Maya cosmos: three thousand years on the shaman’s path

288 Pages·1993·47.27 MB·English

by  David Freidel

lootrí
HAYA
cosnos
Ttie fr''G^ni€fit uscd on the jacket belongs to a shot-
tered panel that archaeologistsf ound arnong the
riibble on the north end qft he Palace at Palenque.
The iniage shows Pakal, the king of Palenque,
wearing the headdress qfI tzamna, the first sor-
cerer arid divinen
ALSO BY LINDA SCHELE
Maya Glyphs: The Verbs (1982)
The Blood of Kings:
Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (1986)
with Mary Ellen Miller
ALSO BY LINDA SCHELE AND DAVID FREIDEL
A Forest of Kings:
The Untold Story of the
Ancient Maya (1990)
ALSO BY DAVID FREIDEL
Cozumel Late Maya Settlement Sysiems (1984)
with Jeremy Sabloff
MAYA
COSMOS
Thrcc Thousand Ycars on
íhc Shaman's Paíh
David Frcldci,
Liada Schcle
8¿ Joy Parkcr
Photographs
byJustin aerr8¿
nacDulTEvertoa
OUILL
WILLIAM MORROW
NEÍV YORK
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
Evon Z Ebfft,
Fecha:
David Humíston Kelley, and
Helen fVoods Parker
Copyright Q 1995 by Linda SchoJo, íJ a vid Froidel, and Joy Parkcr
Photographs copyright O 1995 by Justin Kcrr and MacDuíT Fverton
All rights reserved. No part of thls book may be rcproduccd or ulilizcd in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, incliiding photocopying,
recording, or by any information storagc or rctricval system, without pcniiission
in wriling from Ihe Publisher. Inquirios should be addressed to Pemiissions
Department, William Morrow and Company,I nc., 1550 Avcnuo of the Anicricas,
New York, N.Y. 10019.
It is the policy of William Morrow and Company,I nc., and its imprints and
afTiliates, recognizing the importance of preserving whal has bcen written,
to print the books we publish on acid-free paper, and we exert our
best efforts to that end.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Freidel, David A.
Maya cosmos : three thousand years on the shaman's path / David Freidel,
inda Sóbele, and Joy Parker: photographs by Justin Kerr and
MacDufTEverton.
P- cm.
1^^ ®"®88-14069-6
3 MoYOq and Mythology. 2. Mayas—Rites and ceremonies.
Améric|a Shamanism—México. 5. Shamanism—Central
Ft4l5.M4 "Parker,J oy. 1953-. IIIL-nUe.
299'.79281—<aicc22ü0 93-2696
CIP
3 4 5 6 7
bookdesigni,ychai«x.t. ®
aiARlAm-EsTAUB
A Personal Note from
\\\c Autt^or5
The sky has become important to us
=.nticÍDated For each of us the way to the sky has been
.n a way p^idel really fell inte the night sky, he
different. The southeast Wyoming.T he
was a boy lymg on a hi , ¡ blackness above him, and
Milky Way arched w.de and sp^khng
he lost the hills a.d aícient Indtan catnpsites. It was
was a high school volun ^ archaeologist and led
the first step on the )Ourney that turnea
tothisbook. j:ff„ent. She was a professional painter and
For Linda Schele, it was ^ vacation in 1970. The place she
studio teacher who happene forever changed by the
went to visit was léxico an ^
experience. But the sky i ^ ^ place-Tixkakal
until the summer of 19 „as dark enough and cloud-
GuEirdia in Quintana Roo, Milky Way. In the pattern
less enough to see the f^g of Creation and the World Tree
arching across the sky, she saw the face
standing at the center of the special meaning because
These exhilarating moments a .. jhe patterns of stars in
of what we discovered yf^y^ are the primary symbols of
the night sky, and especia y niyth was just a story—but
Maya Creation. We tho"g ^ ^^is myth presented a
before this book was finís Writing together, changing each
breathtaking and literal map o ^ describe what we had
other's words and ideas, strivmg for some way
A Personal Note from the Authors
A Personal Note from the Authors
come to understand about the Maya world, we had stumbled inte the
To write this book, we had to reach inside ourselves to find both
Creator Shaman's attic. There we found the Maya sky, a painted book
Jqj" their way of being and a method to communicate this
whose constellations imfold its picture story of génesis across the face oí
worldview to others. Because their way is pervasively spiritual, we had to
the cocí darkness while the sun illuminates the Otherworld.
