"In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," the teacher said to her class.
"What happened next?" one of the students asked, eyes wide, lips trembling with anticipation.
"Well, Columbus sailed along in his three ships-"
"Four ships," interrupted by a voice from the back of the room.
"Three ships," the teacher said, louder, and staring intently at the student at the back of the room. "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Then, one day, one of his lookouts spotted land ahead; it was the New World!"
"Yay!" the children cried.
The teacher smiled broadly. "Well, Columbus went down to the shore and what should he see but a group of Indians approaching him on their knees with trinkets to offer him."
The voice at the back of the room lifted itself from hiding. "Then Columbus enslaved the friendly people who he regarded as savages, in hope that they would 'bring' him more trinkets which he could ship back to Spain."
The room was extremely quiet. A single bead of sweat ran down the teacher's waxy face as she furiously pressed a small button on the top of her desk. "When Columbus returned to Spain with a few of the natives as guests-"
"Slaves!" The voice corrected.
"Examples," the teacher decided upon. "When he returned with his examples the Spanish court was amazed. They had discovered a new world, and a new people to bring into the folds of Christianity!"
"Yay!" the children chimed.
The owner of the voice at the back of the room leapt from his chair. "When are you ever going to learn?! Dear god, when will this ever end?"
"It will end with you in detention, young man!" The teacher glanced at a heavy-set man standing by the door, having finally arrived from the main office. The owner of the voice looked into the teacher's eyes for a moment before he moved into the man's rough grasp.
"Well class," the teacher said as she directed her attention back to the children in front of her. "What have you learned today?"
As one voice they shrieked out, their conjoined voices high pitched and bestial: "IN FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO, COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE!"
"Good class! You all get stars on the chart!"
"Yay!" the class howled.
Outside, the owner of the troublesome voice was shot in front of a gloriously wind-swept flag. Seeing this through the window, one of the children began to cry.
"Oh! Don't cry!" The teacher bustled to the window and began to close the blinds. "We need only draw the shades. Don't worry . . . you don't have to see it, dear. You don't need to see it."
Wednesday, October 16, 1996
Monday, October 7, 1996
The Quest For Origins: Popol Vuh, The Divinity Of Man
According to the Mayan people, when the first true humans walked the earth they were invested with the ability to see the entire world. They had no cause to move about, for there was no obstruction of their vision, all was apparent to them. When the Mayan Gods saw that their creations were perhaps too perfect, that they might become as the gods themselves were, they fogged their sight. "They were blinded as the face of a mirror is breathed upon. Their vision flickered. Now it was only from close up that they could see what was there with any clarity." Thus were the humans finally made according to the design which the Mayan Gods had wished for them; well fashioned and respectful of their creators, as well as curtailed in their greatness. The Mayan people also believe that there is a device by which one may overcome the limitations of being human, and this is their holy text, the Popol Vuh. Comparable in importance to the story of Genesis of the Judeo Christian religion, the Popol Vuh is the story of how the world was created by their Gods and how it was made safe for the coming of mankind. Unlike Genesis, however, the Popol Vuh reveals the vast differences between the two cultures which influenced these writings. The Gods which inhabit the Popol Vuh are flawed, much different than the perfection of The Lord of Genesis. Far beyond the polytheistic view of the Mayans is the total absence of the fall from grace which is so prominent in GenesisÃs tale of the garden of Eden. For while both the Judeo Christian God and the Mayan deities seem to concur that those who challenge their authority should be destroyed, the Popol Vuh Gods seem to do so out of fear of their creations and God out of a fatherly retribution for disrespect. Indeed, while Genesis may be a tale of how man became alienated from his God and nature itself, the Popol Vuh glorifies the human race's connection with the divine.
Taking into account the fact that many readers will know little of the details of the Popol Vuh, we will try to summarize its key events. To begin, it is important to understand that the Mayans believed in many gods. Additionally, there was no god in command of the others. However, the Popol Vuh does stress the importance of two main gods and their constituents as the main players in the cosmos. These deities were Sovereign Plumed Serpent, as well as Heart of Sky and his sons Newborn Thunderbolt and Sudden Thunderbolt. It is these beings who create the world, and attempt to fill it with creations which please them (ie: humans.) Much like the God of Genesis, the Mayan gods expect their creations to respect their creator(s), and to show their thanks through some form of ritual. However, these gods are not exactly perfect, and it takes many tries to succeed in crafting the beings which they seek. So, throughout much of the Popol Vuh, the earth is uninhabited by humans due to the Gods' mistakes. Already we can see a key difference between the story of Genesis and that of the Popol Vuh. The God of the Judeo-Christians, the sole creative power in the universe, is thought to be so perfect that he is beyond error. While his creations may fail, it is more because of a human flaw which God seemingly ignored. The gods of the Popol Vuh, on the other hand, not only make mistakes but admit that they did so. After having made the animals, who were unable to praise them simply because they could not speak, the Gods bemoan their failure. "'It hasn't turned out well, they haven't spoken,' they said among themselves. 'It hasn't turned out that our names have been named. Since we are their mason and sculptor, this will not do.'" This surprisingly human trait displays the way in which Mayan deities were brought to a very human level, one that was more understandable than the lofty God of the Judeo-Christians.
