• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

¥cient Maya Gender Identity and Relations Edited by Lowell s. Gustafson and Amelia M. Trevelyan . ~, .\A1~" ...... ~_ Connecticut. London 168 • Ancient Maya 42. William A. Haviland, "The Rise and Fall of Sexual Inequality: Death and Gender at Tikal, Guatemala." Ancient Mesoamerica 8 (1997): 1-12. 43. Julia A. Hendon, "Status and Power in Classic Maya Society: An Archeological Study." American Anthropologist 93: 912. 44. Patricia A. McAnany, Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in An­ cient Maya Society. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995, pp. 24, 25, 61. SIX ;, Ii Corn Deities and the Male/Female Principle I(aren Bassie-Sweet Lt," ' he Maya placed themselves and their environment into categories I I~ that allowed them to order and manipulate their world. They fre­ quently categorized using the basic complementary pairing of fl: r. : T male/female, right/left, and senior/junior. In Maya mythology, the creator deities and their offspring were role models for proper human behavior and they reflected these principles of categorization. The focus of this chapter is on how the fundamental male/female principle was encoded in Maya mythology and in their society. The roles and status of females in pre-Columbian society and mythology is not well understood and this chap­ ter also attempts to define some of these roles. In the male/female principle, a human being was considered to be both male and female with the right side of the body male and the left side female. However, in order to be a complete person an adult had to be married. A husband and wife worked in complementary unison just as the right side of the body works with the left (Wagley 1949: 16; Tarn and Prechtel 1986; Devereaux 1987). Perhaps the ultimate example of this complementary na­ ture was that a man might plant and harvest the corn but he has to have a wife to transform it into food. The importance of having a spouse is revealed in the Popal Vuh in that immediately after creating the first four Quiche men, the creator deities made a wife for each one. These men were the first lineage heads for the four primary lineages and they were each referred to as "our first mother­ father" (Edmonson 1971: 153). This term is still used by the Quiche to refer to ancestors, while the Chol term for an ancestor is "our father/ 170 • Ancient Maya Corn Deities • 171 mother." This title is also given to certain leaders of the community. Some open by a rain deity using a bolt of lightning in the form of an ax. This act researchers have suggested that this title indicates an androgynous nature singed and burned some of the corn, creating the other three colors of corn but Nicholas Hopkins (1996) has identified these terms as metonyms in seed: yellow, black, and red. The creator deities took some of this corn seed which the two best examples of a domain are used to represent it. There ground it into corn dough and used it to model the first humans. The corn has to be both a father and a mother to create a chain of lineage descent. plant should, therefore, be the primary model for the male/female principle Mothers and fathers are the best examples of ancestors. and indeed this is the case. In Pokomam Palin, the position of mother/father is held by both a man Some modern Maya identifY the stalk and leaves of the corn plant as male and his wife, they are both called mother/father, and both share in the status but the ear of corn and its seed are usually regarded as female. Corn seed and prestige of the office (Maynard 1963: 62). Similar situations occur in is frequently referred to as "our mother corn." In the riddles of the Chilam other highland communities (Guiteras 1961: 98,223,241; La Farge 1947: Balam of Chumayel, an ear of green corn is referred to as a beautiful maiden. 133; Morris 1987: 64,209). In fact, most communities require that a man In proto-Cholan, the word for corn seed is "ixim" and the word for shelled be married in order to obtain political and religious offices. In some com­ corn is "ix," while the words for female and woman are "ix" and "ixik," munities, a wife will even finish the term ifher husband dies (La Farge 1947: respectively (Kaufinan and Norman 1984). From a purely biological per­ 133, Guiteras 1961: 223). While the actions of a man usually place him at spective, the corn plant has male and female parts.!t is composed of a single the center of the public stage, his wife performs essential tasks that allow stalk that terminates in a male tassel. Buds are found attached to the upper him to fulfill his