The Classic Postclassic Maya: Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Popol Vuh (K’iche’, 1550s)

Update: 2024-07-27

Description

The first half of the Popol Vuh as we have it from the Kʾicheʾ colonial tradition is a quintessentially Kingless epic, as the story revolves around pre-human gods, successive generations of hero twins, who must defeat a series of aggrandizer figures, including the lords of death in the underworld, in order to bring about the dawning of the human age. Although the same basic story can be found in earlier art and hieroglyphic inscriptions which since the 1990s are being deciphered at an exhilarating pace, recent research has pointed out that this anti-accumulative tendency of the story may be somewhat unique to the Popol Vuh as we have it, which, it is hypothesised, may represent a retelling slanted toward anti-colonial resistance. While I agree that this may also be the case, I (based on my limited understanding as an ignorant outsider) think it might make even more sense to take this story, written down only some thirty years after first European contact, as faithfully reflecting older layers, though perhaps not of the somewhat exploitative and stratified Classic Maya (ca 250–950 CE) but rather of the socially creative, decentralized, and egalitarian Postclassic Maya (950–1539), which represents one of the great examples in world history of the deescalation of class struggle, when people came together to build the Kingless Generation.

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Comments (9)

Vincent Stanzione

IxKik' is the Moon Goddess; she is a Noble Female Goddess of the Underworld of Night of Darkness of Death...these Powers of Night and Day will form maize and shape cacao into Human Beings of Sacred Sustenance...Jun Batz Jun Chowen...JUN NIM K'AT IXIM...Jun K'at Jal Jun K'at Aj IxToj Ix Q'anil Ix IxKakaw IxTziYa...This IS the Maize Matriarchy of Horticulturalists IxMuqane...She of the Buried Maize as she names the names of the Bames of Names of their Siwing Place...Matriarchal and PatriaLineages

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

Classic Colonialist Arrogance by a 'dude' who thinks it is 'legitamate' for him to take in and appropriate a Sacred Native American Indigenous text out of its original context to then make a mess of it because of his vast ignorance founded in a colonial arrogance that only a colonizer would be capable of bringing forth in public...I am shocked, after living with the K'iche Maya for over three decades I cannot believe they-the Maya-might end up listening to this distorted disruptive discourse.

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

OOPS the Colonist Storyteller makes a massive storytelling mistake when he tells of Jun Junajpu Wuqub Junajpu in Xibalaba...The Generational Story of Vengence and Revenge of Junajpu Ixbalamkej...the Materialist Marxist does not understand how to read andcrelate to Maya Mythic Metaphors of the Maize Lords....This poor guy-THIS ASSHOLE in his words doesnt realize this is the story of Initiation of the Noble Lords of the K'iche..What arrogance of a Self Aggrandizer who cannot hear his Settleriness

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

JAW...JUNAJPU shoots Wuqub Kaqix shoots a clay ball bliwgun shot in the JAW! THE JAW is what the Warrior and Capturer of the Captive Sacrificial Gift...the Jaw is the Sign of Sacrifice given by Warrior Hunter Ballplayer...Tedlockntranslate PUAQ as Metal when it iis SILVER...Your disrespect of this Sacred Text is CLASSIC COLONIALIST PLAYING WITH THE K'ICHE MAYA'S DIVINE BOOK OF RITUAL DRAMA...Pobrecito, a young racist that doesnt realize he is using the Maya for his Natural Resource...RESPECT??

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

Xpiyakok IxMuqane; Jun Junajpu Wuqub Junajpu IxKik Junajpu Ixb'alamkej...Noble Lords are Artisans and Ballplayers...Popol Wuj is a Counsel Book to counsel Rulers on how to Rule as a Wise Noble Lord and not just a highly adorned Big Man like Wuqub Kaqix...This Interpretation is so Materialistic that we lose the many metaphors of this Mythopoetic Masterpiece...The Agrandizer Deity of the Small Noble Lord Wuqub Kaqix in this story of Empire...How to be like Ajaw Quetzalcoatl, Great Lord of Tollan..

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

The Story of the Tools of the Wooden People are the enslaved hands who are treated without respect...tools speak out as the young women who must grind day and night; maize and cacao.. BLOWGUN NOT SLING SHOT...THE BOYS HIT the Jaw of Wuqub Kaqix; Wiqub Kaqix Sipakna Kabraqan: Self Agrandizemente; KI Three Day Drink Oxib Q'ij; TEDLOCK miss translates NAWAL as Genius when it is just the Nawal or Transformative Power and Sacrificial Acts or PUS but Tedlock does not want to translate ritual violence.

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

Too bad the Host keeps speaking of the Jesuits when the Popol Wuj comes from a Dominican Conquest of the K'iche Soul; Soul of the Head; the Heart; the Liver...Day Keeper; Prayer Maker...Worshipper...Singer Painter Writter...Sacrificer...Sacrificial Priest...Wooden Men, Reed Women...the Tedlock Translation being used here cause quite a few misinterpretation...No...not just VEGITARIAN DIETS Maya always place a little piece of meat or fish or shrimp or crab in toasted squash seed sauce y chili...

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

There are no Jesuits at Conquest in the K'iche'; Dominican and Franciscan Orders bring the Spiritual Conquest to Mesoamerica...The Maya maintain their Traditio of Day-keepers and Ancestral Metaphors of Maize and Venus and Sun and Moon; the Maya Hide their Books, Mythic Maps of K'iche Identity such as those Lienzos Pintados or Painted Histories known as Ilobal...See el Mapa de Cuauhtinchan or the Cuauhtemallan Mapa known as el Mapa de Cuauhquechollan...Painted Books Painted Mythic Histories...

Jan 5th

Vincent Stanzione

Jun Junajpu; Ixb'alamkej are the Decolonial speliings of the Hero Twins or Sons-K'ajolab'...Kiche' Winaq Many Tree People; Look to Decolonizing Time at Popol Nah for a Mesoamerican Group of Scholar-Activists...Willy Barreno and Jose Chamalé...These women and men are all about Class Struggle and Ancestral Forms of Knowledge and Contemporary Content Shaping through Scholarly Engagement with Indigenous Descendants of Mesoamerican who speak English being born and raised en el Norte...DACA...DREAMERS

Jan 5th

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