discover our real feelings about spirituality and faith in the shared
Over the last twenty-five years, weVe spent a great deal more time
wisdom that guides daily Ufe and conduct. To write about the Maya
looking down in the dirt or at dusty stone inscriptions than up at the sky.
Working with teams of dedicated people, we've slashed through snake- cosmos, we had to accept the significance of its supernatural reality and
learn to play by the rules of its own internal logic.
infested undergrovnh to lay down map trails, pried big rocks out of small
holes, squinted with sweat-stung eyes to scribble notes in the blinding We haven't turned our backs on scientific knowledge or methods. On
midday heat. Or we have patiently sat in contorted positions and traced the contrary, in the course of describing the Maya cosmos we have
the Unes of an eroded inscription onto a paper damp with the sweat that systematically referred to concrete and material patterns of Maya
dnpped from our chins. In retum for all this hard work, weVe been things—to buildings, pots, sculptures, inscriptions, and to the contexts in
pnvileged to stand and gaze at man-high painted masks of the Maya gods, which they were found. We have also included germane historical and
released from their darkness for the first time in two thousand years! contemporary eyewitness accounts of actual Maya behavior in many
We ve watched ruined cities emerge and seen fallen stone facades re- different situations. Yet the heart of this book—or perhaps its soul—is
stored to comprehensibility. WeVe seen the walls of long-buried temples our personal encounter with the Maya, past and present, and our adven-
appear under the hands of men patiently chipping away at the stone- ture of discovery as professed novices in the world as seen through their
filled, concrete-hard dirt m the dark, hot tunnels under pyramids. We've eyes, words, and deeds.
been there when the ñames of powerfUl leaders dead and forgotten for Far from presenting a detached point of view, we have integrated
more than a thousand years have been spoken again, not only by people ourselves, our experiences, and our understanding into what we have to
say Because our book is about a body of knowledge created and per-
from our world, but by their living descendants.
petuated by the Maya,i t must also be about how we ourselves have begun
Beyond the sense of accomplishment we feel in our craft and the sheer
to absorb that knowledge, learning a different rationality ,ust as one
joy of the work, we have felt a driving need for something more: not just
learns a new language. Contemporary scientific research has, m our view,
to find the Indian behind the artifact—as the adage goes in archaeol-
taken the human witness out of our cosmology. Maya reahty places
°Sy but to understand that person's way of seeing the world. This book
human beings at the center of the cosmos and makes humamty responsi-
is about the Maya way of seeing. At its heart is the experience of a
ble for creation as an ongoing, endless process. We have tried to take a
spiritual and magical world. It is a world in which ancestors affect the fate
page from their book by using our own experiences to open a wmdow of
of the hvmg, where human beings can transform into their animal
n
understanding into what they have created. u u u
counterparts, where ritual transforma space and objects into powerful
When we first proposed this book to our e , g
j K rtnk to our editor, we tnougnt it would
energy carriers. It is a world alive in all its parts.
. , . , the relieionof the ancient Maya. As webegan
Before writing this book, we studied the beliefs the ancient Maya be a book on shamanism in tne r g i r u u
to research the themes we hUoa/d1 cahboosseenn, to read the work io f eut hnuo gri ap^hers,
recorded in their art and architecture as if they were part of a fascinating
a. mndprn Maya ritual, the book trans-
altérnate reahty that had little relevance to our personal Uves. We did and most of all, to particípate f A/tava
formed itself befrore our eyes. IT tt bbpeccaamme a book on the contmmty of Maya
reality from the ancient past into tne prese
• . into the nresent. None of us will ever again
mZZllT -" bjective distance. Like the
beableto walkthestreetsofYVuilickaattaann, oChni appa s,, or Guatemala and think
worldview superiority of our own of the Maya we see as merely biological descendants of the ancien^ cut
to this alien wLld^wit'h
off from Lir past by the trauma of the Conquest. Our view of Maya
as, and is, just as powerful, meaningful, and viable
history and the continuity of their cultural heritage has ch^ged.
createdby the Maya
^ our own.
