At the Edge of the World: Caves and Late Classic Maya World View. Karen Bassie-Sweet. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1996. 272 pp., 70 illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $38.95 (cloth).

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-159
Author(s):  
James E. Brady
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
The World

At the Edge of the World: Caves and Late Classic Maya World View

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 388
Author(s):  
Jorge Rogachevsky ◽  
Karen Bassie-Sweet
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
The World

scholarly journals Lord of the Maya Creations on his jaguar throne: the eternal return of Elder Brother God L to preside over the 21 December 2012 transformation

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S278) ◽  
pp. 203-213
Author(s):  
John B. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Eternal Return ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
The World ◽  
Western Scholarship

AbstractSpeculation about what ancient Maya texts have to say about 2012 is becoming a global phenomenon in popular culture. This speculation, largely apocalyptic, is more often based on acquaintance with historical Western interpretations than on familiarity with the texts themselves and their cultural contexts. This paper approaches the 2012 phenomenon through close readings of Maya texts and images considered within the contexts of historical and contemporary Maya culture and Western scholarship. It focuses on images of mythological events depicted on two Late Classic Maya vessels: the ‘Vase of the Seven Gods’ (Kerr no. 2796) and the ‘Vase of the Eleven Gods’ (Kerr no. 7750). These images are interpreted as representing deities, gathered in ‘cosmogonic conclave’, preparing to re-create the world with their sacrifices at the last completion of a great cycle and the beginning of a new 5,125-year 13-Bakˈtun Maya ‘Long Count’. The rites of passage are presided over by an enigmatic Venus-warrior/sacrificer deity previously known only as God L. God L's principal name and nature had remained undeciphered and his identity obscure until the author's researches resulted in the decipherment and ‘reading’ presented here. This study offers an explication of why God L, whom the author has demonstrated is the Maya god of tobacco among his many aspects, takes the senior role in presiding over these 13-Bakˈtun completion rituals and why it is reasonable to hypothesize that the same entities would be back for the fulfillment of the present cycle in 2012.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document