct descendants of the Maya of the Classic period. Exploring their history and culture, volume editor Karen Bassie-Sweet and the other authors assembled here uncover clear continuity between contemporary Maya rituals and beliefs and their ancient counterparts. With evocative and thoughtful essays by leading scholars of Maya culture, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas, the first collection to focus fully on the Ch’ol Maya, takes readers deep into ancient caves and reveals new dimensions of Ch’ol cosmology. In contemporary Ch’ol culture the contributors find a wealth of historical material that they then interweave with archaeological data to yield surprising and illuminating insights. The colonial and twentieth-century descendants of the Postclassic period Ch’ol and Lacandon Ch’ol, for instance, provide a window on the history and conquest of the early Maya. Several authors examine Early Classic paintings in the Ch’ol ritual cave known as Jolja that document ancient cave ceremonies not unlike Ch’ol rituals performed today, such as petitioning a cave-dwelling mountain spirit for health, rain, and abundant harvests. Other essays investigate deities identified with caves, mountains, lightning, and meteors to trace the continuity of ancient Maya beliefs through the centuries, in particular the ancient origin of contemporary rituals centering on the Ch’ol mountain deity Don Juan. An appendix containing three Ch’ol folktales and their English translations rounds out the volume. Charting paths literal and figurative to earlier trade routes, pre-Columbian sites, and ancient rituals and beliefs, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas opens a fresh, richly informed perspective on Maya culture as it has evolved and endured over the ages.

The Popol Vuh

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Author :
Publisher : New York : AMS Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Popol Vuh by : Lewis Spence

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 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Popol Vuh

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0684818450
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis Popol Vuh by :

Download or read book Popol Vuh written by and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1996 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most extraordinary works of the human imagination and the most important text in the native languages of the Americas, Popul Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life was first made accessible to the public 10 years ago. This new edition retains the quality of the original translation, has been enriched, and includes 20 new illustrations, maps, drawings, and photos.

New Faces of God in Latin America

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0197529275
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis New Faces of God in Latin America by : Virginia Garrard

Download or read book New Faces of God in Latin America written by Virginia Garrard and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This monograph is a hist ...

Maya Gods of War

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646421329
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

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Book Synopsis Maya Gods of War by : Karen Bassie-Sweet

Download or read book Maya Gods of War written by Karen Bassie-Sweet and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous archaeological projects have found substantial evidence of the military nature of Maya society, and warfare is a frequent theme of Maya art. Maya Gods of War investigates the Classic period Maya gods who were associated with weapons of war and the flint and obsidian from which those weapons were made. Author Karen Bassie-Sweet traces the semantic markers used to distinguish flint from other types of stone, surveys various types of Chahk thunderbolt deities and their relationship to flint weapons, and explores the connection between lightning and the ruling elite. Additional chapters review these fire and solar deities and their roles in Maya warfare and examine the nature and manifestations of the Central Mexican thunderbolt god Tlaloc, his incorporation into the Maya pantheon, and his identification with meteors and obsidian weapons. Finally, Bassie-Sweet addresses the characteristics of the deity God L, his role as an obsidian merchant god, and his close association with the ancient land route between the highland Guatemalan obsidian sources and the lowlands. Through analysis of the nature of the Teotihuacán deities and exploration of the ways in which these gods were introduced into the Maya region and incorporated into the Maya worldview, Maya Gods of War offers new insights into the relationship between warfare and religious beliefs in Mesoamerica. This significant work will be of interest to scholars of Maya religion and iconography.

Maya Narrative Arts

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607327422
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Maya Narrative Arts by : Karen Bassie-Sweet

Download or read book Maya Narrative Arts written by Karen Bassie-Sweet and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Maya Narrative Arts, authors Karen Bassie-Sweet and Nicholas A. Hopkins present a comprehensive and innovative analysis of the principles of Classic Maya narrative arts and apply those principles to some of the major monuments of the site of Palenque. They demonstrate a recent methodological shift in the examination of art and inscriptions away from minute technical issues and toward the poetics and narratives of texts and the relationship between texts and images. Bassie-Sweet and Hopkins show that both visual and verbal media present carefully planned narratives, and that the two are intimately related in the composition of Classic Maya monuments. Text and image interaction is discussed through examples of stelae, wall panels, lintels, benches, and miscellaneous artifacts including ceramic vessels and codices. Bassie-Sweet and Hopkins consider the principles of contrast and complementarity that underlie narrative structures and place this study in the context of earlier work, proposing a new paradigm for Maya epigraphy. They also address the narrative organization of texts and images as manifested in selected hieroglyphic inscriptions and the accompanying illustrations, stressing the interplay between the two. Arguing for a more holistic approach to Classic Maya art and literature, Maya Narrative Arts reveals how close observation and reading can be equally if not more productive than theoretical discussions, which too often stray from the very data that they attempt to elucidate. The book will be significant for Mesoamerican art historians, epigraphers, linguists, and archaeologists.

