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Death and the Afterlife in the Lowlands two death and the afterlife in the lowlands s observed by Alfredo López Austin in his seminal work, Th e Human Body Aand Ideology, Central Mexican peoples of the Colonial Period saw mor- tality as an acquired attribute. It was a stigma procured during sex or maize consumption: ingesting maize and participating in sexual activity were ways of consuming death and incorporating it into the body. In eating maize, they brought what was born of the earth—of the realm of death—into their bod- ies and hence began participation in a larger life cycle. Knowing in teuhtli, in tlazolli, “the dust, the fi lth,” of sex was likewise viewed as a willing surrender of oneself to the things of the earth. For all save nursing children, these activi- ties would eventually result in death and one of many afterlives; babies simply returned to heaven to await “successful” birth once more. Th e implication here is that human beings, were they able to refuse the earth, would live forever. We see this in the treatment of Aztec children in the Florentine Codex, who do not die in the traditional sense: “[Th ey] were the ones who never knew, who never made the acquaintance of dust, of fi lth . they become green stones, they become precious turquoise, they become bracelets.” Instead of reaching Mictlan, they go to Tonacacuauhtitlan to await a second birth, nursed under the branches of a World Tree. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés cites an alternative view for the Nicaraos, who believed that children who died before eating corn would resuscitate and return to earth as men. Unfortunately, we do not have similarly detailed information for the Classic Maya; it is easier to discuss stages of Classic Maya death than ancient con- ceptual rationales for mortality. Th ere are no indications that sex, in the Clas- sic Maya worldview, was causally connected with mortality. Maize, however, may have been viewed as a source of death—as well as life—for the Classic Maya. To make this case, it is necessary to review Classic Maya beliefs about the earth as a realm of death, and its relationship to the mythological and sym- bolic attributes of maize. In examining Classic Maya rationales for mortality, we bring ourselves closer to understanding the epigraphic and archaeologi- cal practices surrounding death. We must keep in mind, however, that much like the Nicarao example, there may have been concurrent—but not necessar- Copyright © 2009. University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. of Texas Press. All © 2009. University Copyright ily contradictory—models of death during the Classic Period. As a result, the Fitzsimmons, James L.. Death and the Classic Maya Kings, University of Texas Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brown/detail.action?docID=3443397. Created from brown on 2018-01-23 13:21:07. TT4894.indb4894.indb 1177 110/30/080/30/08 112:37:502:37:50 PPMM death and the classic maya kings following can only provide a general framework for death as we know it from Classic sources. earth Th roughout space and time, Mesoamerican peoples have considered the earth to be a living thing. It is a kind of divinity personifi ed. Mountains are analo- gous to heads, caves to mouths or wombs, and rocks to bones. Far from be- ing humanoid, the earth in Classic Maya times was represented by a number of diff erent metaphors, though turtles (tortoises) or crocodiles, fl oating upon a primordial sea, are usually the creatures featured. Tonina Monument 69, for example, displays a deceased ruler sitting atop the glistening, stylized head of a crocodile (Figure 4). Natural features were supernatural in aspect. Breathing clouds or eating sacrifi cial victims (Figure 5), caves and mountains were ubiqui- tous, facially expressive subjects of Maya art and architecture. Th is lack of distinction between the supernatural and natural worlds is fur- ther complicated by the fact that Mesoamerican peoples consider the earth to be a place of death. “Lineage mountains” and caves play a signifi cant role in contemporary Maya ancestor worship, and they clearly served a similar pur- pose during the Classic Period. Constructing mountain temples within their cities, the Classic Maya created houses for their dead bearing images of new life, vegetative (maize) growth, and nature personifi ed. Caves, either natural or replicated within funerary structures, were similarly portrayed: whether bury- ing their dead in caves or carving vegetative and Underworld themes into stone, scribes and their lords brought the anthropomorphic earth and death together visually as well as physically. At El Peru, a site in the northwest Peten, they are brought together textually. El Peru Stela 3 describes a deceased lord named K’inich B’alam who spent fi fty-two years—a complete Calendar Round— within the “heart of the turtle,” ‘ol ahk. Th is rare insight