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461 11 Cosmology in the Maya Codices The Gauntlet In his volume Aztec and Maya Myths, Karl Taube (1993a: 18) put forth a statement suggesting that the Maya codices contain little in the way of mythological content, being concerned instead with divination and prophecy. Unwittingly, Taube had thrown down the gauntlet for students and investigators of the Maya codices, and we have now risen to the challenge. Granted, Taube’s observation was originally made more than a decade ago, and since that time significant advancements have been made in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic texts, the decoding of the calendrical structure of almanacs, and understanding the role of astronomy in Maya religious thought. Because of this, we now have a much broader perspective and a willingness to consider new sources of comparative material relating to ancient and modern Maya cosmology, which allow the possibility of uncovering the meaning in certain phrases, as well as in images and combinations of images, and their association to cycles and intervals of time. Our newly enhanced knowledge of the codices—of their content, dating, internal development, and likely function—reveals that they contain a great deal of creation mythology encoded in the texts, imagery, and calendrical structures of the codical almanacs and tables. Through new types of analyses, we can identify clear connections between certain tables and almanacs in the Maya codices and creation episodes known from the corpus of Maya and Mexican mythology. We believe that the scribal priests and diviners who painted and used divinatory codices were well acquainted with this body of lore and were the keepers of these stories because their use in almanacs and astronomical tables granted them access to knowledge of the supernatural world that few others in ancient Maya society could obtain. DOI: 10.5876/9781607322214.c11 Cosmology in the Maya Codices 462 That the Maya codices employ references to cosmogony should not come as a surprise . The protagonists in practically all of the pictures are gods, who are likewise named in the text captions. We have known from some of the earliest research on the codices that Maya calendrical calculations reach far back into the past, before the time of the earliest Maya settlements, and yet the full extent of the mythological meaning of these numbers and the images associated with them have not been fully appreciated until quite recently. An additional source of support for our present work comes not from the realm of Maya studies, but from Elizabeth Boone’s (2007) analysis of pre-Columbian highland Mexican codices. In her investigation of Codex Borgia, she presents a persuasive and revealing description of an eighteen-page extended pictorial cosmogony found on pages 29–46. Its proposed function was to serve as a highly detailed mnemonic instrument from which diviners could recount sacred creation lore when called upon. We find it highly significant that it exists within one of the premier examples of preColumbian divinatory codices—indeed, one having known ties and parallels to Maya codices and creation lore—where it represents a substantial section of the manuscript. Its focus on creation mythology recorded in a pictorial format is of even greater interest because the almanacs that surround it are structured in a much more conventional format . Boone’s discovery gives credence to our work by showing that creation mythology, rather than simply providing additional sacred material to add to the mix, was actively incorporated into almanacs because it was considered integral to the divinatory process recorded in the codices. Why Cosmology Is a Necessary Component In writing about the painted books of the highland Mexican tradition, Boone (2007:238) notes that divinatory codices are literally about the gods, how they shaped the world and control it, and how to supplicate and worship them. The codices explain the calendar and how humans should live to fulfill their obligations to the gods, and they reveal the structure and functioning of the cosmos. By keeping and preserving this knowledge, the scribe-priests and diviners (like all religious specialists) maintained their monopoly on access to supernatural power. Mythic history was necessary to the purposes of the scribes and diviners because the whole philosophy behind the ancient Mesoamerican’s belief system is that of cycles— what has transpired in the past is bound to repeat itself again and again. One must know something of past events in order to predict when they will recur and how they reoccur and what, if anything, should be done to prepare for or take...

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