Xmucane and Her Granddaughters: Maya Women as Creators of Time

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the Popol Vuh, the creation of the world and humankind is conceptualized as a process of birth. The old creator couple Xmucane and Xpiyacoc are described as the first diviners, just like their counter parts Oxomoco and Cipactonal who are the first calendar priests in Central Mexican mythology. This paper explores the relation between human creation and divination, as encapsulated in the diphrastic kenning of q’ij “time” and b’it “shape.” The origin story of the K’iche’ refers to Xmucane as the “Grandmother of Day and Light”—a metaphor for human offspring. With the beginning of Christianization, missionaries changed the Maya creation story, introducing new protagonists and erasing Xmucane’s role. We will discuss evidence from colonial sources for the theological basis for the role of Maya women in Mesoamerican ritual practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37518.0