Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
75. What is the Popol Vuh (and why is it not a Maya Bible)?
Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
Mallory E. Matsumoto [+]
University of Texas at Austin
Mallory E. Matsumoto is assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research addresses the interface between language, material culture, and religion in pre- colonial and colonial Maya communities of Mesoamerica. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork and archival research in Guatemala, Mexico, Hungary, Peru, and the United States.
Description
As the best-known colonial-period document from the Indigenous Americas, the Popol Vuh has been fundamental to our understandings of Indigenous Maya cosmology, religion, and history. But attempts to compare it with the Christian Bible or other Abrahamic scriptures deny its origins, intended purpose, and cultural significance—and ultimately say much more about those making the comparisons than about the Popol Vuh itself.