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355 8 Madrid Yearbearer Celebrations and Creation Mythology In his Relación, Landa comments on a number of different deities of importance to the prehispanic Maya. Of these, the Bakabs receive considerable attention; they are “four brothers placed by God when he created the world, at its four corners to sustain the heavens lest they fall” and were also survivors of the flood that destroyed the world (Gates 1978:60). They are associated with the four world quarters and with the yearbearer ceremonies, where they signify the prognostications for the year in question. For each of the four rotating yearbearer ceremonies, Landa notes the association of a particular Bakab: Hob[o]nil for K’an years (associated with the south and k’an ‘yellow’), Kan-Siknal for Muluk years (east and chak ‘red’), Sak-Sini for Ix years (north and sak ‘white’), and Hosan-Ek’ for Kawak years (west and eek’ ‘black’). He further associates each of these figures with a color-directional Bakab, a Pawahtun, and a Xib Chaak (Table 8.1). Subsequent research has suggested the close relationship between these three groups of deities. As Taube (1992:94) notes, Bakab appears to be an epithet for Pawahtun, suggestive of the role played by each as “sustainers of the world.” This concept survives among the highland Maya cultures of Chiapas, where the wasak men are the gods of the four corners for the Zinacantecos, who hold up both the earth and the sky (Vogt 1993:13). In contemporary Yucatec communities , there are two sets of deities associated with “the four corners of the limits of the earth”: the Babahtun (who have specific color significance) and the Balaam [Balam] (Sosa 1989:134). The Babahtun deities are aspects of the Chaako’ob, or rain deities: that at the northwest corner is Ek’ (or eek’) Babahtun, at the northeast corner is Sak Babahtun, at the southeast corner is Ya’ax Babahtun, and at the southwest corner is K’an Babahtun.1 It is clear that the term babahtun derives from the prehispanic term pawahtun DOI: 10.5876/9781607322214.c08 Madrid Yearbearer Celebrations and Creation Mythology 356 and that there are a number of congruities between the two sets of deities, most noticeably their association with the Chaaks. The most important of the Chaako’ob for the contemporary Maya of Yucatán is associated with the eastern horizon; named Kuunk ’uh, he is the Chaak associated with thunder and the rains during July and August (Sosa 1989:135). The Babahtun and Chaak deities are associated with the most vital of the yearly rituals —the ch’a chaak ‘take [or seize] the rain’ ceremony. They are believed to be the assistants of Hahal Dios (a solar deity who is also Jesus Christ), who was responsible for creating the earth and ordering the cosmos. These same figures are highlighted in the Madrid yearbearer pages, which likewise may be associated with a late summer date (Hernández and V. Bricker 2004:294). Based on the prominence of the closely related Chaak, Pawahtun, and Bakab deities, we believe that the primary significance of the yearbearer rituals performed during the Postclassic period was as agricultural ceremonies focused on prognostications for the rains and the maize. This emphasis is suggested by both the iconography and the hieroglyphic texts of M. 34–37 (Figures 8.1–8.2 and http://www.hieroglyphicresearch.org /Documentation/UPClink219.html). In particular, we call attention to the figures pictured planting in the upper register on each page (discussed in more detail below), as well as the appearance of the maize god in the bottom register, where he is seated on a haab glyph, facing a second figure in a similar position.2 As researchers have previously suggested, these paired figures signify the prognostication of the maize crop for the coming year. The glyphic texts likewise emphasize the agricultural nature of the yearbearer ceremonies depicted on these pages (see Appendix 8.1); they refer to a number of different deities: the color-directional Chaaks, Pawah-k’ins (a presumed subset of the Pawahtuns), and one or two others (to be discussed below), as well as to clouds with specific color-directional associations that match the years in question (eek’ muyal on M. 34, k’an muyal on M. 35, chak nik muyal on M. 36, and sak muyal on M. 37). We find the latter of interest with regard to Sosa’s study; he reports that the colors by which the Chaak deities in Yalcob...

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