Yet even with this change, shamanism remains at the heart o
10 11
A Personal Note from ihe Aulhors
/í Personal Note from the Authors
book. From his student days onward. David Freidal has been fascmate<i
ties of people in this balance. They saw together that in the European
«h shaman.sm and he has trarrsferred that interest to Linda and Joy.
languages, space had the connotaüon of empúness, while in their words
space is full and substantive. So balancing all the things embraced within
SU Fr T T behef system was in the work of
it made sense. Martín said that many things are alive, things of stone and
ismTs a SS W h" »haman-
wood (and here he touched the coffee table in ffont of him with its stone
draws iUZ r
top and wood side). Sakim said that anything with form, substance,
abouttheworldUwUfrrrheSsr knowledge
purpose, and place is a being. Inspired, Sakim drew off his sacred shell
The most imnnrf ^'"'P ® °'^®>™bols and assumptions.
pectoral and placed it on Martín. Martín, deeply moved, broke into a
being has ners ^ sP'ritual forcé that every human
speech in Kaqchikel. By this time, David had recruited Dennis Tedlock
U ÍvUí n 'uT ""'" 'he cosmos
to help in translating an increasingly complicated d.cussion. Denms
of the caTacitv f" ' ospecially overt examples
Tedlock is a trained K'iche' day-keeper. Linda stopped by to show Sakim
beUjL" d 7'" f--- Jehannes W.l-
a framed page of paper she treasured greatly. It was a thank-you note
ela mtd US r, T o ^ P-Ple of Venezu-
written by Martín in modern Kaqchikel using the oíd writmg system of
hieroglyphs. It was, to her knowledge, the first example, in at least Aree
XUa, '"an scendent Creator out there, or as an imma-
centuí7 of a Maya using his native writing system to record somethmg
ZÍI T -^-^-here. We th.nk he was refer-
he wanted to say. Lim, no longer able to contam h.mself, beg^ to pray
wonderful th^^ 7'*^ Premise of shamanism we described above. The
r k over the page. Surrounded now by three adepts speakmg four
m Creek P witness to the first meetmg of an
tTthe w ,Í7 ""«"-s a sense of belonging
languages, David fel
the sun U TV° "P "'ght sky or
American un.ted nat^^^^^
brivht K 'nsigmficant. Rather, shamanism teaches that those
brates a way o co Ugmisphere a visión that is the natural legacy
humanity"^' of a shared history and life-force that belong to all
oníf tthhep tfiirrssttccoom ers to this hemisp > • i_ • purpose
We believe that shamanism can function as a guide in complex
1 !l!! ÍLT.™.".* •' " "•
Urld h sU7h ^ ^ organizing knowledge about the'
spans the Americas today. We had the privilege of experiencine
that spawned us all. relevance
These ^ The contemporary Maya were taught,
«TLT ■'h I'" ^ -I»»"»
to many ' ^ad inherited nothing from the Precolum-
attended thT norida.
or carne to e leve, beoríes hold that modern Indian institutions
México I.i H í, 7'"^'' "^bzation that preceded the Maya in ancient "TbTf. ó' " ■
and behefs a P ^ ^^nquerors. The ruins left by the ancient
■tr.iridíd""'"' á- ■"."■• p='p" .»
cultural entity y represent, have been appropriated by
shop and participate in th ^ ®"oestors glyphs to attend the work-
Maya, and the cu r patrimony of modern nations, without
,h. »a --7 "Í :: J,.. .K.n.. W. h.v,
house for a potluck diLer n Í ^^""""«bt people together at Linda's
Martín, a Kaqchikel Maya froUo conversation with
learned a d.fferent ^ .^^p^ly the same as their
o^an. These men, speaking SpanishIJ eÍÍ T
become our fnends. P^^^ 3^^ as the people who
Provided a halting translation h E"gbsh respectively while David
ancient forebears, ««y . ^ century. Yet the history
?• •>»» «d,„„d„,, o r. "■«■«.on d.„™.
fought the Vikings m the f 3,„„, ^„ppp,ents and
-«h. s.«„ •» «I» ~»
' -P»!» "f Ih. «.po„ibiU.
