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Semble-T-Il, La Posture Fondamentale Des Auteurs Devant Geminoïd, C'est

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Semble-T-Il, La Posture Fondamentale Des Auteurs Devant Geminoïd, C'est Rezensionen 285 semble-t-il, la posture fondamentale des auteurs devant uscript). The book also features a brief introduction by Geminoïd, c’est-à-dire une posture qui évacue presque Nikolai Grube on the basics of Maya hieroglyphic writ- complètement le sens critique. Les auteurs veulent croire ing, mathematics, calendar, and religion, as well as the dans la possibilité d’établir une communication avec Ge- structure and content of the codex. Another short article minoïd, et cette croyance est au fondement de la surin- by Thomas Bürger outlines the history of the manuscript. terprétation. Ils parlent bien de “résistance au simulacre” Photographs are of high quality and constitute the first (158), mais ils y résistent très peu, ou seulement spora- accurate reproduction of the Codex, which was meticu- diquement. Comme ils le disent, ils se laissent prendre lously restored after it had suffered serious damage during au jeu (40). the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. As the qual- Les conclusions des auteurs au sujet de la communi- ity of photographic reproductions and facsimiles before cation sont somme toute assez triviales. Il est en effet dif- World War II cannot be compared with modern reproduc- ficile de communiquer avec une machine, même quand tions, it is not just a nicely illustrated edition for people on a la croyance. “Deux modes d’existence entrent ici en who want to learn about the Maya, but also an invaluable friction, l’organique et le machinique. Ils s’affrontent sans source for Mayanists. The whole codex is also now online possibilité de s’unir, de se combiner, dans une nouvelle in high resolution. sorte d’être qui relèverait à la fois de l’un et de l’autre” The Dresden Codex itself deserves a short introduc- (131). Malgré tout, l’auteur qui procède aux expériences tion. Exhibited at the Museum of the Saxon State Library cherche sans cesse cette possibilité de communication, in Dresden, Germany, it is one of only three authentic qu’il semble trouver dans les manques de la machine, Maya manuscripts which survived to our days. The oth- dans les bugs (sic), qui donneraient au robot une cer- er two are the Madrid Codex, held by the Museum of taine autonomie par rapport à la personne qui l’active. America in Spain, and the Paris Codex, hosted at the Bi- Selon cet auteur, l’expérimentateur, “le Geminoïd pose bliothèque Nationale in France. The last one is heavily les conditions d’une autre communication reposant sur damaged in comparison to the Dresden Codex even af- le dédoublement d’un des protagonistes, tantôt émetteur, ter all the damage that this Codex has suffered during the tantôt récepteur” (157). Ne s’agit-il pas là d’un des inva- war. The Madrid Codex dates at least partially from the riants de la communication entre humains ? 17th century, long after the arrival of the Spaniards. The Ce livre contient des observations quelque fois inté- Madrid Codex contains a number of calligraphic and or- ressantes, mais il pèche par surinterprétation. Les don- thographic anomalies, for example, idiosyncratic under- nées telles que présentées sont en décalage par rapport spellings, including underspellings of grammatical mor- aux conclusions. L’allusion au théâtre, au drame, dans la phemes. This fact suggests that at least some scribes of relation au robot me semble artificielle. Il faut vraiment the Madrid Codex did not have a full command of Maya vouloir parler au robot pour penser qu’il s’agit là d’une glyphs. By the way, I suspect many unsustainable inter- forme de communication avec la machine, qui est activée pretations of the late Knorozov to be due to his adherence par un technicien. On peut avoir l’illusion de la commu- to “anomalous” examples of the Madrid Codex we still nication, mais, pour employer un mot anglais, il s’agit cannot explain today. The Dresden Codex, therefore, is plutôt de self-delusion, de fantasmes venant de la volonté the only one well-preserved and extensive pre-Columbi- du chercheur de trouver absolument quelque chose, fan- an Maya manuscript. With 79 pages in total, it also con- tasmes qui se fondent sur l’auto-persuasion. Les auteurs stitutes the only well-preserved and extensive manuscript voient dans ce robot l’avenir, un avenir où les robots pour- in the New World that was undisputedly written before ront penser et converser, où, peut-être, ils pourront man- the arrival of the Spaniards despite the ongoing discov- ger des pommes eux aussi. Mais la démonstration de cette ery of many inscribed monuments dated long before the possibilité est loin d’être faite dans ce livre. conquest in various parts of Mesoamerica. However, texts Bernard Bernier and tags on pre-Columbian monuments and portable ob- jects mostly deal with courtly life and dynastic history, which makes the Dresden Codex a unique source on re- Grube, Nikolai: Der Dresdner Maya-Kalender. Der ligion and worldview of the ancient Maya and other pre- vollständige Codex. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 2012. Columbian cultures in the Americas. 223 pp. ISBN 978-3-451-33332-3. Preis: € 19.99 It is no wonder that the Dresden Codex was instrumen- The book under review is an excellent example of the tal in the decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphs. Astonish- long-standing German tradition of popular science vol- ingly, the document played a key role in four major dis- umes. Its target audience is not necessarily full-time spe- coveries. At the end of the 19th century, Dresden librarian cialists who study the ancient Maya or other Mexican an- Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann (Die Mayahandschrift der Kö- tiquities, but anyone who would like to know a little more niglich öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden. Leipzig 1880) about Maya than an average newspaper article can offer to succeeded in deciphering Maya mathematics and calen- have a firsthand experience of exploring the remains of an dar, having compared numerical and calendrical signs in ancient civilization. The book is luxuriously illustrated. In the codex with the corresponding chapters from Diego de fact, it represents a life-sized photographic reproduction Landa’s “Relación de las cosas de Yucatán” (dated to the of the Dresden Codex, every page provided with detailed 16th century). Soon after Paul Schellhas (Die Götterge- commentary by Nikolai Grube (one page of commentary stalten der Maya-Handschriften. Dresden 1897) assigned in German corresponds to one page of the original man- specific Latin letters as designations for certain deities re- Anthropos 109.2014 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2014-1-285 Generiert durch IP '170.106.33.22', am 28.09.2021, 00:36:42. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. 286 Rezensionen peatedly depicted in the codex and noticed that each deity eigner” (126) and on which evidence? Why “his spouse” was associated with a particular glyphic compound in the is y-atan if the glyphic compound spells “ya-ta-li,” cf. co- accompanying text. Paul Schellhas interpreted the glyph- lonial Yukatek < atal > “purchased, reward”? How tamales ic compounds under discussion as names of correspond- (maize dough steamed in leaf wrappers) can be mak’-ed ing deities. Last but not least Yuri Knorozov (1952) suc- (eaten), if in Cholan and Yukatekan languages the word ceeded in a phonetic decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic mak’- means “to eat soft and sweet things only (for ex- writing which was based on “Diego de Landa’s Alphabet” ample, overripe bananas and honey)”? The word for eat- and the extant codices, mostly, the Dresden Codex. Yuri ing tamales is weʔ-. Is not the interpretation ʔu-k’am-waaj Knorozov was able to show that the Maya writing was lo- “he takes tamales” a better solution taking into account go-syllabic and determined correct phonetic readings for the fact that the “ma” sign frequently shows a deviant several dozens of syllabic and logographic signs. Surpris- reading order due to the peculiar complete version of the ingly, after Yuri Knorozov’s attempt to make a complete sign in question? I have a number of similar questions and translation of the Maya codices (1975, see also the Eng- there is not enough room in this review to handle them. lish edition: Maya Hieroglyphic Codices. Albany 1982), These are questions, which a specialist in the field gets little was published on the manuscript (cf. H. Bricker and after reading the book, because detailed reading, gram- V. Bricker, Astronomy in the Maya Codices. Philadelphia matical analysis, translation, discussion, and references 2011). Mayanists of the last 30 years were mostly con- are omitted. However, we should admit that, first, popular cerned with hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Classic Pe- science literature is like this, second, it would be impos- riod from the Maya Lowlands. The Dresden Codex as a sible to publish the Dresden Codex in such a format, and, source for new understanding of the ancient Maya was third, many readers who are not specialists would not en- exhausted in those times; again religious matters of a lost joy an extended academic edition. At the same time, con- civilization are not easy subject to deal with. Ironical- sistent commentaries with particular attention to iconog- ly, today our understanding of Classic Maya inscriptions raphy, text structure, and general content allowed Nikolai manufactured several hundred years earlier is superior to Grube to show his readers an extraordinary perspective our understanding of the Dresden Codex. The book under on the document and have a glimpse of its bewitching in- review seems to herald a new chapter in the study of this trinsic logic. invaluable document. In summary, I would recommend every Mayanist to An important contribution of the book under review get acquainted with the book under review.
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