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ANIMATE VERSUS INANIMATE: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN MAYAN AND EUROPEAN ASTRONOMICAL TRADITIONS IN MAYAN COLONIAL DOCUMENTS

Alfonso Lacadena Universidad Complutense de Madrid

SAA Session on "Celestial References in Mesoamerican Creation Stories" (Org. by Gabrielle Vail and Timothy Knowlton)

Vancouver, March 26-30 2008

ABSTRACT

In colonial Mayan documents there is a contradiction in how celestial bodies are counted, in some cases using the numeral classifier –tul (for human and supernatural beings) and in others the numeral classifier –p’el (for inanimate beings). In this work it is proposed that such contradiction is only apparent, reflecting the conflict between two great astronomical traditions: the original pre-Columbian Maya, who conceived of celestial bodies as animate beings, and the recently acquired European one, which considered celestial bodies as inert objects.

Numeral classifiers and the counting of celestial bodies in Colonial Yucatec

As is well known, numeral classifiers are particles that combine with numbers in counting objects, classifying them into certain classes that vary from language to language. In the Yucatecan group—group of languages of the Maya family that exhibits numeral classifiers, as well as the Ch’olan-Tzeltalan group—these classes refer mainly to animacy, shape and size of objects, and the spatial relation that the counted objects have amongst them or in relation to other objects. Numeral classifiers give an extraordinary opportunity to look through the same eyes of the people studied and see how they organized and interpreted the surrounding universe. The numeral classifier which is most commonly used in the count of celestial bodies in Maya alphabetic colonial documents is (also written as , and ). Thus, for example, is found in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Roys 1967: 55, 150)

Zuhuy c ħuplal u kaba u na uucppel chachac ek ‘The Virgin, as she is called, is the mother of the seven planets’ or in the Chilam Balam of Kaua (Bricker & Mihram 2002):

[h]e uuc pel planetazobe ‘As for the seven planets here (…)’ (ibid.: 144) 2

ay 7 planetas he ix vuc pel planetaob lae ‘There are seven planets and these seven planets here (…)’ (ibid.: 153)

ti ix chican vuc pel planetas y okol ‘and seven planets appear there overhead’ (ibid.: 153)

yt hun pel ek canamail ‘with one guardian star’ (ibid.: 154)

ti yx chican hun pel ek luna ‘There appears one star: It is the Moon’ (ibid.: 244).

The numeral classifier is well attested in Mayan languages of the Yucatecan group for the general count of objects and inanimate beings. Thus, in Colonial Yucatec, we find -ppel ‘cuenta general para todas cuantas cosas hay’ (general count for all exisiting things) (Arzápalo 1995: 661), hunppel ‘uno, y es de cosas inanimadas’ (one, and is for inanimate things) (Arzápalo 1995: 337), -ppel ‘para cuenta en general de quantas cosas hay’ (general count for all exisiting things) (Beltrán 2002: 269); modern Yucatec -p'éel nc. ‘thing’ (Bricker et al . 1998); Lacandon –p’el ‘cosas en general, objetos diversos’ ([for] things in general, diverse objects) (Bruce 1968: 71); Itzaj –p’eel (with variantes –p’ee and -p’e ) nc ‘inanimado. inanimate’ (Hofling & Tesucún 1997: 532-533); and Mopan –p’eel ‘para contar objetos inanimados’ (for counting inanimate objects) (Schumann 1997: 99). In Western Ch’olan Mayan languages this same classifier is attested with the same meaning. Thus, in Acalan Chontal –ppel ‘inanimado’ (inaimate) (Smailus 1975: 165), modern Chontal -p’e ‘used in counting objects of a general or nonspecific shape, that is, objects which are not covered by one of the other shape classifiers’ and ‘used with nouns expressing nontangible concepts’ (Keller 1955: 260); and Ch’ol –p’ejl ‘sufijo numérico para contar cosas en general’ (numerical suffix for counting things in general) (Aulie & Aulie 1978: 98). 1 What interests us here is the use of classifier in the count of celestial bodies (stars, planets), and therefore their categorization by colonial Yucatec Maya as inert or inanimate beings. However, interestingly, sometimes Maya scribes used numeral classifier instead of in the counting of celestial bodies, as in the Chilam Balam of Kaua (Bricker & Mihram 2002: 149):

vuc tulili planetasob ohelan t u lacal lay kine yt luna maris mercurio jupiter venus saturno ‘Only seven planets are known by everyone: the Sun here, and the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn.’

