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The Mayan Gods: an Explanation from the Structures of Thought Journal of Historical Archaeology & Anthropological Sciences Review Article Open Access The Mayan gods: an explanation from the structures of thought Abstract Volume 3 Issue 1 - 2018 This article explains the existence of the Classic and Post-classic Mayan gods through Laura Ibarra García the cognitive structure through which the Maya perceived and interpreted their world. Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico This structure is none other than that built by every member of the human species during its early ontogenesis to interact with the outer world: the structure of action. Correspondence: Laura Ibarra García, Centro Universitario When this scheme is applied to the world’s interpretation, the phenomena in it and de Ciencias Sociales, Mexico, Tel 523336404456, the world as a whole appears as manifestations of a force that lies behind or within Email [email protected] all of them and which are perceived similarly to human subjects. This scheme, which finds application in the Mayan worldview, helps to understand the personality and Received: August 30, 2017 | Published: February 09, 2018 character of figures such as the solar god, the rain god, the sky god, the jaguar god and the gods of Venus. The application of the cognitive schema as driving logic also helps to understand the Maya established relationships between some animals, such as the jaguar and the rattlesnake and the highest deities. The study is part of the pioneering work that seeks to integrate the study of cognition development throughout history to the understanding of the historical and cultural manifestations of our country, especially of the Pre-Hispanic cultures. Keywords: Mayan gods, logic of thought, structure of action, subject/object, qualities perception The mayan gods: an explanation through of the deities or according to the source who reports them. For example, Stone and Zender analyze them by their hieroglyphics and their thinking patterns iconography;5 Juan Luis Bonor studies the gods worshipped in caves,6 The ancient Maya, like many other early cultures, developed a María Eugenia Gutiérrez investigates the gods of time,7 etc. The body of beliefs and myths on which they based their explanations knowledge we have about these supernatural beings comes mainly for the origin and order of the cosmos. Everything that exists and from their representations sculpted in stone, stucco, wood, bone, shell happens was understood as the action of invisible and impalpable or jadeite and other materials. Their images were captured in clay- divine energies, beings or deities, who found representation through shaped censers, such as those in Palenque, in stelaes, as in Copán, or art and whose exploits were told in the sacred books. Some gods dealt in vault lids. There are vast numbers of sculptural contexts usually with the natural phenomena related to the celestial space, others with scenes in bas-relief in which the divinities can be identified. the terrestrial environment and some others with the underworld, In recent times, the images of the Mayan gods found in ceramic although most of them went beyond the scope of their functions and vessels are added to these sources, thanks to private collections acted in areas other than their own.1 being opened to researchers. During the Classical period (250 AD In addition to this categorization of the Maya deities (in accordance - 900 AD), painted pottery displayed mythological and ceremonial to the cosmos level in which they act), there are other classifications scenes, for it was destined to be part of funerary offerings, to serve or groupings based on other criteria. For example, Nikolai Grube as a ceremonial vessel or in the dedication of certain monuments.8 groups the codices deities´ according to the beneficial or harmful Pre-Hispanic pictorial manuscripts have been a key to acquaint influence they exert on the world of men, in positive and negative ourselves with the Mayan gods; of which only three are preserved: the gods.2 Karl Taube,3 following Schellhas´s classification, studies Dresden, Madrid and Paris codices. All of them of divinatory nature the gods according to the religious tradition to which they belong, and contain mostly calendar records that include ceremonies such thus, in his documentation, appear first the gods of Mayan origin as the New Year and topics such as agriculture, hunting, the rainy and then the “foreign gods” from the Postclassic.3 Baudez divides season and the deities associated with each one of them, which has these supernatural beings into those related to an aspect of the wet, made it possible to differentiate the deities of the Mayan pantheon by alive, fertile soil and those linked to the dry, dead and sterile aspect.4 traits and characteristics.2 