Mountain Lords: Divine Game Keepers of the Ancient Maya and their Mesoamerican Context

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper explores a set of mythical narratives on Classic Maya pottery (550-800 C.E.), which involve Huk Si’ip, the divine keeper of animals, and Itzam Kokaaj, the celestial creator of animals. Most of these narratives form part of a larger theogony cycle where the elderly gods of animals, sky, earth, and fire are confronted by a younger generation of deities associated with kingship and agriculture. Moreover, the bulk of the data originates from only two Classic Maya polities. The presentation explores possible reasons for the local importance of these narratives in the context of rivalries between the cities and their supernatural patrons. It also attempts to reconcile the pre-Contact data with Colonial and Modern Maya-area ethnography and with a broader Mesoamerican tradition of supernatural animal guardians.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26040