Synopses & Reviews
Flourishing by A.D. 250-300, Maya civilization extended over large sections of modern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as Belize, and into present-day El Salvador and Honduras. The pre-Conquest inhabitants of this vast area left important clues to their understanding of religious and historical events in the remains of their architecture, painting, sculpture, distinctive polychrome ceramics, and sophisticated hieroglyphic writing. A vital key to understanding these clues is an appreciation of the solar, lunar, and planetary cycles that are woven through the Maya chronological records. The Maya concepts of time figured heavily in their association of human rulers with celestial deities and cosmic events, and in the physical orientation of cities and buildings. In fact, scholars are now realizing that virtually every aspect of pre-Hispanic Mayan life was ordered by a religion based on the apparent annual movement of the sun through the sky.
In The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya, Merideth Paxton provides an ingenious and thorough new study of parts of two of the Maya books, or codices, with particular focus on a previously unrecognized image of the solar year that appears in the manuscript known as the Madrid Codex. The motif of the solar year also underlies her identification of a regional organization among the ruins of the Yucatec Maya settlements. Incorporating analyses of art, archaeology, astronomy, and colonial and modern ethnography pertaining to Yucatán, as well as studies of sixteenth-century Spanish beliefs, Dr. Paxton elicits fascinating new meanings from her sources and she invites Mesoamerican specialists and students to consider links between components of pre-Conquest Maya civilization. This innovative, scholarly text is essential reading for all who are interested in Mesoamerica, and it is sure to stimulate additional developments in the field of Maya cosmology and ideology.
About the Author
Merideth Paxton, who received her Ph.D. in art history, is Mesoamerican manuscripts editor of the Latin American Indian Literatures Journal. She is also a Visiting Scholar at the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico.
Table of Contents
Introduction -- Yucatâan in the Maya context. The maya codices. Conquest and survival -- The Maya directions. Introduction. East and west. Lakin and Chikin.Ddze-emal and Noh-emal. North and south. The center. Summary -- Pages 75-76 of the Madrid Codex and the symbolism of calendar round dates. Introduction. Orientation of the Madrid 75-76 Painting. Description of the 260-day cycle. Iconography of the Haab. Uinals symbolized by footprints. The blending of the Haab and the Tzolkin at the corners of the universe. Association of the Tzolkin with the Haab : the 364-day computing year. Symbolism of the calendar round. Previous theories on the meaning of the Tzolkin. The Moon and human procreation : construction of lunar goddesses. The Moon Goddess among the early colonial Yucatec Maya. Modern Quichâe Maya and the Moon Goddess. The Moon Goddess in the Popol Vuh. Lunar timekeeping in Yucatâan. Lunar phases and Lunar content of the Pre-Hispanic codices. Summary and conclusions -- The Venus Table of the Dresden Codex : deities and the directions of the cosmos. Introduction. Venus and the Sun : the primary structure of the Dresden Venus table. Venus as Morning and Evening Star. Prediction of Venus appearances. Cumulative astronomical error. Venus and the four corners of the Maya cosmos. Venus and the Moon : the list of twenty deities in the Dresden Table. Directional positions of the twenty deities. the 1 Ahau 13 Mac Base and solar regents. The 1 Ahau 13 Mac Base and the Moon. Summary and conclusions -- The cosmic directions and Yucatec settlement organization : Chichâen Itz§a as center. Introduction. The sacred Cenote Complex as the center marker at Chichâan Itz§a. The sacred Cenote at Chichâen Itzâa as the center of Yucatâan. Chronology. Summary -- The primary world direction : Tulum and Cozumel Island as regional settlement markers of east -- Introduction. Tulum as the site of Winter Solstice sunrise. Tulum as Samal. The Tulum Castillo as a Winter Solstice marker. Tulum and the forces of Chac. Cozumel as the primary symbol of east. The Yaxun§a-Cob§a Road as a cosmic symbol? Literary description. Possible extensions of the Cobâa-Yaxunâa Causeway. Chronology. Interpretation. Summary and conclusions. -- General summary and conclusions.