Other sources are the colonial, indigenous According to the images and the iconography, Baudez makes a special and Spanish texts, some of them with deep roots in the pre-Hispanic distinction: on one hand, the ‘flat noses’, or beings whose feline and period, which have contributed to confirm the personality and solar features are related to the dry underworld, the realm of the functions of the sacred beings.9 nocturnal sun, the world of the dead and so on; and, on the other, the The Dresden Codex seems to come from Yucatan, specifically, “prominent snouts”, whose features resemble reptiles, associated with from Chichén Itzá, in Thompson’s view.10 After a careful analysis life and the fertile soil.4 of the dates, the style of some censers, the years´ markers, the Some researchers study the Mayan gods according to some gods represented, as well as the use of some glyphs, the British theoretical approach, chronological space, particular aspects archaeologist concluded that this codex is probably a copy of an older Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(1):97‒112 97 © 2018 García. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Copyright: The Mayan gods: an explanation from the structures of thought ©2018 García 98 one and that it was made between 1200 and 1250 in Itzá. The origin of “Lady of the First Brush” and Ix Chel, “Glowing Lady or Lady of the the Paris Codex is unknown, but epigraphic and iconographic studies Rainbow”.15 Some Mayan gods are sometimes one and many at the performed by Thompson and Love agree that it might come from same time. They are usually pluralized in four, so, for example, there is some place within the Yucatan peninsula, such as Mayapán, or from a rain god, Chahk, but there are also four chahks gods, responsible for the East Coast area and that it should be dated around the fifteenth the four cardinal points.3 This is also observed in the representations century. On the other hand, the Madrid Codex contains elements that of the old god or God N, who is also pluralized in four to assume the relate it to the Coast of Campeche and for internal calendar evidences function of supporting the sky or some monuments.12 it is supposed to be written between the XIV and XV centuries.11 Mayan deities can cause favorable or harmful phenomena for Also, in recent years, advances in epigraphy have been added mankind. Under this perspective, Grube distributes the gods in the to this set of sources. The decoding of texts written by the Maya codices, depending on their attributes, into two groups: one positive themselves using hieroglyphic writing has helped to understand the and one negative. The god of water, that of corn and the elder god of personality and functions of the deities. As Simon Martin asserts, their creation, Itzamnaaj, are part of the group of positive gods. Among writing was an attempt to give the transcendent a tangible form and to the negatives is the god of death, easily recognizable by his skeletal make visible what they considered hidden.12 At the beginning of the body and the god K’inich Ajaw, “lord of the sun”, because he could 20th century, Paul Schellhas identified the first images of the divine burn the crops with his hot rays.2 However, the same god can also figures in the Post classic codices (900 AD - 1500 AD), which, given influence positively at certain and at others in a detrimental way,15 the impossibility of clearly establishing their names, were given a which is manifested in plastic works by adding symbols of death to capital letter to name each one, from A to P.13 Although the dramatic the usual deity aspect.16 advance in decoding Mayan hieroglyphic writing over the last two Most of the gods are male, but there was a young moon goddess, decades has made it possible to know the names of almost all of the Goddess I, whose name was Ixik Uh, “Lady Moon.” Perez Suarez gods, Schellhas’s nomenclature, although modified, is still used to believes that this goddess was associated with the crescent moon, identify the images of the major gods (Figure 1). while Goddess O, represented as an old woman, was associated with the waning moon.15 The Mayan gods also show a strong tendency to identify themselves with each other; the figures that represent them sometimes show attributes of several deities. For example, K’awiil’s serpent foot is a personification of Chahk’s ax-thunderbolt.17 A detail on the K3367 vessel shows the corn god in turn with the serpent leg, attribute of the god K’awiil17 (Figure 2). Taube considers that this hybrid character, this mixture of traits of different gods, is a common feature of the Mayan deities.17 A good example of the gods fusion is provided by the detailed study of Simon Martin, which analyzes the substantial number of combinations or mixtures of the old god, god I and: a.
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