Wikipedia Trail: From Maya Religion to Ajaw
This week's project work deals with the earliest Mayan writing known, and I decided to start with getting a feel for Maya religion. Like many eastern religions, a cyclic theme of destruction and rebirth of the world is dominant, and the Maya people believed that many human populations existed in cycles before their own. A fun takeaway from the cosmic cycling was that...
The Maya have a world tree, too... In fact they have at least five! The tree of life is Ceiba, and the fruit even resembles maize (left). This is a great parallel to the tree of Yggdrasil already present in the Norse acquisition of the runic language, and I think perhaps the world tree could have roots that stretch out across cultures and time as well.
The largest Maya pyramid in Mexico, Temple of the Cross, is actually a tribute structure to the World Tree of the Maya. While it was labeled as a commemorative structure celebrating the life and death of ruler Pascal the Great, the whole building represents the World Tree of Life.
As religion was a huge factor in controlling the general populace (most of whom did not read or write), I went back a little farther to see where divine ruler status started to show up in their history. Turns out, the title Ajaw (meaning ruler, lord, king, etc.) only turned up at or after 350 BCE (in K'o). Which could also be due to the fact that writing itself became common then; we don't actually know. But that's a great starting point that also marks the transition from pictograms to actual script, and K'o is believed to be the burial site for the first known Mayan ruler. The term ajaw didn't necessarily mean the king of the land, and it applied to any of several upper class nobles (overlords working for the supreme ruler), who presided over territory and citizens alike.
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| Kapok tree with open pod in Madeira. Wikimedia Commons |
The largest Maya pyramid in Mexico, Temple of the Cross, is actually a tribute structure to the World Tree of the Maya. While it was labeled as a commemorative structure celebrating the life and death of ruler Pascal the Great, the whole building represents the World Tree of Life.
As religion was a huge factor in controlling the general populace (most of whom did not read or write), I went back a little farther to see where divine ruler status started to show up in their history. Turns out, the title Ajaw (meaning ruler, lord, king, etc.) only turned up at or after 350 BCE (in K'o). Which could also be due to the fact that writing itself became common then; we don't actually know. But that's a great starting point that also marks the transition from pictograms to actual script, and K'o is believed to be the burial site for the first known Mayan ruler. The term ajaw didn't necessarily mean the king of the land, and it applied to any of several upper class nobles (overlords working for the supreme ruler), who presided over territory and citizens alike.
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| Logogram for the 20th named-day of the Tzolkin Maya calendar cycle, "Ajaw" Wikimedia Commons |
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