South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z, 2nd Edition

157 Pages·2010·7.65 MB·english

by  Jeremy Roberts

South and
Meso-American
Mythology
A to Z
second edition
MMYYTTHHOOLLOOGGYY AA TTOO ZZ
African Mythology A to Z
Celtic Mythology A to Z
Chinese Mythology A to Z
Egyptian Mythology A to Z
Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z
Japanese Mythology A to Z
Native American Mythology A to Z
Norse Mythology A to Z
South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z
MMYYTTHHOOLLOOGGYY AA TTOO ZZ
South and
Meso-American
Mythology
A to Z
second edition
8
Ann Bingham
Revised by Jeremy Roberts
[
South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z, Second Edition
Copyright © 2004, 2010 by Ann Bingham
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information, contact:
Chelsea House
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bingham, Ann.
South and Meso-American mythology A to Z / Ann Bingham; revised by Jeremy Roberts. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60413-414-8 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Indian mythology—South America.
2. Indian mythology—Latin America. 3. Indian cosmology—South America.
4. Indian cosmology—Latin America. I. Roberts, Jeremy, 1956- II. Title.
F2230.1.R3B56 2010
299.8’113—dc22 2009023375
Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for
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Text design by Lina Farinella
Map by Patricia Meschino
Composition by Mary Susan Ryan-Flynn
Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minn.
Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minn.
Date printed: January, 2010
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed
since publication and may no longer be valid.
Contents
8
Introduction vii
Time Line for South and Meso-America xiv
Map of South and Meso-America xv
A-to-Z Entries 1
Selected Bibliography 149
Index 151
Introduction
8
The world from which the mythology of South and Meso-America emerged is a
land of extremes. It is a land of high, snow-covered mountain peaks and low river
basins; of barren, rocky, cold, and windy ocean coasts and hot tropical rain forests;
of land that is fertile and lush, and land that is subject to drought or created with
steep terraces so that crops could be grown. Volcanoes erupt. Earthquakes shake
the ground—sometimes so violently that entire towns are flattened. Hail, wind, and
driving rains destroy crops. The area covered by South and Meso-America gave
rise to several major civilizations; today the land encompasses 21 countries. The
mythology of this land is rich with stories of floods and fires, horrific monsters,
and a host of gods and goddesses who are jealous, and kind, and evil, and arrogant.
Some may be alternately kind and evil; some are so vast they have several names.
The realm of these gods and goddesses, and in fact of the people who revere
them, is not linear. Time does not flow on a single path that goes from then to
now. Space does not necessarily go from here to there. In this world, time and
space merge so at any moment one can tap into the future or access the past. In
South America, the Inca saw the cosmos as three concentric spheres—the past, the
present, and the future. Humans, often with the help of a shaman who could medi-
ate with the inhabiting spirits, could learn from the past and future because they
were always accessible. In Meso-America, too, the past and future merged with the
present; it was possible to change the future by returning to the past. The Meso-
American use of two or three calendars, each operating on a different cycle—it
might take as long as 52 years for a “date” to repeat—illustrate this perception of
time and space as more fluid and multidimensional.
In the myths, time means little: Heroes help create a world before their fathers
are born; people age or grow younger by ascending or descending a mountain.
And because of this timelessness, the myths do make sense. They do explain why
a condor’s feathers are black, what causes an earthquake, and how a much-played
ball game replays a cosmic fight. They also provide role models so strong that
people both fear and live to serve them—even today. These gods and goddesses
were real and infused every part of everyday life.
The myths of South and Meso-America reflect the themes found in the
mythology of other places. Here you will find heroes who face ordeals or tests. You
will read about paradise, the underworld, serpents, evil demons, the creation,
and stories of how the Earth became populated and how people got fire. Some
believe that ancient people created myths to help them explain their world or
construct their history—a world that we, in the age of information, try to explain
through scientific and historical facts and theories. Yet, history is more than a list
of facts. It is the telling of a people’s story.
vii
viii  South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z
south and Meso-aMerica: a Brief history
Historians believe that humans began to migrate from Asia across the Bering land
bridge as long as 15,000 years ago. These humans brought with them a belief
system that included shamans and the conviction that animals held spiritual
power. People from several different groups made this trip, either gradually or
in waves. Eventually, some groups arrived in South and Meso-America. We don’t
know much about these early people, but this we do know: Some had reached
what is now Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America by 9000 b.c.;
by 8000 b.c. people in the Andes grew plants, probably to use to weave cloth; and
by 7000 b.c. people in Meso-America farmed. The growing of crops for food in the
Americas began in Meso-America and, from there, spread north and south.