But the gods of the Popol Vuh are very persistent, and unwilling to give up on their failed project. They are willing to try again and again until their perfect vision is achieved. It is interesting to note that, on his first attempt, the Lord of Genesis is able to create a perfect world which he is unable or unwilling to sustain. The Mayan gods, subsequently, are not able to begin with perfection but work their way up to it before it is accomplished. In fact, to the Maya, their paradise was the world in which they still lived. There is no account in the Popol Vuh of a fall from grace, the Maya are never cast out from their perfect world. The bible, on the other hand, is clear on the point that nature itself is a spoiled thing. From the point that Adam and Eve were cast from Eden, God made men understand that "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'you shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you" Joseph Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Power Of Myth, offers an excellent explanation for this condemnation of nature. "...(T)he biblical tradition is a socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned... When nature is thought of as evil, you don't put yourself into accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people . . ." This is not the nature of the Maya. Their culture, like many Native American civilizations, is steeped in the belief that nature is something which is revered as sacred. To the ancient authors of the Popol Vuh humans were not separate from the earth, but instead were a very important part of it. To many Native American cultures the place in which they currently lived was their homeland, their place of origin. Andrew O. Wiget, in his essay on Native American Oral Literatures, expresses the common Native American belief that "(T)he proper relation between people and the earth should be one of familial and personal respect, a relation honorable because of kinship derived from a common beginning."
But what similarities did these texts share? To illustrate one connection we will move on to the story of the third attempt made by the Mayan gods to create good beings to live on earth. After a short lived experiment to make men out of mud, that fails miserably, the gods fashion manikins out of wood which resemble men. So the world is filled with walking manikins, who command the power of speech. The gods are hopeful, but they soon realize that they have failed again. For while the manikins have the abilities that true humans lay claim to, they have no hearts, and they are disrespectful of the things that they possess. They abuse their animals and household tools, and give no thanks to the gods. They did not do what the gods had intended for them, to praise them and remember their names. So these creations also are destroyed like the men of mud before them. Oddly, there are certain striking resemblances between the flood of Genesis and the destruction which eliminates the Mayan Gods' third attempt at creating humans, the wooden manikins: "The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins" Compare with Genesis 7:11-21: "...(T)he fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened... And all flesh died that moved on the earth." In both cases the creations of the gods are being punished for acting contrary to the design of their creators. One might even say that the "evil" which the first humans of the bible take part in (which is loosely defined by Genesis) is very similar to the heartless and thankless behavior of the manikins. The wrath that falls upon both of these failed experiments is merely to clear them away so that, one day, the true humans will live without the impediment of their predecessors' mistakes.
