Popol Vuh Sparknotes

Introduction The Popol Vuh is the remaining Sacred book of the Maya people translated in the 16th century by Spanish friars (Module 2, Lecture G). This book provides insight into the K’iche’ Mayan mythology and cosmology, and their way of understanding the universe and its events (Module 2, Lecture B). Its creation stories offer insight into the ancient Mayan worldview and allow us to imagine certain rituals that could have been performed to recreate the Popol Vuh, honouring the past. These rituals would have been important to Mayan religious life and would have left behind a rich material culture, the physical remains of a culture (Module 1, Lecture H), studyable to this day. The Early Humans - Ritual Destruction of Figurines The Popol Vuh explains the origins of life on earth to be a process of
Unsatisfied by the animal's inability to praise them, they decide to create the humans. First, they attempt to make them out of mud, but they cannot reproduce and are destroyed for their transience. They were then rebuilt with wood, but these humans had no souls or minds and disrespected their makers and thus they too were destroyed by the gods (Module 2, Lecture G). After the Hero twins journey into Xibalba, defeating the lords of the underworld, the third and final humans were created from Maize. Maize was very important to the Maya as a result of this as not only was it a major food source, but it was the source of their food. A ritual praising the gods for their creation likely would have existed and could have involved a ritual sacrifice of figures representing the failed attempts at humans. The figurines could have been ritually destroyed signifying the gods' destruction of the early humans. Material Culture remaining from the ritual would have consisted of remnants of clay and wooden figurines, altars, and offering sites. Archaeologists would likely find remnants of small figurines representing the imperfect initial creations of the