13
12
A Personal Note from the Authors
the fossilized remains of rituals in temples and hamlets, all hold a visión
for the modera Maya that reflects their heritage because it still makes FOREWORD
sense in their languages and practices. The modera Maya can claim their
past because it Uves in their present. Their pageants and beliefs shed light
on the ancient arts of their forebears in ways that cannot come from our THE ORTHOORAPHY
world or our science, and they offer us the gift of new knowledge about
an ancient cosmos.
David Freidel Linda Schele
JoY Pakker
Dallas Austin Los Angeles
In Maya studies, spelling has always
been a problem. When the Spanish carne, they found people usmg
consonants and vowels that did not exist in their own language. and ,ust
as bad, they found that consonants and vowels in their own language
were unknown to the Maya. The early friars, usually using convenUons
developed within their respecüve orders, worked out standard ways of
representing the sounds they tried to record, while other chromders used
their own systems. The result was a hodgepodge of orthographies that has
not been helped by the introduction of modem techmcal systems.
Glyphtc studies traditionally use the colonial orthography imposed on
Yukatek by the Spanish. This orthography is súll used by scnbes among
the Cruzob Maya today to write their books of prophecy. t as serve e
Yukateks well and yielded an enormous Uterature, inc u mg numerous
dictionaries, the Books of Chilam Balam, and the writing
h-men of the Cruzob Maya. It has also become the tradiüonal o^ogra-
phy used in epigraphy: it was the calendric terms from Bishop Diego de
- J V tViat earlv researchers used for
Landa's Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan tna y
their own wrriting. . i„
Unfortunately, there are many problems caused by usmg ese ear
orthographies, including the Yukatek one. Many Mayan langu^es ave
contrasting sounds that do not exist in Spanish; often Spamsh chromclers
never heard them at all or simply ignored them. Furthermore the Span
ish settled on different and inconsistent systems for different languages.
The orthography they developed for Yukatek, for example c^ot be
used to tvrite most of the Cholan languages and none of the highlan
15
14
Foreword
Foreword
adaptad the alphabet from the practical orthography developed at the
Maya leinguages. As we moved inte the twentieth century, the situation
PLFM during earlier research with professional linguists from the United
only got worse, because a new set of orthographies was added to the
States In 1989, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala adopted
alphabet soup, including practical orthographies developed by linguists
the alphabet and Margarita López Raquec's Acerca de los alfabetos para
on the one side and translators of the Bible on the other side. When the
escribir los idiomas Maya de Guatemala as the official government pu i-
intemational phonetic alphabet was added to the already confused situa
tion, we ended up with some systems using diacritics, some systems that cation of the alphabet and its history.
A very similar alphabet is now being used by the ivriters -operatives
didn t use them, and almost as man y ways of spelling IVÍaya words as
of Tzotzil and Tzeltal, and several organizations have adopted the alpha
there are Maya languages and researchers.
bet developed by Barrera Vásquez for Yukatek. Since these ver>- similar
As a result, the same word is often spelled in more than one way within
alphabets have been developed in cooperation with or by nat.ve speakei^
one docvuuent. One of the most confusing problems facing students of the
Maya, especially those new to the field, is how to make sense of the many and adopted by them for writing their own languages, we have decided
different ways the same word can be spelled. The word for "lord" can to adopt their uniform alphabet for Maya Cosmos, as a means of reducmg
appear as ahaw, ahau, ajau, ajaw, or axaw, depending on which orthogra- the confusión of altérnate spellings and, most of all m recognition that
phy is used. Having to cope with all these different ways of spelling is the Maya have the right to decide how their own languages shoul e
often the first problem to be faced, even before cognate sets' between
"'ZTdecision brings with it both advantages and disadvantages. The
different languages can be determined.
