2000 Years of Mayan Literature / Edition 1

by Dennis Tedlock

Overview

Mayan literature is among the oldest in the world, spanning an astonishing two millennia from deep pre-Columbian antiquity to the present day. Here, for the first time, is a fully illustrated survey, from the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions to the works of later writers using the Roman alphabet. Dennis Tedlock—ethnographer, linguist, poet, and award-winning author—draws on decades of living and working among the Maya to assemble this groundbreaking book, which is the first to treat ancient Mayan texts as literature. Tedlock considers the texts chronologically. He establishes that women were among the ancient writers and challenges the idea that Mayan rulers claimed the status of gods. 2000 Years of Mayan Literature expands our understanding and appreciation not only of Mayan literature but of indigenous American literature in its entirety.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520271371
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/04/2011
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dennis Tedlock is Distinguished Professor and Endowed McNulty Chair of English and Research Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York. He won the PEN Translation Prize for Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. For his other books he has received awards from the American Folklore Society, the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, and the Association of American Publishers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Note on the Pronunciation of Mayan Words
Introduction

PART ONE
1. Learning to Read
2. Early Mayan Writing
3. The Skilled Observer from Maxam
4. From the Time of Gods to the Time of Lords
5. Cormorant and Her Three Sons
6. Temple of the Sun- Eyed Shield
7. Temple of the Tree of Yellow Corn
8. Lady Shark Fin and the Eve ning Star
9. The Rattlesnakes of the City of Three Stones
10. Drawing and Designing with Words
11. Graffiti
12. The Question of the Beginning and End of Time
13. The Mouth of the Well of the Itza
14. Writing on the Pages of Books
15. Signs of the Times
16. Moon Woman Meets the Stars
17. The Power of the Great Star
18. Thunderstorm
19. Diagrams of the Days

PART TWO
20. The Alphabet Arrives in the Lowlands
21. The Books of Chilam Balam
22. Understanding the Language of Suyua
23. Song of the Birth of the Twenty Days
24. Conversations with Madness
25. The Alphabet Arrives in the Highlands
26. A Way to See the Dawn of Life
27. Blood Moon Becomes a Trickster
28. The Death of Death
29. The Human Work, the Human Design
30. We Saw It All, Oh My Sons
31. The Count of Days
32. Man of Rabinal

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
List of Mayan Texts and Translations
List of Figures
List of Maps
Illustration Credits
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Imaginatively written, superbly illustrated, beautifully produced and, above all, highly authoritative. . . . For those seriously interested in Mayan writing, the book is a must-buy."—Current World Archaeology

"A revelatory book . . . beautifully illustrated and handsomely presented."—Scotsman

"If you're drawn to global cultures, languages and mythology, this is a cool book to explore."—Read the Spirit

"A hefty scholarly work that reads like serialized magazine articles . . . quite accessible to the general reader."—Albuquerque Journal

Editorial Reviews

A revelatory book . . . beautifully illustrated and handsomely presented.

Scotsman

A hefty scholarly work that reads like serialized magazine articles . . . quite accessible to the general reader.

Albuquerque Journal - David Steinberg

[Tedlock] draws out the poetic quality of Maya writing and shows the vibrancy, changing and living qualities of Mayan writing.

Bltn Of Latin American Research - Walter E. Little University at Albany

If you're drawn to global cultures, languages and mythology, this is a cool book to explore.

Read The Spirit - David Crumm

Imaginatively written, superbly illustrated, beautifully produced and, above all, highly authoritative. . . . For those seriously interested in Mayan writing, the book is a must-buy.

Current World Archaeology - Andrew Robinson

"Imaginatively written, superbly illustrated, beautifully produced and, above all, highly authoritative. . . . For those seriously interested in Mayan writing, the book is a must-buy."--Current World Archaeology

"A revelatory book . . . beautifully illustrated and handsomely presented."--Scotsman

"If you're drawn to global cultures, languages and mythology, this is a cool book to explore."--Read the Spirit

"A hefty scholarly work that reads like serialized magazine articles . . . quite accessible to the general reader."--Albuquerque Journal

"[Tedlock] draws out the poetic quality of Maya writing and shows the vibrancy, changing and living qualities of Mayan writing."--Bltn of Latin American Research

From the Publisher