The Tonsured Maize God and Chicome-Xochitl As Maize Bringers and Culture Heroes: a Gulf Coast Perspective
f No. 32, 2009 WAYEB NOTES ISSN 1379-8286 THE TONSURED MAIZE GOD AND CHICOME-XOCHITL AS MAIZE BRINGERS AND CULTURE HEROES: A GULF COAST PERSPECTIVE H.E.M. Braakhuis Utrecht University “He [the Maize Hero] spoke words like water being scattered” (Alcorn et al. 2006: 601) It is now slightly more than twenty-five years ago that Taube identified the ‘Tonsured Maize God’, a youthful deity whose emergence from a turtle shell has since become an icon of Classic Maya culture. The presence of the Twin heroes of the Popol Vuh, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, at the maize deity’s emergence contributed much to this status. Taube’s conclusion that the episode represents the bringing back to life of the Twins’ father, who had died in the Underworld, has been widely accepted.1 M. D. Coe (1989: 167) was one of the first to adopt this interpretation, and it has slowly become the orthodox view. It has also become common practice to refer to the Twins’ father, Hun-Hunahpu, as ‘the Maize God’, notwithstanding the fact that a maize god is not mentioned in the Popol Vuh. Schele and Freidel (1993: 59-116, 272-286), in particular, have helped to popularize Taube’s viewpoint. They developed it into an astral maize mythology of their own, a critical evaluation of which, though much needed, lies beyond the scope of this essay. When, fourteen years after Taube’s initial study, Quenon and Le Fort (1997) presented an overview of the then available iconographic material, in which they distinguish five broad ‘episodes’, their focus remained on the interaction of the Twins with Hun-Hunahpu.
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