Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica

362 Pages·2012·16.558 MB·English

by  Walter R.T. Witschey, Clifford T. Brown

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HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OFANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS AND HISTORICAL
ERAS
Jon Woronoff, Series Editor
Pre-Colonial Africa, by Robert O. Collins, 2001.
Medieval Russia, by Lawrence N. Langer, 2001.
Napoleonic Era, by George F. Nafziger, 2001.
Mongol World Empire, by Paul D. Buell, 2003.
Ancient and Medieval Nubia, by Richard A. Lobban Jr., 2003.
The Vikings, by Katherine Holman, 2003.
The Renaissance, by Charles G. Nauert, 2004.
Ancient Israel, by Niels Peter Lemche, 2004.
The Hittites, by Charles Burney, 2004.
Early North America, by Cameron B. Wesson, 2005.
The Enlightenment, by Harvey Chisick, 2005.
Cultural Revolution, by Guo Jian, Yongyi Song, and Yuan Zhou, 2006.
Ancient Southeast Asia, by John N. Miksic, 2007.
Medieval China, by Victor Cunrui Xiong, 2009.
Medieval India, by Iqtidar Alam Khan, 2008.
Ancient South America, by Martin Giesso, 2008.
Ancient Egypt, Second Edition, by Morris L. Bierbrier, 2008.
India, by Kumkum Roy, 2009.
The Etruscans, by Simon K. F. Stoddart, 2009.
Modern China (1800–1949), by James Z. Gao, 2009.
Mesopotamia, Second Edition, by Gwendolyn Leick, 2010.
Byzantium, Second Edition, by John H. Rosser, 2012.
Ottoman Empire, Second Edition, by Selcuk Aksin Somel, 2012.
Mesoamerica, by Walter R. T. Witschey and Clifford T. Brown, 2012.
Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica
Walter R. T. Witschey
Clifford T. Brown
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2012
Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.scarecrowpress.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2012 by Walter R. T. Witschey and Clifford T. Brown
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Witschey, Walter Robert Thurmond, 1941–
Historical dictionary of Mesoamerica / Walter R. T. Witschey, Clifford T. Brown.
p. cm. — (Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8108-7167-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7096-3 (ebook)
1. Indians of Mexico—History—Dictionaries. 2. Indians of Central America—History—Dictionaries. I. Brown, Clifford T.,
1962– II. Title.
F1219.W58 2012
305.897'072—dc23 2011037630
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To the Maya people, past and present, and to my mentors in archaeology, E. Wyllys Andrews
V, George Stuart, and Bill Ringle.
—WRTW
To my compadres, Don Rufino Várguez Pacheco (q.e.p.d.), Doña Bernarda Várguez May
(q.e.p.d.), Doña Esmeralda May, and Don Isidro Chan Mena, and my godchildren, Isabel,
Erica, and Victor.
—CTB
Editor’s Foreword
Once overshadowed by the better-researched civilizations of the Middle East and Asia, the
great cultures of ancient Mesoamerica are becoming increasingly known and appreciated. Most
familiar are the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, but there are many more, including the Mixtec,
Tarascan, Toltec, Zapotec, and others. This revival has not been easy because many traces
have been lost, almost obliterated in certain cases, since the Spanish Conquest. But they never
quite disappeared, some being carved in stone, others in the hearts of their descendants.
Thanks to the untiring efforts of archaeologists and others, more and more of the past has been
elucidated, although there are still many gaps and mysteries. These peoples are recalled to
memory by the remains of magnificent temples and palaces, splendid examples of arts and
artifacts, and remnants of their culture and religion, all of which bear witness to their erstwhile
grandeur.
This Historical Dictionary of Ancient Mesoamerica is an excellent starting place for
discovering and exploring this fertile cradle of civilization. The dictionary section includes
entries on the many ethnic and social groups and nations—the better and lesser known, the
more and less successful, the stronger and the weaker, the rulers and the subjects. Other entries
present important places—erstwhile capitals and major cities, replete with palaces and
temples, now often just archaeological sites. There are also numerous entries on significant
figures, including indigenous rulers, Spanish conquistadores, the pre-Conquest gods, and
today’s humble researchers. Particularly intriguing are the entries describing the region’s
political, social, and economic activities as well as its religious rituals and worldview. The
Chronology in this book charts the historical progression, spanning not only centuries but
millennia, and the Introduction recounts the kingdoms that succeeded one another until the
Spanish Conquest put an end to their natural progression. But this volume can only be a first
step, and further information can be sought through the many sources identified in the
Bibliography.
This book is a completely new edition, written this time by Walter R. T. Witschey and
Clifford T. Brown. Dr. Witschey is presently a professor of anthropology and science
education at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, where he teaches many of the
subjects he writes about here, including archaeology and early civilizations. He has been
studying the Maya area since 1978 and did his doctoral research in the Yucatan Peninsula. Dr.
Brown is presently an associate professor of anthropology at Florida Atlantic University. He,
too, spent much time in Yucatán, doing an archaeological survey and studying important sites
there, and later in Nicaragua. They have both participated in major conferences and submitted