1 The presence of forms p’éel ~ p’eel in Yucatecan languages and p’el ~ p’e ~ p’ejl in Western Ch’olan ones, points to an earlier shared form *-p’ehl , probably diffused. 3 and Chilam Balam of Na (Gubler & Bolles 2000: 94, 95):

Mahanceni uuctulili planetasob lae ohelan ix tumen tulacal: lay Kine, Ue, Mars, Mercurio, Júpiter, Venus, Saturno. Lay ix u nucul. Lay ix u chuchma lae. ‘It is clear that there are seven planets which are known by all: they are the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. This is their meaning. This is their burden.’

Although numeral classifiers can alternate in some cases (for example, , as a general classifier for inanimate beings can alternate with classifiers referring to shape or size of objects), the strange and interesting thing in this case is that and are classifiers used in categorizing elements that belong to radically opposite classes: as we have seen, is the classifier used for inanimate beings, while is the classifier used for animate beings, like human and animals: Precisely, in modern Yucatecan languages, –túul ~ -tuul ~ -tul is the classifier of animate beings. Thus, in modern Yucatec –túul nc. animate [person, animal] (Bricker et al . 1998); Lacandon – tul ‘seres vivos (dioses, hombres, animales)’ (living beings, gods, human, animals) (Bruce 1968: 71); Itzaj –tuul (with variants –tuu and –tu ) ncl. ‘ser vivo. animate class’ (Hofling & Tesucún 1997: 613); and Mopan –tuul ‘para contar objetos animados’ (for counting animate beings) (Schumann 1997: 99, 281); -tuul ‘clasificador de números de cosas vivas’ (numeral classifier for living things) (Ulrich y Ulrich 1976: 208). This modern meaning of –túul ~ -tuul ~ -tul , that is, a numeral classifier used for counting animate beings, whether human or animals, is often extended to explain the usage of Colonial Yucatec . However, I would like to point out that the meaning of Colonial Yucatec is not exactly the same as the modern one, but seems to have been more restricted in the past. If we analyze the use that has in Mayan alphabetic colonial texts we notice that it is restricted to the class of human and supernatural beings, being the inclusion of animals a late development at the end of colonial times. 2 For example, in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel, is attested with mehen ‘son (of man)’, al ‘son (of woman)’, casadosob ‘married people’, ahkin ‘priest’, ch’uplal ‘women’, noh xib ‘nobles, elder men’, yxahau ‘queen’, yxma na ‘orfan’, yxnuc ‘elder women’, personaob ‘persons’, uinicob , ‘men, people’, batab ‘governor’, and supernaturals like bacab , chac ‘the chac s’, ahcanan col ‘the guardian of the milpa’, but not with animals. The same happens in the Chilam Balam of Tizimín, where is used, for example, with ixahau ‘queen’, nacom ‘war captain’, and other human beings, like the seven warriors from Mayapan who destroyed Chichen Itza who are said lai ukaba uinicil uuctul ob , as well as with gods and supernaturals, as chac uayab sodz , bacab or ku 3 but, again, not with animals. In fact, it is highly interesting to notice that colonial lexical sources do not include animals as beings belonging to the class represented by : for example, the Dictionary of San Francisco has –tul ‘cuenta para personas’ (count for persons) (Barrera 1980: 818); the Dictionary of Ticul has -tul ‘cuenta para ángeles, almas y hombres’ (count for angels, souls and people) (ibid.); Beltrán de Santa Rosa, in his list of classifiers, includes –tul ‘para hombres, mugeres, ángeles y almas’ (for men, women, angels and souls) (Beltrán 2002: 270). The meaning of as a general classifier for

2 As can be noticed in some Indian colonial wills, where –tul begins to be used in the counting of cattle, instead of –cot and –pok . 3 See Bricker 1990a, 1990b. 4

