Popol Vuh: Parts 1 and 2
Week 2: Popol Vuh Parts 1 and 2
I absolutely loved this week's readings of the first half of the Popol Vuh! Learning about the Maya K'iche' cosmovision that encompasses the origin of the world, creation of humans, their gods, phenomena, and moral values was fascinating and I'm excited to discuss the text in class tomorrow.
In Part 1, which narrated the creation of the world and humans, I found it super interesting how the importance of orality was emphasized throughout. In the beginning, there was nothing, "then came the word"; the Heart of Sky came together with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent to verbally discuss their vision for the space, and to make the earth, they simply spoke the word. The text contains lots of dialogue and conversation between gods with exclamation and question marks, which I think communicates the importance of council and group consultation in decision-making, as well as the power of the spoken word. This continues with the natural and descriptive narrative style, simple vocabulary, and extensive use of anaphora, which mimic how we typically speak in conversation; personally, I thought that this text was super clear and natural to read, which made it easy to understand the Maya K'iche' values, history, and perceptions of the world.
In Part 2, which narrated the creation of the true man, what stood out to me the most was messages of human-nature interconnectedness as well as what community values are the most important in Maya K'iche' culture. When perceiving himself as greatness the Seven Macaw narrated himself as the sun and the moon, his two sons are directly connected to mountains on earth, and the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, following the Heart of Sky, kill Seven Macaw and his family because they've exceeded the sun in heft of their greatness and destroyed face of the earth. The land holds tremendous value in Maya K'iche' indigeneity, which I interpret as being because the Heart of Sky, Sovereign, and Quetzal Serpent created the world for us humans. This connects to my next takeaway, which is the moral teachings displayed in this section; too much pride, selfishness, and desire of domination swells into evil and prevents a community and the people from flourishing and therefore results in punishment, whereas obedience, respect, group consultation and efforts, and valuing nature is key.
Overall, I find the Popol Vuh so interesting to read and analyze, and especially love the connections to our contemporary world such as monkeys being descendants of the first people and serve as a remnant of the gods' earlier work, and that earthquakes are Cabracan twitching in the earth buried underneath its weight.
I'm excited to read the second half, see you next week!
'In the beginning, there was nothing, "then came the word"'
ReplyDeleteYes, as you put it, the power invested in the word (in language, in breath) was interesting. (Though this also reminded me of the famous opening to John's Gospel.) And of course we have to think of these stories also as predominantly told and retold, in person, even if they were also inscribed and recorded also for posterity.
Hi Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteI also found the bit about spoken word and language to be super interesting. I definitely agree that the emphasis seemed to be predominantly on orality, but I was also intrigued by the mention of written word in a few places. It makes me wonder about the relationship that written and spoken language had and have, and to what extent the translation influenced how these two types of communication were depicted in the stories.
I also noticed the emphasis placed on not becoming too proud and selfish and the disruption it brings. It is framed as being so bad that the natural order of things is disrupted which is why the individuals showing these characteristics must be removed. I see this as showcasing morals and cultural values of Maya K'iche. These details in the stories can be full of information about the civilization.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI also found very interesting the connections to our contemporary world and how some teachings are in a way similar to the way we came to understand things (like the monkey as you described)... And I guess also to notice how these very visual stories and metaphors of understanding the the creation and nature, despite being so different compared to our scientific 'neutrality', is as much needed (or perhaps more needed?) for a culture to understand life, respect its cycles, understand body in relation to nature, human relationships to nature, etc.
Hey Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the emphasis on punctation really brought life into the terminology and figures being depicted. When I was reading these stories, I felt myself being put into this imaginative world picturing the story as the use of language identified the focuses while being subtle in giving the reader a clear picture. Question is, does this version of the book allow us to understand the minute details compared to the other example in class?