In earher, more techmcal publications, we tried to use linguistic ortho- „ajor disadvantage is that words with traditional spellings, including
graphies, but since early glyphic studies began using the system of place ñames, suddenly look very strange to someone used to seeing them
colonial Yukatek, many terms simply looked funny when they were L the oíd form. The advantage is that everything is spelled m the same
wntten m a technical orthography. We tried keeping established terms H that most of the traps that led English speakers into mis-
in the oíd orthography and changing any new ones into modern orthogra- ^ Mayan words are gone. Words now look the way they sound.
pronounci g traditional
phies-of which several are used by different researchers. Unfortunately, Cimi is ., ug place ñames that are fixed in the colonial spelling
we ended up with a combination system that was more confusing than'
calendar terms spellings. DzibiUhal-
simply keeping the oíd Yukatekan system. Chínese presenta a similar
problem with múltiple orthographic conventions and the same resulting
j b at to do with these situations where there are traditional
confusing plethora of different spellings for the same word.
"sp"elZli ngs aa nd deci^de d that we had to apply the new alphabetH tios paalnl iwcoirzdesd
In our last book, A Forest ofR ings, we chose to retain the Yukatekan
orthography that is traditional to the field of epigraphy, with a few
Zs We have decided to keep the traditional spellings when
alterations to accommodate particular difficulties. That decisión worked :r. .e ^~ -
adequately when we were working with the languages of the inscrip-
tiona-Yukatekan and Cholan. However, in this book we found ourselves .«a .pp,»»»!. hpp., b,, h. b..
acmg a ifferent problem, since we were including words from most of rbX"u b i. 1» "«»■ "*
the extant Maya languages. In this context, the oíd Yukatekan orthogra-
phy simply will not work.
Furthermore, since the publication oí A Forest of Rings, the Maya of
form alphabet as follows: . n .u
uatemala have themselves adopted a uniform alphabet with which to
r = a (pronounced like the n m father)
Z Ma'" Lingüístico Fran-
c = k (pronounced like English k)
with writing and language groups all over the highlands of Guatemala,
17
16
Fo reword
Foreword
(pronounced like the e in set) we have not included them in our list. However, there is one correspon-
e — e
(pronounced like an English /i) dence problem that should be noted, because we do refer to terms usmg
h = h
(pronounced like the ee in see) them L in all other Mayan languages is pronounced r m Chorti, but m
i = i
Kaqchikel and K'iche', r corresponda to y in other Mayan l^guages. We
(pronounced like a hard /z sound, as with the
i = j
Spanish /) wdl note these except.onal spellings when they occur m ^he text.
(pronounced like a A, but with the glottis closed) Fmally we will use the Yukatek Maya plural suffix -oA for Maya
k = k'
words. More than one Chak w.ll be written Chakob, more than one sahal
1 = 1
m = m will be sahalob.
n = n
(pronounced like the o in hold)
o = o
P = P
(this is a glottalized p, pronounced with the glottis
PP = P'
closed)
(this post-velar á: is pronounced deep in the throat
q - q
and has no equivalent in a European language;
neither is it present in the lowland languages)
(glottalized versión of the same consonant)
q = q
s = s
t = t
(this is a glottalized 4 pronounced with the glottis
th = t'
closed)
(this is another consonant that does not exist in
tz = tz
English or Spanish)
(to the confusión of both nativo and non-native
dz = tz'
speakers, the oíd Yukatek orthography had dz for
the glottalized form of this consonant)
(pronounced like the oo in zoo)
u u
(the Spanish used the letter u to write the
u w
consonant so that many traditional spellings,
such as a/tau or Uaxactun, have a u in the place of
the consonant)
(this is equivalent to the English sh)
X — X
y = y
z = s
There are other consonante, especially the retroflexives and an n pro
nounced like the final sound in smg, that are used by several Mayan
anguages, but because we do not use vocabulary from those languages,
19
18