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Xib’alb’a y el nacimiento del nuevo sol

Al final del Clásico, en la costa del Golfo de México – Tabasco y Campeche – se formó una nueva élite mercantil, la que estuvo integrada por linajes teotihuacanos, mayas, olmeca-xicalancas y nonoalcas. Dicha élite difundió la nueva ideología mercantil surgida de dos complejos mitológicos y dos expresiones rituales, la que se puede sintetizar en los vocablos Tullan, herencia teotihuacana, y Tzuywa, que probablemente se remonta a tiempos olmecas. El protagonista del complejo Tullan era el Héroe Solar, cuyo rito central fue el Fuego Nuevo. El protagonista del complejo Tzuywa fue el Héroe del Maíz, y su expresión ritual, el Juego de pelota. Reduciendo ambos complejos a solo dos glifos, se llegaría a k’in, ‘sol’, que es blanco y masculino; y a k’an, ‘amarillo’, el color del maíz, que es femenino.

Los portadores de esta nueva ideología – llamada justamente Tullan-Tzuywa, en el Popol Wuj – cambiaron las rutas de comercio y fundaron nuevos centros, lo que unos cien años después provocó el final de la cultura clásica maya. La ciudad epítome de esa ideología fue Chich’en Itza. Entre sus fundadores, está el linaje Kanek’, dedicado al comercio de la sal. Dicho linaje fue dueño de las minas de Salinas de los Nueve Cerros. Los Kanek’ son los antecesores del linaje Kaweq, autores del Popol Wuj y del mito de Xib’alb’a que es, quizás, la expresión más idiosincrásica que tenemos de esa nueva ideología mercantil. El ámbito de esta ideología es el inframundo, sede de las deidades de los mercaderes.

“Si hablamos del simbólismo detrás de la transición calendárica de 2012, hay pocos testimonios que reflejan el pensamiento maya tan profundamente como el mito de Xib’alb’a en el Popol Wuj. Xib’alb’a y el nacimiento del nuevo sol es una búsqueda del origen de esta épica. Ciertamente, el manuscrito está escrito en k’iche’ y fue encontrado en Chichicastenango, sin embargo, encontramos que el mito nació en el norte de Alta Verapaz y el sur del Petén. Bien puede ser una sorpresa, pero coincide con el hallazgo del linaje Kaweq que produjo la obra, el cual se originó en la misma región.”

 

The benefits of ancient history for modern Maya people

El valor significativo de la historia antigua para los pueblos mayas del presente

International aid agencies in Guatemala have centered a lot of their help on the Maya people, a marginalized group whose history has been systematically suppressed, to the point of being annulled. Yet, many projects focus on the recovery of their recent history, of the years of civil war, without taking into account the benefits of ancient history. Its positive vantages seem practically absent in their discussions or in the theoretical framework of their projects. Why the need of focusing on the remote past?

For an obvious reason. This history may be old, but those who receive it are present-day people. A lifelong experience of teaching pre-Hispanic and colonial history to Highland Maya proves it may have the impact of a revelation, a moment of catharsis, a connection with their ancestral origins, having a direct effect on their self-esteem and urge for identity. In addition, it provides people with what is known in the anthropological literature as the ethnical charter, their reason of existence. This history may be ancient but operates in the present, creating a sense of communitas. In this essay we want to show the importance of ancient history to modern Maya, and its connection with their recent history.

It claims that the reconstruction of the Maya past should be an essential component of every aid project in the Guatemalan Highlands aspiring sociocultural change and the strengthening of indigenous identity.

 

Entire essay in spanish:

https://www.academia.edu/36599103/El_valor_significativo_de_la_historia_antigua_para_los_pueblos_mayas_del_presente 

Why self-publishing

Maya Studies with the Maya

Maya culture originated in Central America and Mexico. Long ago, but it reached a degree of civilization comparable to all other great cultures in this world. Recent investigations reveal that the level of urbanization was even higher than we thought it was. Then their culture shrank, a phenomenon labeled the ‘Maya collapse’. At one time it was believed that they had disappeared; now scholars know better. They are still alive; their descendants number in the millions. They still speak their own Maya language. In fact, their modern languages helped to decipher their ancient hieroglyphic texts. Once Maya lords and priests wrote in their idiosyncratic script about their great achievements, about their gods and creation itself. Today most Maya are poor, relegated to second class citizens in the lands where they originated, thousands of years ago. They have been stripped of their lands and of their history. Yet they maintained a rich oral tradition, preserving their philosophy, gods and rituals. This is a book from a Maya scholar who has lived for some twenty five years among the Maya people, who believes that Maya studies should be done with them, and in their homeland. That is, if we really want to fathom their culture. And perhaps even more important, to be able to give them back their history, their dignity.

 

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