‘animate beings’ applied to Colonial times seems to be an incorrect extension of the modern meaning made by modern scholars. The meaning of in Colonial Yucatec is therefore more restricted , only applied originally to human and supernaturals, ‘rationale beings’ as correctly labels Beltrán de Santa Rosa (Barrera 1980: 818) and still glosses Juan Pío Pérez (ibid.). Interestingly, the restricted meaning which I suggest had in Colonial Yucatec has parallels in other Maya languages of the Greater Tzeltalan group that share this same classifier. Although in modern Chontal –tul is ‘used in counting people and animals’ 4 (Keller 1955: 260)—thus being close to the use of the classifier in modern Yucatecan languages—, in Acalan Chontal, for example, even when Smailus gives the general meaning of–tul ‘animado’ (‘animate’) (1975: 215), perhaps influenced by the meaning in modern Chontal, in fact in the Papers of Paxbolon it is only attested with ahau ‘rey’ (king), dios ‘dios’ (god), holcanil baob ‘valientes’ (brave, valiant), nucob ‘grandes’ (great, principal people), pap ‘padre’ (father), ppenel ‘hijo’ (son), vinic ‘hombre’ (man), yumabil ‘señor’ (lord); in Cholti it is attested as ‘hombres’ (Sattler 2004: 395); and in Tzeltal, interestingly, –tul is used for ‘human’, as in ča7tul winik ‘two (persons of the class human) men’ (Berlin & Romney 1964: 96). Kaufman (1972: 119) reconstructs proto-Tzeltal * tuhl classifier as ‘persona’. The class of ‘animate beings’ in Colonial Yucatec is a class that certainly can be proposed, but only as an abstract general category conformed by at least seven different sub-categories of animates, in which classifier ‘for rationale beings (human and supernaturals)’ is simply one more, with a meaning as restricted as other related classifiers have, like ‘for quadrupeds, irrational animals’, ‘for birds and other animals (used in special counts from nine to nineteen), ‘for fish, birds and animals’, ‘for shrubs, small trees, maize plants and balls of dough’, ‘for trees and plants (less used)’ and ‘for trees and plants (more used)’. Considering all that has been discussed, we see that the use of classifier for celestial bodies implies much more than a simple, general animation: It means that celestial bodies are considered ‘rationale’ beings, belonging to the same class as human and supernaturals. I propose that the use of classifier in counting celestial bodies attested in Maya colonial alphabetic documents is a preservation of pre-Columbian Maya beliefs which considered celestial bodies as supernatural beings 5 in clear contradiction to the new western astronomy conceptions.

Celestial bodies as ‘rationale’ supernatural beings

Iconographic and epigraphic pre-Columbian Mayan sources fully confirm this categorization of celestial bodies as ‘rationale beings’ suggested by the use of numeral classifier in Colonial times. In pre-Columbian times, celestial bodies like the Sun and the Moon present anthropomorphic shape, are dressed, speak and interact with other beings, thus clearly

4 ‘Except for turtles, snakes, and certain long under water creatures such as the alligator’ (Keller 1955: 260). 5 The categorization of celestial bodies in pre-Columbian times is even richer, including complementary metaphors that considered celestial bodies as flowers and jewels (see Taube 2004, 2005; Ignacio Cases, personal communication 2003; see Cases 2006, 2007a, 2007b). 5 showing through their attributes that they are more than simple animates (Fig. 1a). In late times another celestial body, Venus, under different aspects, is represented as a supernatural anthropomorphic being armed with weapons, spearing other beings and affecting the terrestrial World (Fig. 1b). Celestial bodies are supernatural beings endowed with human abilities and rational volition.

b A

Figure 1.- Anthropomorphic celestial beings. a= Sun God on Dos Pilas Str. N5-21 carved blocks (drawing by O. Chinchilla, in Chinchilla 2006: Fig. 8a); b= Venus as spear-thrower in Dresde 46b (after Villacorta and Villacorta 1977).

Human beings are also related with the celestial sphere. Once dead, humans are associated with the Sun and the Moon, or become stars. Recently, Chinchilla (2006) has correctly suggested that the personages at Palenque bearing the titles of sajal and ajk’uhu’n mentioned in the sarcophagus of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal appear as stars inserted in the sky band that runs along the edge of the sarcophagus, relating it to modern Mayan beliefs that consider that human souls rise to Heaven becoming stars. Iconographic depictions of Classic Maya ancestral rulers within Sun—men—and Moon—women—cartouches or seated on sky thrones assure us that the association of deaths with sky is not a modern belief introduced by Spanish priests. Other Classic Maya representations show celestial bodies (stars, constellations) as animals, like deer, turtles, scorpions, turkeys or peccaries (see Miller 1986; Bricker & Bricker 1992; Freidel et al. 1993). Although perhaps it could be argued that the presence of these animals in a celestial context would point to a usage of in its general modern meaning of ‘animate beings’ including animals along with humans and supernaturals, this is clearly not the case. Although some times it could seem that celestial animals are just simply depicted as natural animals, the rich set of available iconographic representations show their categorization as true super-natural beings, presenting attributes of ‘personification’, thus being equated with humans (Fig. 2). Many depictions of animals related with stars show them having anthropomorphic arms 6 and legs, standing up in biped position or sitting as humans and gesticulating like them—like in the nice Vase of the Stars of the Museo Popol Vuh recently published by Chicnchilla 2005—, grasping objects and tools, being dressed and adorned with jewels, and speaking, attributes and abilities that are characteristic of human and supernatural beings.

a b

c d

Figure 1.- Animals as celestial bodies, with anthropomorphic attributes: a= Anthropomorphic scorpion on Copan Group 8N-11 Bench (drawing by B. Fash); b= Moon Rabbit with earplug and bracelet, on Piedras Negras Stela 11 (after drawing by D. Stuart, in Stuart and Graham 2003); c= Deer sitting in human pose on the Vase of the Stars of Museo Popol Vuh; d= Anthropomorphic alligator dressed and sitting in human pose on the Vase of the Stars of Museo Popol Vuh (c-d, drawing by O. Chinchilla, in Chinchilla 2005: Fig. 7).

