STONE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES PRESENTS

The Third Annual Tulane Maya Symposium & Workshop:

Fifteen Centuries of Maya Literature from the Northern Lowlands

Tulane University
October 29 - October 31, 2004

Symposium Home

Schedule

Lodging

Middle American Research Instititute

Stone Center for Latin American Studies

Ball Court at Chichen Itza

Kabah Casa 2a Front

Acanceh by T. Mahler

Tulum

Abstracts of Symposium Lectures and Workshops

A Photographic Tour of the Northern Maya Lowlands through the Lens of the Middle American Research Institute
David R. Hixson and David S. Anderson

This presentation will provide an overview of the unique archaeology, ecology, and history of archaeological exploration in the northern Maya lowlands. Modern and historic photographs from the extensive archives of the Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, will form the core of the presentation. Since the early 1900s, MARI has sent a number of archaeological and anthropological expeditions into southern Mexico and Central America. From 1955 until 1974 the institute focused its research on the northern Maya lowlands of Mexico, investigating several important sites, including Dzibilchaltún, Balankanché, Becán, Chicanná, and Xcaret. In 1980 MARI excavated at the early Maya site of Komchén, in northwest Yucatán. It has continued to sponsor graduate student research at other Maya sites on the Yucatán Peninsula, including Ek Balam, Muyil, Mayapán, Chunchucmil, and Chichén Itzá. Photographs from these and other sites will be presented within the talk, providing a backdrop for the many interesting lectures and workshops that follow over the weekend. Please note: This event will take place on Friday, October 29, at 1pm in the Middle American Research Institute.

An Introduction to the Glyphic Inscriptions of Northern Yucatán
Markus Eberl

This lecture provides an overview of the glyphic inscriptions from the northern Maya Lowlands. Only recently have scholars awakened to the potential of the inscriptions from this region, which have been neglected for many years because they are often short and eroded. They nonetheless contain all of the features that characterize Maya glyphic writing. This lecture explores the calendrical content of the inscriptions, as well as information on the events and actors discussed in the texts. The glyphic corpus from northern Yucatán sketches the history and the social and political landscape of this area from about A.D. 250 to the 1500s. Continuities and changes mark this long literary tradition that persisted into the Colonial period.

Ritual and Prophecy in the Maya Codices
Gabrielle Vail

Hieroglyphic inscriptions from the Maya area were painted and carved on a variety of media. Screenfold books with painted texts and images, known as codices, offer us a detailed view of Maya rituals and beliefs at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although hundreds or perhaps thousands of codices existed at that time, only three or four are known to have survived to the present day—the Dresden, Paris, Madrid, and Grolier codices (the authenticity of the Grolier Codex has been in dispute since it was discovered in the 1960s in a cave in Chiapas, Mexico).

What do the surviving Maya codices tell us about the prehispanic Maya? Among the over 200 painted pages are “almanacs” that document rituals performed at various calendrical intervals to ensure adequate rainfall and the health of the maize crop. Other rituals of interest are sacrificial and renewal ceremonies relating to the end of one year and the start of the next, as well as rituals performed by hunters, warriors, and caretakers of the stingless bees kept by the Maya for their honey. In addition to the almanacs, the Maya codices also contain astronomical tables that chart the movements of the planets and stars to an extremely accurate degree. The positioning of these heavenly bodies, conceptualized by the Maya as deities, provided a means of determining auspicious and inauspicious days for various activities and formed the basis for prophecies relating to rainfall and agriculture.

Over the centuries, rainfall and how it affects the maize and other crops have continued to be key concerns for the Maya people. Many of the ritual acts and offerings recorded in the codices more than 500 years ago can be compared to those witnessed in contemporary Yucatec Maya ceremonies. Ritual specialists continue to petition the deities of the rain, the winds, the cornfields, and the bees with prayers and offerings of food and incense.

Hieroglyphs Reborn: The Survival and Colonial Production of Hieroglyphic Codices and Their Use in Post-Conquest Maya Religion, 1570-1750
John F. Chuchiak IV

Based on new evidence from colonial period ecclesiastical sources, this presentation will show that the Maya hieroglyphic script did not perish in the flames of Fr. Diego de Landa's 1562 auto de fe as previously thought. Moreover, Landa did not destroy the last of the Maya codices as is commonly believed, nor did his efforts hamper their continued use. Instead, Maya hieroglyphic writing survived through the persistent and continued ritual use of Maya codices. Evidence and testimony from colonial ecclesiastical idolatry trials show that hieroglyphic codices were produced and used as ritual almanacs throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As the results of this paper imply, evidence also exists to suggest that, along with the hybrid Books of Chilam Balam, a few Maya codices continued to exist into the eighteenth century and beyond.

The Relationship between the Books of Chilam Balam and the Precolumbian Maya Codices
Victoria R. Bricker

It has long been assumed that the Books of Chilam Balam of Colonial Yucatan are repositories of ancient Maya beliefs and practices that can help us in understanding the Precolumbian past. However, recent research has shown that many of the texts in these Books are of European origin or inspiration, even when they are written in Maya, suggesting that they are no longer of value for interpreting precontact Maya culture. Nevertheless, these Books share certain characteristics with the Precolumbian Maya codices. The anthological structure of these Books, their thematic emphases, and their literary qualities link them to the surviving codices produced by the Maya during the centuries preceding the Spanish Conquest.

Elements of Contemporary Maya Prophecy
Paul Sullivan

Among Mayas of central Quintana Roo and other parts of the Yucatán Peninsula, prophecy remains a vital and still evolving resource for social commentary. This paper will provide an overview of present-day Maya prophecy’s distinguishing linguistic features, common motifs and imagery, and underlying assumptions concerning man-god relations. Finally, I will discuss the act of prophesying (generating new prophecy) and the role of prophesying and prophetic commentary in the everyday lives of Maya-speaking people.

STONE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Tulane University
100 Jones Hall
New Orleans LA 70118

ph: (504) 865-5164;  fx:(504) 865-6719; rtsclas@tulane.edu

Tuesday, March 2, 2004
09:19:25 AM