papers and written articles, when they were not out on a dig, and together they helped produce
an Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites. Thanks to this long period of study, they have
marshaled the most important facts, which is already important, and thanks to their teaching
activities, they have been able to present them in a manner that can benefit not only the initiated
but also those who know relatively little but want to learn more about a truly remarkable
period of human endeavor.
Jon Woronoff
Series Editor
Preface
This dictionary offers students, researchers, and other interested persons concise definitions
and descriptions of the major peoples, places, ideas, and events related to ancient
Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica is what anthropologists call a “culture area”: a region within
which the inhabitants share many or most elements of a cultural tradition. Though it
corresponds to no single modern nation-state, Mesoamerica as a concept finds universal use
among social scientists because it describes an area with a common pattern of life and
heritage, where people share languages, foods, religions, and technologies, and where they
engaged socially, politically, and economically for thousands of years. Although scholars
sometimes debate the definition of Mesoamerica and squabble about the details of its
boundaries, they agree that it encompasses central, southern, and eastern Mexico, all of
Guatemala and Belize, and at least western Honduras and El Salvador.
Mesoamerica is an unusually interesting area. Its landscape is varied and picturesque. It runs
the gamut from deserts to jungles, from caves to volcanoes. Its diverse languages and cultures
often seem exotic to outsiders. Millions of foreigners visit the countries of Mesoamerica each
year, often with the goal of enjoying those cultures and admiring their archaeological and
historical heritage. The archaeological sites alone attract millions of visits per year. Mexico
currently has more properties inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List than any other
country in the Americas.
Mesoamerica excites not only popular interest but also scholarly attention, particularly to its
history, heritage, and archaeology. The idea of Mesoamerica evokes images of pyramids,
palaces, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Thousands of archaeologists, epigraphers, architects,
and historians, local and domestic, have dedicated their careers to the study of ancient
Mesoamerica. In this volume, we offer a synopsis of all this research in dictionary form. We
have found it difficult, naturally, to summarize the many thousands of published volumes on
Mesoamerican in the pages of this work. We have confronted many difficult choices. For
example, many thousands of archaeological sites are known in the area. Which ones should we
include? Certainly, experts will disagree on the answer. Similarly, which of the hundreds of
individual languages or the thousands of archaeological artifact types should we describe and
discuss? We have chosen to combine many short entries on specific topics with a few longer
articles designed to provide overviews of important ideas or themes. Our choices were guided
by our perceptions of the needs of students and educated nonprofessionals. Our perceptions of
these needs have developed over decades of teaching undergraduate and graduate students as
well as many years of public outreach related to the same themes.
This is an exciting period for Mesoamerican studies. Over recent decades, we have been
blessed by the fruits of the intense work of numerous skilled researchers. Archaeologists have
expanded their surveys, locating and exploring new sites. Historians have discovered and
translated new documents. Epigraphers have greatly advanced the decipherment of the ancient
Maya script with new readings of signs and texts and translations of newly discovered
inscriptions. Where once we looked “through a glass, darkly,” seeing but a dim reflection of
ancient Mesoamerican cultures, today we often see with crystal clarity the words and
intentions of the Maya elites and their scribes, and through their accounts of family ties and
political connections we see the Mesoamerican world writ large. What has been provided us
is nothing less than the names and deeds of the ancient rulers. Their history as they wrote it,
accurate or inaccurate, admiring or libelous, has brought their world and their magnificent city-
states to life.
As a consequence, the histories we include for a number of large ancient city-states are those
composed by their power elite, the divine warrior-king-priests. We have recognized this
wealth of new data by specifically organizing the political history of ancient Maya sites, and
other sites where possible, around the dated reports of their leaders about their own deeds.
Finally, and with sincerest gratitude, we wish to acknowledge the kindness and generosity of
those who have helped with this volume, either by their direct contribution or by their own
research that has provided the basis for our summaries. Foremost we extend our thanks to Jon
Woronoff, our editor, whose skill, keen eye, and clear judgment have made the dictionary more
than we envisioned or hoped. Jon’s contributions have been numerous and gracious, and his
gift of time has been immense. We acknowledge as well the work of great synthesizers of
Mesoamerican research such as Michael Coe, Robert Sharer, and Susan Toby Evans. We are
indebted to Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube for their recent work on Maya dynastic
sequences.
As for errors of fact or omission, only the authors are to blame.