The Maya World of Communicating Objects: Quadripartite Crosses, Trees, and Stones

352 Pages·2011·7.592 MB·English

by  Miguel Angel Astor-Aguilera

The Maya World of Communicating Objects

Maya World
The of
Communicating Objects
Quadripartite Crosses, Trees, and Stones
Miguel Angel Astor-Aguilera
university of new mexico press | albuquerque
© 2010 by the University of New Mexico Press
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Astor-Aguilera, Miguel Angel, 1961–
The Maya world of communicating objects :
quadripartite crosses, trees, and stones /
Miguel Angel Astor-Aguilera.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8263-4763-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Maya cosmology. 2. Mayas—Rites and ceremonies. 3. Maya architecture.
4. Inscriptions, Mayan. 5. Ceremonial objects. 6. Symbolism in art.
7. Symbolism in architecture. I. Title.
f1435.3.r3a84 2010
972.81—dc22
2010033755
Design and Composition: Melissa Tandysh
Text composed in Garamond Premier Pro 10.75/13.5
To Gary H. Gossen, Marilyn A. Masson, and Karl A. Taube.
Three hearthstone advisors who guided me, befriended me,
and taught me so much.
And to Monico Tuz Poot.
Yuum a’iin yóok’ol j’meeno’ob (Sun priest over priests),
in yuum (my father), in jkaansaj (my teacher),
yéetel hach uts in biskinba (and my good friend).
For the Maya there was no separation between secular and sacred dimensions
of either the passage of time or the activities of humans engaged in every-
day or specialized ritual activities . . . The arrival of European Christianity,
a physical conquest and a cosmology dominated by sequential conceptions,
required adaptations.
In terms of the new political economy of survival, and within the
new ideological order, the Maya were forced to fit into new linear historical
sequences.
In this sense the pilgrimage process, as manifested by newly acquired
saints, shrines, and annual visits by individual devotees, reflects the traditions
of Western civilization.
At the same time, however, the Maya retained their own cosmological
concepts within which they incorporated the new terrestrial arrangements.
—herman w. konrad,
“Pilgrimage as Cyclical Process: The Unending Pilgrimage
of the Holy Cross of the Quintana Roo Maya”
contents
Illustrations | ix
Preface | xiii
Acknowledgments | xvii
Chapter 1 What Are Mesoamerican Religions? | 1
Chapter 2 The Living Ancestors:
Regeneration in Preclassic and
Classic Mesoamerican Imagery | 27
Chapter 3 Postclassic and Colonial Mesoamerican
World Views and Mayan Communicating Objects | 51
Chapter 4 Close Encounters with Maya
and Roman Catholic Crosses | 75
Chapter 5 Pigs for the Sun and a Mayan Communicating Stela | 109
Chapter 6 Communicating Bundles and the Ancestors:
Historically Traditional Maya Cosmologies | 147
Chapter 7 End Discussion: Quadripartitioning
and Native American Relational World Views | 183
Notes | 247
Glossary | 273
References Cited | 275
Index | 325
vii

illustrations
Chapter 1
figure 1.1: Map of Mesoamerica xx
Chapter 2
figure 2.1: Ahuelican Tablet 26
figure 2.2: Chalcatzingo Monument 9 31
figure 2.3: Jade Celt 32
figure 2.4: Jade Celt 32
figure 2.5: K’axob Crossed-Bands Vessel 36
figure 2.6: K’axob Quadripartite Vessel 36
figure 2.7: Chipícuaro Quad-Cross Communicating Vessel 38
figure 2.8: Chipícuaro Quad-Cross Communicating Vessel 39
figure 2.9: Chipícuaro Quad-Cross Communicating Cup 39
figure 2.10: West Mexican Burial with Quad Motif Vessel 41
figure 2.11: West Mexican Quad-Cross Sunburst Pole 41
figure 2.12: Palenque’s Tablet of the Cross 42
figure 2.13: Palenque’s Tablet of the Foliated Cross 43
figure 2.14: Copán Quad-Cross Stelae Foundation 44
figure 2.15: Inner-Chamber Xunantunich Stela 45
figure 2.16: Tepeu Vase Cross-Tree 46
figure 2.17: Buenavista Vase Cross-Tree 46
figure 2.18: Humboldt Celt 47
figure 2.19: Izapa Stela 25 48
figure 2.20: Caiman Tree Rising from Quad Motif Vessel 49
figure 2.21: Vine-Tree with Stingray Spine Rising from
Quad-Flower Vessel 49
ix