A01=Timothy Knowlton
Author_Timothy Knowlton
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBSL11
Category=JHMC
Category=NL-HR
Category=NL-JF
Category=NL-JH
Category=QRSA
COP=United States
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Format=BC
IMPN=University Press of Colorado
ISBN13=9781607321989
PA=Available
PD=20120915
POP=Colorado
Price=25.49
PS=Active
PUB=University Press of Colorado
Subject=Religion & Beliefs
Subject=Society & Culture : General
Subject=Sociology & Anthropology
WG=352
Product details
- ISBN 9781607321989
- Weight: 352g
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 2012
- Publisher: University Press of Colorado
- Publication City/Country: Colorado, US
- Product Form: Paperback
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There is no Classical Yucatecan Maya word for "myth." But around the close of the seventeenth century, an anonymous Maya scribe penned what he called u kahlay cab tu kinil, "the world history of the era," before Christianity came to the Peten. He collected numerous accounts of the cyclical destruction and reestablishment of the cosmos; the origins of gods, human beings, and the rituals and activities upon which their relationship depends; and finally the dawn of the sun and the sacred calendar Maya diviners still use today to make sense of humanity's place in the otherwise inscrutable march of time. These creation myths eventually became part of the documents known today as the Books of Chilam Balam.Maya Creation Myths provides not only new and outstanding translations of these myths but also an interpretive journey through these often misunderstood texts, providing insight into Maya cosmology and how Maya intellectuals met the challenge of the European clergy's attempts to eradicate their worldviews. Unlike many scholars who focus primarily on traces of pre-Hispanic culture or Christian influence within the Books of Chilam Balam, Knowlton emphasizes the diversity of Maya mythic traditions and the uniquely Maya discursive strategies that emerged in the Colonial period.
This book will be of significant interest to Maya scholars, folklorists, and historians, as well as students and scholars of religion, cosmology, and anthropology.
Timothy Knowlton is an assistant professor of anthropology at Berry College.
