Place, power, and prophecy: ritual space and speech among the Yucatec Maya from colonial time to present time
2012 (English)In: Devising order: socio-religious models, rituals, and the performativity of practice / [ed] Bruno Boute, Thomas Småberg, Brill Academic Publishers, 2012, p. 103-123Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
This chapter discuss Ritual Space and Speech as central components in Yucatec Maya religion over time. The analysis is based on texts, i.e. manuscripts recording myths, historiography, medical and astrological treatises, as well as empirical fieldwork. In the chapter Post-Colonial Theory is combined with historical ecology. The sacralised, cultural, landscape is seen as a mediator between the physical landscape and the Maya cosmology and articulated in the prophecies that are recorded in the texts. The resilience of Maya belief is explained by a homology between actor, play, and stage and is brought about by tested, multi-layered ritual procedures that are both agricultural and cosmological. These rituals connect the Pre-Columbian cosmology that they make present with the landscape they organise and sacralize, and that are performed by ritual specialists in relation to Post-Colonial powers and a Mayanized, syncretistic Christianity.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Brill Academic Publishers, 2012. p. 103-123
Series
Religious history and culture series, ISSN 1572-4107 ; 60
Keywords [en]
Books of Chilam Balam, ritual, prophecy, power, ritual place, ritual speech, Post-Colonial theory, Yucatec Maya religion
National Category
Religious Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-9941DOI: 10.1163/9789004240032_007ISI: 000320607400006Local ID: 14760ISBN: 978-90-04-23674-5 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-9941DiVA, id: diva2:1406973
2020-02-282020-02-282022-06-27Bibliographically approved