Meso-america
The first communities in South and Meso-America were those of the Chincoro
in northern Chile by 5000 b.c. However, scholars consider the first significant
civilization in the Americas that of the Olmec, who dominated the gulf coast of
Mexico by 1200 b.c. This society was an organized one; it had a class structure,
highly developed arts, an extensive trade network, a calendar, writing in the form of
pictographs, and deities and spirits who regulated rain and the fertility of humans
and crops. The Olmec civilization continued until about 900 b.c. and its influence
was widespread.
Other groups also settled in Meso-America. They lived in small villages and
interacted with one another through trade and war. Gradually these settlements
grew and became ceremonial centers or cities that boasted huge stone temples,
monuments, palaces, and gardens; some of them had populations of thousands
of people. These population centers were the heart of a chiefdom. Some were
cosmopolitan cities—home to people from all classes of society. Others were places
where only rulers, priests, the nobility, and the people and slaves that served
them lived. In these settlements, most people lived in outlying villages where they
hunted, farmed, or created goods to support themselves and the city center. The
city reflected the Meso-American concept of the universe. Just as gods were at
the center of the universe, the temples to the major gods stood in the center of
the city. Villages and homes also had ceremonial centers; each village had one or
more temples and each home had an altar. Ultimately, the people lived to serve
the gods who had created humans to serve them. As a cultural area grew, or as a
chiefdom expanded either by war or through trade, its group of deities became
more complex. Gods were timeless. They did not die, and because the people both
revered and feared them, they respected and often adopted the gods of the people
they conquered. This was true in South American cultures as well.
In Oaxaca, the Zapotec built the great ceremonial center Monte Albán that was
later used by the Mixtec. The Mayan civilization emerged around 2000 b.c. and
peaked around a.d. 900. By around 300 b.c., the Maya began to build hundreds
of cultural centers out of stone in what is now central Mexico, the Yucatán, Gua-
temala, Honduras, and Belize. In the Valley of Mexico, the dominant center was
Teotihuacán, a city of more than 150,000 people. It was believed to have been one
of the largest cities in the world at that time. As these three (Zapotec, Teotihuacán,
and Maya) began to decline, the Toltec empire was flourishing at Tollan. As
the Toltec empire declined, the Guachichil, who had migrated into central
Mexico from the north, were settling, establishing communities, and creating the
ceremonial centers that would form the structure of the Aztec (Mexica) empire.
All of these civilizations followed the Olmec tradition of building huge, stepped
pyramids that were topped with temples to honor their gods.
Introduction  ix
The Palace of the Governor is one of several enormous stone buildings of the Mayan city of Uxmal, in the
Yucatán Peninsula. Uxmal was one of many cities built to honor the gods of ancient South and Meso-Americans.
(Shutterstock)
The gods of these cultures continued to be those of fertility, agriculture, the
sun, and rain and water; there were also gods of war, fire, the seasons, the planet
Venus, and others. The Maya alone may have had as many as 166 gods. Beginning
perhaps with the Olmec, Meso-American cultures worshipped a serpent god
best known today as Quetzalcoatl. This deity was known as Nine Wind to the
Mixtec, Kukulcan to some Mayan groups, and Gucumatz to the Quiché Maya.
The serpent was not the earliest or most powerful god but was a highly influential
day-to-day presence; he was the patron of priests and artisans and was associated
with war and death, weather, and writing and learning.
Life in South and Meso-America changed in the 1500s with the arrival of the
Spanish. The Spanish set out to destroy the native cultures: conquering the cities,
tearing down the temples and monuments, burning books and records, and killing
the people through disease, overwork, and outright violence. The nature of the
gods changed at this time as well. In an effort to “cleanse” the native souls, the
Spanish and other colonizers were determined to convert them to Catholicism,
often holding mass baptisms to achieve this goal. In part, it worked. However, it is
not clear whether or not the natives converted. They may have really adapted the
Catholic concepts of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the saints to fit their needs or they
may have simply maintained their own beliefs under different names.
Through the rebellions that both preceded and followed independence from
European domination, a blend of native and Christian practice has developed in many
places in Meso-America since the 1500s. For example, Easter celebrations may include
dancers wearing deer masks to celebrate spring, and the weeklong Day of the Dead
celebration in late October and early November combines ancient ancestor worship
x  South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z
rituals with Catholic practice. For many, the significant aspects of the gods and god-
desses and the power of the stories surrounding them have not significantly changed.
An omnipotent god rules, regular ceremonies and rituals keep the presence of a belief
system intact, and the telling of stories helps link the people to their heritage.
Dressed in colorful clothing, these Guatemalans watch a Mayan celebration in
their village, just as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. (Shutterstock)