The First Maya Civilization

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136882502
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (368 download)

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Book Synopsis The First Maya Civilization by : Francisco Estrada-Belli

Download or read book The First Maya Civilization written by Francisco Estrada-Belli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-11-08 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Maya kings of Tikal dedicated their first carved monuments in the third century A.D., inaugurating the Classic period of Maya history that lasted for six centuries and saw the rise of such famous cities as Palenque, Copan and Yaxchilan, Maya civilization was already nearly a millennium old. Its first cities, such as Nakbe and El Mirador, had some of the largest temples ever raised in Prehispanic America, while others such as Cival showed even earlier evidence of complex rituals. The reality of this Preclassic Maya civilization has been documented by scholars over the past three decades: what had been seen as an age of simple village farming, belatedly responding to the stimulus of more advanced peoples in highland Mesoamerica, is now know to have been the period when the Maya made themselves into one of the New World's most innovative societies. This book discusses the most recent advances in our knowledge of the Preclassic Maya and the emergence of their rainforest civilization, with new data on settlement, political organization, architecture, iconography and epigraphy supporting a contemporary theoretical perspective that challenges prior assumptions.

Mayan Civilization

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 1095620746
Total Pages : 50 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (956 download)

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Book Synopsis Mayan Civilization by : Henry Freeman

Download or read book Mayan Civilization written by Henry Freeman and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making sense of our universe...It's an age-old practice that transcends cultures and generations. From our vantage point, the larger than life Maya civilization grappled with the urge in a grand scale. Join us as we take a voyage to understand the ways of the Maya. Inside you will read about... ✓ Who Made Contact? Early Explorers and their Impact ✓ How the Maya Wanted to Be Represented - History Written by the Victors ✓ Different Periods of Maya History ✓ Larger Than Life ✓ New Findings We'll learn what they held as sacred, how the sacred manifested itself in their lives, and about efforts to accurately portray them, despite romanticized versions. This eBook provides a deeper look at their pre-Columbian battling dynasties and their highly-structured approach to religion, science and society, as we explore their glories and misfortunes.

Ceramics of Ancient America

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Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813052416
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Ceramics of Ancient America by : Yumi Park Huntington

Download or read book Ceramics of Ancient America written by Yumi Park Huntington and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2018-09-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume to bring together archaeology, anthropology, and art history in the analysis of pre-Columbian pottery. While previous research on ceramic artifacts has been divided by these three disciplines, this volume shows how integrating these approaches provides new understandings of many different aspects of Ancient American societies. Contributors from a variety of backgrounds in these fields explore what ceramics can reveal about ancient social dynamics, trade, ritual, politics, innovation, iconography, and regional styles. Essays identify supernatural and humanistic beliefs through formal analysis of Lower Mississippi Valley "Great Serpent" effigy vessels and Ecuadorian depictions of the human figure. They discuss the cultural identity conveyed by imagery such as Andean head motifs, and they analyze symmetry in designs from locations including the American Southwest. Chapters also take diachronic approaches—methods that track change over time—to ceramics from Mexico’s Tarascan State and the Valley of Oaxaca, as well as from Maya and Toltec societies. This volume provides a much-needed multidisciplinary synthesis of current scholarship on Ancient American ceramics. It is a model of how different research perspectives can together illuminate the relationship between these material artifacts and their broader human culture. Contributors: | Dean Arnold | George J. Bey III | Michael Carrasco | David Dye | James Farmer | Gary Feinman | Amy Hirshman | Yumi Park Huntington | Johanna Minich | Shelia Pozorski and Thomas Pozorski | Jeff Price | Sarahh Scher | Dorothy Washburn | Robert F. Wald

Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya

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Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300224672
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya by : Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

Download or read book Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya written by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 164642199X
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

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Book Synopsis The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual by : Holley Moyes

Download or read book The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual written by Holley Moyes and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2021-11-08 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths to elucidate the ancient Maya past while using multiple lines of evidence to shed light on the text. Combining interpretations of the myths with analyses of archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and literary resources, the work demonstrates how Popol Vuh mythologies contribute to the analysis and interpretation of the ancient Maya past. The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins’ deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica. The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics. Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube

The Beast Between

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Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477318054
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis The Beast Between by : Matthew G. Looper

Download or read book The Beast Between written by Matthew G. Looper and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2019-04-22 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The white-tailed deer had a prominent status in Maya civilization; it was the most important wild-animal food source at many inland Maya sites and also functioned as a major ceremonial symbol. Offering an in-depth semantic analysis of this imagery, The Beast Between considers iconography, hieroglyphic texts, mythological discourses, and ritual narratives to translate the significance and meaning of the vibrant metaphors expressed in a variety of artifacts depicting deer and hunting. Charting the progression of deer as a key component of the Maya diet, especially for elites, to the coupling of deer and maize in the Maya worldview, The Beast Between reveals a close and long-term interdependence. Not only are deer depicted naturalistically in hunting and ritual scenes, but they are also ascribed with human attributes. This rich imagery reflects the many ways in which deer hunting was linked to status, sexuality, and war as part of a deeper process to ensure the regeneration of both agriculture and ancestry. Drawing on methodologies of art history, archaeology, and ethnology, this illuminating work is poised to become a key resource for multiple fields.

