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WELDON LAMB
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Tzotzil Maya Cosmology
Introduction
Almost every Tzotzil Maya town in mountainous central Chiapas, Mexico, regards
itself as the navel of the universe. These communities hold in common many beliefs
about the cosmos but they do differ on the details. This study sketches several con
temporary (1950-1980) traditions about the directions, the structure of the earth, the
heavens and the underworld: the world pillars, and some of the stars and planets.
The Directions
Like most Maya peoples, the Tzotzil do not define horizontal space with the Western
quarters of east, west, north and south. They relate it to the sun’s circuit. “East” is
xlok’jtotik “dawn” or “our honorable father comes out”; slok’e’m jtotik “the place of
the coming out of our (honorable) father” (Gossen 1974: 33; Köhler 1972: 322), and
lok’eb k’ak’al “emergent heat or day” (Gossen 1972: 119) or “place where the sun
comes out or buds”. It apparently spans the entire horizon between the solstitial
points. It is where the sun, having started its ascent from the nadir at 1 a. m. (Köhler
1972; 323; Köhler 1977; 106, 107, 113), comes up over the horizon and rises to the
zenith. Of course, then, “east” also glosses with ‘ak’ol “above, up” (Gossen 1972:
117). The Tzotzil associate east with up, increasing heat, the male principle (Gossen
1982: 30, fig. 2), and, I assume by analogy to the associations of the other directions,
with dawn, birth and the period between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox,
when the days begin to grow longer.
West, the whole span between the solstitial points, the Tzotzil name sbat jtotik “our
honorable father goes,” smale’m jtotik “the place of the self-outpouring (leaving) of
our father” (Köhler 1972:322), sch’ayeb k’ak’al “the place where the fiery one (sun)
disappears,” maleb k’ak’al “the fiery one (sun) grows old” or “waning heat” (Gossen
1972:119), and ‘anehal (García de León 1971:38, 39, 90), approximately “place glo
wing like embers”. It is where the sun, having begun its descent from the zenith at 1
p. m., goes down below the earth and descends to the nadir, the navel of the under
world; of course, then, west is also called ‘olon “down, below, beneath” (Gossen
1972:117; 1974:21) and even “center” (García de León 1971:63). It connotes down,
waning heat, the female principle, sunset, incipient death, and the period between the
summer solstice and the autumnal equinox, when the days start to grow shorter until
they last only as long as the nights (Gossen 1974: 33-35).
“North” is xokon vinajel “edge of the sky” or xokon vinajel ta batz’i k’ob “edge of
the sky on the right hand” of the sun (Gossen 1974: 31-32). Batz’i means not only
“right” but also “most representative, true” and connotes good; this association with
the right hand helps to imbue this direction with good fortune and virtue (Gossen
1972: 119-120). North glows all the more positive first because it is the horizontal
equivalent to the sun’s vertical position at noon, the hour of maximum heat and light;
and second because the Tzotzil know that the sun apparently shifts northwards along
the horizon during the increasingly longer days between the vernal equinox and the
summer solstice, the period of the first rains of the wet season and the beginning of
the annual highland growing cycle (Gossen 1972: 119-120).
“South,” too is xokon vinajel (Guiteras Holmes 1961: 36), “the edge of the sky” ta
tz’et k’ob “on the left hand” of the sun (Gossen 1974: 31). It is the horizontal coun
terpart to the nadir, the sun’s vertical position at midnight. In the daily cycle south
represents night and the underworld. In the annual round it corresponds to the span
of ever shorter days between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, the period