obligations. For example, a wife produces the food, drinks, stalk. In the initial development of the female ear, many leaflike husks grow offerings, and gifts used during the various ceremonies and feasts, and acts from the bud, then the corn ear begins to appear and the silks emerge from as a ritual assistant to her husband. Without his wife's presence, a man's the end. The male tassel produces pollen that falls on the silk of the female power is-greatly reduced (Siegel 1941: 73; La Farge 1947: 25, 70, 133). ear and fertilizes it. A mature corn plant is incomplete without its female It has been demonstrated that some Classic Maya rituals show females ear of corn just as a man is incomplete without his wife. The mature corn performing gender-specific activities that complement those of males (Joyce plant is the epitome of the male/female principle. The division of the corn 1992: 69). Rosemary Joyce argued that the labor of women transformed plant into male and female parts is also apparent in the deities who represent the raw materials provided by men into useful products crucial to social, this sacred commodity. ritual, and political process. Although a wife was an indispensable comple­ A male corn god was identified in the codices and given the designation ment to her husband and she shared in the status and prestige, the vast of the God E, and similar corn-related deities were also noted in Classic majority of wives illustrated in Mayan art play the role of an assistant, which period art.l Karl Taube (1985) separated these male corn gods into two suggests that they held a junior position. William Haviland (1997) has ar­ classes and called them the Foliated Maize God (the Number Eight God) gued that the difference in the quality and contents ofTikal tombs indicates and the Tonsured Maize God. He interpreted these two gods as aspects of that women were subordinate to men. The junior rank of a wife is reflected the same deity with the Foliated Maize God representing young, green corn in contemporary rituals in which the senior male ritual specialist refers to and the Tonsured Maize God representing the mature corn ear. He also his junior male assistant as his wife (Tarn and Prechtel 1981) and in the demonstrated that the Tonsured Maize God was parallel to Hun Hunahpu Popol Vuh where Xbalanque, who plays the role of an assistant to Hunahpu, of the Popol Vuh. There is a female goddess who has attributes similar to is named with the "x" diminutive or female marker. This junior ranking in the Tonsured Corn God. Following Eric Thompson (1970: 241-49) and the social order does not mean, however, that women were without influ­ others, Taube (1992: 67) identified this woman as a young moon goddess. ence. I differ in my interpretation of these deities. The Maya were corn cultivators and this primary crop was their single A diagnostic trait of both the Foliated Maize God and the Tonsured most important commodity. The myths concerning the creation of the earth Maize God is corn foliage growing from their heads, but the crown of the and its preparation for human inhabitation revolved around establishing the Tonsured Maize God's head is shaved. Taube related this quality to an ear corn cycle. Furthermore, it was believed that the creator deities made the of corn but the smooth head actually represents a gourd. In central Mexico, first humans from corn seed. In Maya mythology, the world was created the young males who took care of the temples were called elocuatecomame. and destroyed a number of times. At the end of the previous era, the creator Their heads were shaved on the top but the hair around the face and neck deities found white corn hidden inside a great eastern mountain. The white was left. Diego Duran's description of this hairstyle indicates that the crown corn seed was discovered under an immovable rock that had to be broken was related to a gourd: 172 • Ancient Maya Corn Deities • 173 a. b. Figure 6.2. Foliated Maize God. ball playing incorporates a portrait of the Number Eight God with his bent over foliage (see figure 6.2b). This relates him to Hun Hunahpu of the Papal Vuh because this deity was the first ballplayer on the surface of the & •• __ •• _._ ••_000"'. If O""CIIO~O ell •• ....... - .. -- .,.. _. _0· ...•• -_ earth. § .. § 77\\\\ ;Z:.% §.:.. § Z·i i§ In light of the male/female principle and the female nature of the corn ear, it seems apparent that both the Corn God who represented the corn Figure 6.1. Tonsured Maize God. plant and his Papal Vuh counterpart Hun Hunahpu shouid have had a wife who represented the ear of corn.

Load more

  13

Copy Link