tradition
Maya tradition
The religious and narrative worlds of Maya peoples. The Kʼicheʼ Popol Vuh is one late text, not a key to every Maya city.
Also known as Kʼicheʼ
Meetings with this tradition
Maya tradition is associated with Death.
The Popol Vuh’s Xibalba is a Kʼicheʼ court of the dead. The tradition’s death-geography is that court, not Hades.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Xibalba belongs to Maya tradition.
Xibalba is named in the Kʼicheʼ Popol Vuh. It is not a Mexica geography and not a Greek Hades.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Jade is used in Maya tradition.
Classic Maya jadeite has its own ritual and kingly jobs. Taube’s article keeps that symbolism off Chinese yu.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
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Cacao is used in Maya tradition.
Mesoamerican elites prepared cacao as a drink. A plant and a court beverage, not later chocolate advertising as ritual.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
used in · partially sourced · documented
Maize appears in Maya tradition.
In Tedlock’s Popol Vuh, yellow corn and white corn from Split Place become the flesh of the first humans. Maize is attested in that Kʼicheʼ origin narrative. This is the highland council book, not Sahagún’s Nahua maize, not Classic Maya jade-as-maize, and not a handbook for every Maya city.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Jadeite appears in Maya tradition.
Taube’s jade article treats jadeite as the hard pyroxene jade of Classic Maya regalia and rite. A named mineral in that study, not Chinese nephrite and not generic greenstone.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
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Camazotz appears in Maya tradition.
The Popol Vuh places Camazotz in the bat house of Xibalba where the death-bat snatches heads in the dark. A named Kʼicheʼ underworld bat-being in that book, not bat as a species and not a pan-Maya slogan.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Macaw appears in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s Popol Vuh seats Seven Macaw among the proud birds the hero twins defeat before the rise of the true sun. A named macaw in that Kʼicheʼ council book, not a generic parrot dump and not Florentine bird-lists alone.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Breath appears in Maya tradition.
Taube’s jade article treats Classic Maya jadeite as a material of the breath-spirit in funerary and conjuring speech. A named breath in that Maya religious grammar, not Book of the Dead breath alone and not a generic yoga dump.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
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Heart appears in Maya tradition.
Taube’s jade study seats the heart among Classic Maya body and jade-regalia speech tied to breath and life-force. A named heart in that Maya grammar, not Book of the Dead heart-weighing alone and not Norse poetic heart-kenning alone.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
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Hero Twins appears in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s Popol Vuh seats Hunahpu and Xbalanque as the Hero Twins who defeat Seven Macaw’s line and outwit the lords of Xibalba. A named Kʼicheʼ twin-heroes episode in that council book, not divine-twins as a free motif and not a pan-Maya handbook.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Ballgame of Xibalba appears in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s Popol Vuh stages the underworld ballcourt contest that frames the Hero Twins’ ordeal against the lords of Xibalba. A named Kʼicheʼ ballgame-of-Xibalba episode in that council book, not every Mesoamerican ballgame as sport history and not xibalba as place alone.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Popol Vuh appears in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s translation presents the Popol Vuh as the Kʼicheʼ Maya council book of creation, Hero Twins, and lineage. A named text attestation inside maya-tradition, not creation as a bare concept and not every Mesoamerican codex dump.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Four hundred appears in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s Popol Vuh names the Four Hundred Boys whom Zipacna kills after their failed crush — a named four-hundred count in that Kʼicheʼ narrative (later sky speech ties them to the Pleiades). A council-book number seat, not a bare decimal round and not a Pleiades rediscovery edge.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Cigar is used in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s Popol Vuh seats cigars in the Dark House trial of Xibalba — the twins must keep cigars lit overnight and return them whole, substituting fireflies at the tips. A named cigar instrument in that Kʼicheʼ ordeal, not cigarette chrome and not tobacco-nahua alone.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Pitch pine is used in Maya tradition.
Tedlock’s Popol Vuh Dark House trial pairs cigars with burning pine/torch sticks the messengers hand over and demand returned whole — resinous pine fuel in that Kʼicheʼ ordeal light. A named pitch-pine use beside the cigar trial, not burgundy-pitch varnish and not torch-nahua alone.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Meetings in this tradition's context
Death is associated with Xibalba.
The Popol Vuh sends the Hero Twins into Xibalba, a court of the dead with trials. It is a Kʼicheʼ below, not Duat.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Underworld is connected to Xibalba.
Xibalba is one underworld. Connecting the two names is a comparative convenience; they should remain two places.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
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Xibalba is associated with Trickster.
The Hero Twins outwit the lords of Xibalba. Their cunning is a Kʼicheʼ narrative role, not Eshu and not Hermes.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Descent is associated with Xibalba.
The Hero Twins go down to Xibalba. That descent is a Kʼicheʼ court of trials.
from Dennis Tedlock (translation) · Popol Vuh, Kʼicheʼ text written down c. 1550s; Tedlock trans. 1985/1996
associated with · sourced · culturally specific
Taube describes Classic Maya jadeite in funerary rites and in conjuring gods and ancestors, as a material of the breath-spirit. A Maya tomb and earspool grammar, not Chinese orifice-plugs and not a pan-Mesoamerican “jade of immortality.”
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
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Taube argues Classic Maya jadeite can stand for maize (among other jobs). A Maya religious identification of a hard green stone with the staple grain, not Chinese burial jade and not Sahagún’s maize-as-food.
from Karl A. Taube · The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion, 2005
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sources
- Popol Vuh · Dennis Tedlock (translation)
Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life.
- The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion · Karl A. Taube
Karl A. Taube, “The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion,” Ancient Mesoamerica 16 (2005).