The Role of archaeoastronomy in the Maya World

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Author :
Publisher : UNESCO Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9235000114
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Role of archaeoastronomy in the Maya World by : UNESCO Office Mexico

Download or read book The Role of archaeoastronomy in the Maya World written by UNESCO Office Mexico and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-31 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas

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Author :
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 0806149264
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (61 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas by : Robert M. Laughlin

Download or read book The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas written by Robert M. Laughlin and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ch’ol Maya who live in the western Mexican state of Chiapas are direct descendants of the Maya of the Classic period. Exploring their history and culture, volume editor Karen Bassie-Sweet and the other authors assembled here uncover clear continuity between contemporary Maya rituals and beliefs and their ancient counterparts. With evocative and thoughtful essays by leading scholars of Maya culture, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas, the first collection to focus fully on the Ch’ol Maya, takes readers deep into ancient caves and reveals new dimensions of Ch’ol cosmology. In contemporary Ch’ol culture the contributors find a wealth of historical material that they then interweave with archaeological data to yield surprising and illuminating insights. The colonial and twentieth-century descendants of the Postclassic period Ch’ol and Lacandon Ch’ol, for instance, provide a window on the history and conquest of the early Maya. Several authors examine Early Classic paintings in the Ch’ol ritual cave known as Jolja that document ancient cave ceremonies not unlike Ch’ol rituals performed today, such as petitioning a cave-dwelling mountain spirit for health, rain, and abundant harvests. Other essays investigate deities identified with caves, mountains, lightning, and meteors to trace the continuity of ancient Maya beliefs through the centuries, in particular the ancient origin of contemporary rituals centering on the Ch’ol mountain deity Don Juan. An appendix containing three Ch’ol folktales and their English translations rounds out the volume. Charting paths literal and figurative to earlier trade routes, pre-Columbian sites, and ancient rituals and beliefs, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas opens a fresh, richly informed perspective on Maya culture as it has evolved and endured over the ages.

Transformation and the History of Philosophy

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 100381249X
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Transformation and the History of Philosophy by : G. Anthony Bruno

Download or read book Transformation and the History of Philosophy written by G. Anthony Bruno and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From ancient conceptions of becoming a philosopher to modern discussions of psychedelic drugs, the concept of transformation plays a fascinating part in the history of philosophy. However, until now there has been no sustained exploration of the full extent of its role. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is an outstanding survey of the history, nature, and development of the idea of transformation, from the ancient period to the twentieth century. Comprising twenty-two specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors, the volume is divided into four clear parts: Philosophy as Transformative: Ancient China, Greece, India, and Rome Transformation Between the Human and the Divine: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Transformation After the Copernican Revolution: Post-Kantian Philosophy Treatises, Pregnancies, Psychedelics, and Epiphanies: Twentieth-Century Philosophy Each of these sections begins with an introduction by the editors. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in the history of western and non-western philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics. It will also be extremely useful for those in related disciplines such as religion, sociology, and the history of ideas.

Xurt'an

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Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 0803271557
Total Pages : 715 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Xurt'an by : Suzanne Cook

Download or read book Xurt'an written by Suzanne Cook and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2019-08-01 with total page 715 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Xurt’an (the end of the world) showcases the rich storytelling traditions of the northern Lacandones of Naha’ through a collection of traditional narratives, songs, and ritual speech. Formerly isolated in the dense, tropical rainforest of Chiapas, Mexico, the Lacandon Maya constitute one of the smallest language groups in the world. Although their language remains active and alive, their traditional culture was abandoned after the death of their religious and civic leader in 1996. Lacking the traditional contexts in which the culture was transmitted, the oral traditions are quickly being forgotten. This collection includes creation myths that describe the cycle of destruction and renewal of the world, the structure of the universe, the realms of the gods and their intercessions in the affairs of their mortals, and the journey of the souls after death. Other traditional stories are non-mythic and fictive accounts involving talking animals, supernatural beings, and malevolent beings that stalk and devour hapless victims. In addition to traditional narratives, Xurt’an presents many songs that are claimed to have been received from the Lord of Maize, magical charms that invoke the forces of the natural world, invocations to the gods to heal and protect, and work songs of Lacandon women, whose contribution to Lacandon culture has been hitherto overlooked by scholars. Women’s songs offer a rare glimpse into the other half of Lacandon society and the arduous distaff work that sustained the religion. The compilation concludes with descriptions of rainbows, the Milky Way as “the white road of Our Lord,” and an account of the solstices. Transcribed and translated by a foremost linguist of the northern Lacandon language, the literary traditions of the Lacandones are finally accessible to English readers. The result is a masterful and authoritative collection of oral literature that will both entertain and provoke, while vividly testifying to the power of Lacandon Maya aesthetic expression.