The insertion of these celestial anthropomorphic animals in the restricted class represented by for ‘rationale’ beings (humans and supernaturals), seems therefore to be fully justified.

7

The conflict between pre-Columbian Mayan and European astronomical traditions

Belonging to a long tradition of astronomers-astrologers, the Maya received with curiosity and interest the new astronomical, astrological and calendrical tradition of Spanish conquerors. Proof of such interest includes the composition of arithmetic tables and translations into Maya language of European calendrical almanacs and astronomical ephemeredes, and the continuous efforts of correlation and combination of both calendrical systems, the fundamental base of ritual and religion in both traditions. Similar in their basic principles—as the acceptation as a fact of the influence of celestial bodies in the fate and wealth of human beings—Colonial Maya incorporated into their ancient tradition the new European sources, adopting and adapting them (see Bricker & Mihram 2002; Velásquez 2007). The adaptation however not always was possible. Both Mayan and European ways to understand the Cosmos included elements which were hard to reconcile. One of the incompatible elements was the proper understanding of the nature of celestial bodies. Although Spanish astronomical tradition, like the contemporaneous European one, had numerous elements that came from Greek and Roman traditions in which planets, stars and constellations were represented through images of fantastic beings or ancient gods (and probably this fact initially interested the Maya and surely helped in their fast adoption), it was no more than an external, superficial façade. In strict Christian monotheism, there was no place to believe that celestial bodies were actual living beings or supernaturals: Celestial bodies were simple bright bodies in the sky moving in orbits against a fixed field of stars. The Maya finally adopted this new way to understand the Cosmos. In the well known text of the Chilam Balam of Maní, the author, referring to eclipses, says (Craine & Reindorp (1979: 50):

‘[a]ll of the planets in the heavens cause earthquakes, thunder, and eclipses of the sun and moon which are popularly described by saying “they eat the sun and the moon.” They do not eat them; it is the sign that the sun is hiding, that it darkens.’

Celestial bodies are now no longer supernatural beings with anthropomorphic attributes and volition, but simple inert brilliant bodies. The acceptance of this new interpretative basis is clear in the following text from the Chilam Balam of Kaua (Bricker & Miram 2002: 293), where the Sun and the Moon are called ‘luminaries’, even using the Spanish loan luminaria , and are therefore counted as ca pel luminaria ‘two luminaries’, using the classifier for inanimate objects:

t u can pel u kinil y utzcinah dios ca pel luminaria lay luna y. kin he kin lae luminaria mayor he tun luna luminaria mayora [sic] 6 ‘On the forth day, God perfected the two luminaries,

6 As Bricker & Miram (2002: Footnote 1569) notice, ‘[t]he Moon should be the minor luminary (luminaria menor)’. 8

This Moon and Sun. The Sun here, is the major luminary; Here, then, the Moon is the major luminary.’

I suggest that numeral classifier for counting celestial bodies started to be used when the European astronomical tradition was adopted by the Maya and celestial bodies came to be considered as inert brilliant objects. The exceptional use of reflects the remnants of ancient Maya conceptions about the Cosmos and the nature of celestial bodies. Although a complete study concerning the use of classifiers in the count of stars in the Yucatecan group is still pending, in modern Yucatec stars are counted with the classifier –p’éel (with certainly good reason, some of the informants protested against the possibility of counting the stars, since, like grains of sand, they were clearly uncountable). 7 Interestingly, in Itzaj the three stars of the Belt of Orion are called ‘Ox- tuul ixMariiyajoo’ or ‘ox-tuulil ixMariiyajoo’ ‘Three Marys’ (’Las Tres Marías’) (Hofling & Tesucún 1997: 489), using, in this case, the classifier –tuul for animate beigns, instead of –p’eel for inanimates. The quality of ‘personification’ that the woman’s name ‘Mariiyaj’ (Mary) gives to the three aligned celestial bodies in Orion constellation is the reason of the use of –tuul , as in pre-Columbian times.

7 I thank Ana García Barrios for her inquiry on this question among modern Yucatec speakers in Merida, Yucatan, in February 2008. 9

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