Overview

The title of Edmonson's work refers to the Mayan custom of first predicting their history and then living it, and it may be that no other peoples have ever gone so far in this direction. The Book of Chilam Balam was a sacred text prepared by generations of Mayan priests to record the past and to predict the future. The official prophet of each twenty-year rule was the Chilam Balam, or Spokesman of the Jaguar-the Jaguar being the supreme authority charged with converting the prophet's words into fact. This is a literal but poetic translation of one of fourteen known manuscripts in Yucatecan Maya on ritual and history. It pictures a world of all but incredible numerological order, slowly yielding to Christianity and Spanish political pressure but never surrendering. In fact, it demonstrates the surprising truth of a secret Mayan government during the Spanish rule, which continued to collect tribute in the names of the ruined Classic cities and preserved the essence of the Mayan calendar as a legacy for the tradition's modern inheritors. The history of the Yucatecan Maya from the seventh to the nineteenth century is revealed. And this is history as the Maya saw it-of a people concerned with lords and priests, with the cosmology which justified their rule, and with the civil war which they perceived as the real dimension of the colonial period. A work of both history and literature, the Tizimin presents a great deal of Mayan thought, some of which has been suspected but not previously documented. Edmonson's skillful reordering of the text not only makes perfect historical sense but also resolves the long-standing problem of correlating the two colonial Mayan calendars. The book includes both interpretative and literal translations, as well as the Maya parallel couplets and extensive annotations on each page. The beauty of the sacred text is illuminated by the literal translation, while both versions unveil the magnificent historical, philosophical, and social traditions of the most sophisticated native culture in the New World. The prophetic history of the Tizimin creates a portrait of the continuity and vitality, of the ancient past and the foreordained future of the Maya.

Full Product Details

Author:   Munro S. Edmonson
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 21.60cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 27.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780292721067

ISBN 10:   0292721064
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   01 April 1982
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction The Seventh Century 8 Ahau 1. The First Chronicle The Fifteenth Century 8 Ahau 2. The Fall of Mayapan 3. The Conspiracy Collapses 6 Ahau 4. Uxmal and Chichen Itza 4 Ahau 5. Trials of the Itza 6. Hopes of the Xiu The Sixteenth Century 2 Ahau 7. A Note from Tihosuco 13 Ahau 8. A Time of Troubles 9. The Council of Mayapan 10. The End of the Era 11 Ahau 11. Divided Rule 12. The Flower Katun of the Xiu 13. The Mayapan Calendar of the Itza 14. The Death of the Gods 9 Ahau 15. A Plea for Unity 16. Civil War 17. The Inquisition 7 Ahau 18. Demoralization 19. The Council of Merida The Seventeenth Century 5 Ahau 20. Merida under the Dons 21. Zotz’il 22. The Annals of Bacalar 3 Ahau 23. Merida under the Gallows 24. Days of the Year 25. The Seven-Day Week 26. Zuyua 1 Ahau 27. The Last Jaguar of Merida 28. The Surrender of Merida 29. A Word from Mani 12 Ahau 30. Valladolid Fights On 31. Class War 10 Ahau 32. Christian Victory 33. Christian Defeat The Eighteenth Century 8 Ahau 34. The Final Battle for Mayapan 6 Ahau 35. Chic Kalac Rebels 36. Early History 4 Ahau 37. The War Is Over 38. End of the Long Count 2 Ahau 39. The Valladolid Calendar The Nineteenth Century 13 Ahau 40. The Burners 41. The Word of Itzam Na 11 Ahau 42. Antonio Martinez Appendix: The Mayan Calendar Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Munro S. Edmonson (1924-2002) was a professor of anthropology at Tulane University. He had an international reputation as an outstanding Mesoamericanist and was the author of numerous books.

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