El tiempo vuela: el uso de aves y otros animales para representar las unidades de tiempo de la cuenta larga maya
The zoomorphic images used to represent the different periods that form the Mayan Long Count have never been explained in a global way and their meaning remains poorly understood. This paper argues that the animals used to represent the periods of the Long Count have a common characteristic: all of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Société des américanistes
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Journal de la Société des Américanistes |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/15310 |
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| Summary: | The zoomorphic images used to represent the different periods that form the Mayan Long Count have never been explained in a global way and their meaning remains poorly understood. This paper argues that the animals used to represent the periods of the Long Count have a common characteristic: all of them show a very strong relationship with the natural phenomenas associated with rain. Some represent the water currents generated by downpours, others announce the arrival of the storms, or are associated with the winds that bring them. This relationship lets us infer that, in the Maya area, the calendric year was fixed in association to the rainy season and not to the solar transit. This hypothesis clarifies the origin of the word, haab’, “year”, which even nowadays has the meaning of “rain”, or “storm” in some Mayan languages. |
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| ISSN: | 0037-9174 1957-7842 |