into the El Peru mind- set recalls the anniversaries of Piedras Negras. When viewed in the context of Classic Maya burials, it reminds us that tombs are collections of ideas as well as material remains. A further elaboration on these themes has been provided by Michel Quenon and Geneviéve Le Fort, who have outlined a sequence of events on monu- ments, vessels, and unprovenanced ceramics involving the death and resurrec- tion cycle of a Classic Maya Maize God. Although there are a number of varia- tions in this mythology, representing local or regional theological diff erences, the basic sequence of events remains the same. Th e death of the Maize God, represented by his image sinking below the surface of the watery Underworld, is followed—after an indeterminate length of time—by his naked rebirth from a “fi sh-serpent,” one of a host of serpentine creatures that act as conduits for Copyright © 2009. University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. of Texas Press. All © 2009. University Copyright supernatural beings. Th e god is then dressed in all his fi nery by several female 18 Fitzsimmons, James L.. Death and the Classic Maya Kings, University of Texas Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brown/detail.action?docID=3443397. Created from brown on 2018-01-23 13:21:07. TT4894.indb4894.indb 1188 110/30/080/30/08 112:37:502:37:50 PPMM death and the afterlife in the lowlands figure 4. Th e death of Wak Chan K’ahk’ and the Seven-Black-Yellow-Place of Tonina Monument 69 (Mathews 1983) attendants and placed in a canoe. Piloting this canoe are two fi gures nicknamed the Paddler Gods, the same fi gures who ferried him into the Underworld. Pre- sumably paddled to his fi nal destination, the Maize God then emerges from the carapace of a turtle (Figure 6). Chaaks, or the Classic equivalents of the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh, assist him in this endeavor, cracking open the turtle carapace with lightning weapons or watering him so that he will sprout. Ste- phen Houston has interpreted these Hero Twins as primordial cultivators who act in a fashion similar to those featured on Copan’s Altar T (Figure 7). Parallels can be drawn between the Maize God and the individual from El Peru. Th ey are both inside the “turtle” at some point; the Maize God is re- born, but not yet resurrected within that space. When he is resurrected, it is from a place of death. Th e implication is that he is reborn—but still dead— Copyright © 2009. University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. of Texas Press. All © 2009. University Copyright until the carapace is cracked and he is allowed to grow. Th is fi ts nicely with the 19 Fitzsimmons, James L.. Death and the Classic Maya Kings, University of Texas Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brown/detail.action?docID=3443397. Created from brown on 2018-01-23 13:21:07. TT4894.indb4894.indb 1199 110/30/080/30/08 112:37:502:37:50 PPMM Chaak, God A, and the Jaguar God of the Underworld © Justin Kerr) (4011 figure 5. 5. figure Copyright © 2009. University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. of Texas Press. All © 2009. University Copyright Fitzsimmons, James L.. Death and the Classic Maya Kings, University of Texas Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brown/detail.action?docID=3443397. Created from brown on 2018-01-23 13:21:07. TT4894.indb4894.indb 2200 110/30/080/30/08 112:37:512:37:51 PPMM figure 6. Hun Ajaw and Yax B’alam (K1892 © Justin Kerr) Copyright © 2009. University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. of Texas Press. All © 2009. University Copyright figure 7. Crocodile from Copan Altar T (after Schele and Miller 1986, fi g. 22) Fitzsimmons, James L.. Death and the Classic Maya Kings, University of Texas Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brown/detail.action?docID=3443397. Created from brown on 2018-01-23 13:21:07. TT4894.indb4894.indb 2211 110/30/080/30/08 112:37:522:37:52 PPMM death and the classic maya kings distinction between rebirth and resurrection drawn by Quenon and Le Fort: rebirth is the animation of the deceased in the Underworld, whereas resurrec- tion is the reanimation of the deceased outside the Underworld. In the case of the Maize God, this resurrection involved his return to the surface of the earth through the back of the “turtle.” maize As a metaphor for the annual agricultural cycle, the story of the Maize God goes far beyond ancient conceptions of landscape. Karl Taube has made a case for these events describing not only the origins of corn in Mesoamerica, but also the creation of mankind: Although it is not mentioned in the early colonial Popol Vuh, the resurrection of the maize god by the hero twins and the Chacs adds an important insight into the underlying meaning of the journey of the hero twins in search of their father [as mentioned in the Popol Vuh].
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