Places of Emergence: Water and Cave Ceremonialism in the Tz’utujil Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout the highlands of Guatemala, Maya traditionalists believe that mountains and their associated cave openings are the “mouths of the world” giving access to spiritual realms inhabited by sacred beings that have influence over natural phenomena of importance to the outside world. Each of these caves or watery portals is a world center. They are not considered rival claimants to be the “true” center. Each may be just as powerful as a place of emergence or the birthplace of clouds, rain, germination of seeds, etc. It is the ritual actions that take place there that make it life-engendering, not its physical location. Thus, each cave is the central axis point of the world because it leads to the place where revered ancestors, saints, and deities live. The Maya perceive time as cyclic and believe that at regular intervals the world must be ceremonially rebirthed to continue. Nearly all major highland Maya ceremonies deal with creation and rebirth in one way or another. It is this periodic renewal that allows life itself to continue.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32068