But, if there is nothing else that the respective gods of Genesis can agree on, it is that any challenge to their authority is a serious crime. In the example of Adam and Eve, after having been reprimanded sharply for having eaten of the forbidden tree, the mother and father of humanity are further punished by their creator. God says: "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever." The duo are then exiled from Eden forever. This seems to suggest that God is somewhat concerned that his creations have reached his level, at least in the fact that they are no longer ignorant of the capabilities which they possess. He fears that they now will additionally become immortal as he is, and possibly rival him in some sense. In the Popol Vuh, when the first true humans have their vision limited to their immediate surroundings, the gods' motives are the same as those of the lord of Genesis. They both limit their creations so they do not challenge their creators. From the tale of the Tower of Babel on, even in later chapter in which men again are foiled in their attempts to reach god's level, the old testament is abound with the message that any who even claim to be on god's level will be harshly dealt with. The Popol Vuh also has a somewhat similar tale. We are told of a semi-divine being named Seven Macaw who proclaims himself both the sun and moon, for his bright plumage and the jewels on his body illuminate the world in which the manikins live. This is somewhat fitting, for just as the manikins were not truly people Seven Macaw is not truly a god. Never the less, the actual creators of the world and humanity are angered by the false god's impudence. To suggest that one was as high as the gods is what the Popol Vuh calls "self magnification." So Seven Macaw, as well as his two sons who are also guilty of this crime, are foiled and consequently killed by two servants of the Mayan gods: The hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Nowhere in Genesis is there anything even close to the exploits of the cunning Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who effectively spend their time outsmarting numerous powerful beings; from their own scornful brothers to the dark lords of the Mayan underworld. The further tales of these two hero twins fill at least half of the text of the Popol Vuh. The reason that so much time is spent examining the feats of these twins is simple to explain. These culture heroes of the Mayan people effectively clear the world of its dangerous beings in anticipation of the creation of humanity. It becomes apparent in the text that, until the pseudo divine creatures like Seven Macaw are removed from power, the goal that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky have quested after cannot be accomplished. The two twins, discussing their plan to kill Seven Macaw, make a direct connection between the false god's existence and the fact that "(I)t's no good without life, without people here on the face of the earth." Things must be set right before that day will come, and these two twins adventures are the story of how the Maya were finally created. With the passing of the false gods and the false humans, the manikins, we come to the dawn of the true men. They are at last fashioned; made out of corn and water which had been gathered by representatives from the animals, who can be seen as brothers to the humans, ground by the gods' own hands. They are perfect, flawed only by their subsequent lack of vision. This ends the efforts of the gods, their work is finally done. Once again the severe discrepancy between the two holy texts comes out very strongly. Genesis is a story full of division, and the Popol Vuh is one of unification. The bible begins with all of creation being one cosmic force but breaks that unity apart. Genesis makes dualities out of everything; light and dark, man and woman, nature and man, and so on until even individual humans are seen as all separate from each other (let alone their god). The Popol Vuh does just the opposite. It begins with a separation between the heavens and the sea, the respective lords of which come together to create the world. In each of their experiments with humanity their creations become more and more godlike, until they are finally so close to their creators that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky are afraid of them. So while the Judeo Christians see their god as a very distant figure the Maya believe that all it takes to become as great as the original humans once were is to consult the Popol Vuh. For to recapture that perfect sight that they had possessed so long ago, if only for a short time, is to understand the story of their ancestors and of how the Maya first came to this world.
Taking into account the fact that many readers will know little of the details of the Popol Vuh, we will try to summarize its key events. To begin, it is important to understand that the Mayans believed in many gods. Additionally, there was no god in command of the others. However, the Popol Vuh does stress the importance of two main gods and their constituents as the main players in the cosmos. These deities were Sovereign Plumed Serpent, as well as Heart of Sky and his sons Newborn Thunderbolt and Sudden Thunderbolt. It is these beings who create the world, and attempt to fill it with creations which please them (ie: humans.) Much like the God of Genesis, the Mayan gods expect their creations to respect their creator(s), and to show their thanks through some form of ritual. However, these gods are not exactly perfect, and it takes many tries to succeed in crafting the beings which they seek. So, throughout much of the Popol Vuh, the earth is uninhabited by humans due to the Gods' mistakes. Already we can see a key difference between the story of Genesis and that of the Popol Vuh. The God of the Judeo-Christians, the sole creative power in the universe, is thought to be so perfect that he is beyond error. While his creations may fail, it is more because of a human flaw which God seemingly ignored. The gods of the Popol Vuh, on the other hand, not only make mistakes but admit that they did so. After having made the animals, who were unable to praise them simply because they could not speak, the Gods bemoan their failure. "'It hasn't turned out well, they haven't spoken,' they said among themselves. 'It hasn't turned out that our names have been named. Since we are their mason and sculptor, this will not do.'" This surprisingly human trait displays the way in which Mayan deities were brought to a very human level, one that was more understandable than the lofty God of the Judeo-Christians.
But the gods of the Popol Vuh are very persistent, and unwilling to give up on their failed project. They are willing to try again and again until their perfect vision is achieved. It is interesting to note that, on his first attempt, the Lord of Genesis is able to create a perfect world which he is unable or unwilling to sustain. The Mayan gods, subsequently, are not able to begin with perfection but work their way up to it before it is accomplished. In fact, to the Maya, their paradise was the world in which they still lived. There is no account in the Popol Vuh of a fall from grace, the Maya are never cast out from their perfect world. The bible, on the other hand, is clear on the point that nature itself is a spoiled thing. From the point that Adam and Eve were cast from Eden, God made men understand that "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'you shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you" Joseph Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Power Of Myth, offers an excellent explanation for this condemnation of nature. "...(T)he biblical tradition is a socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned... When nature is thought of as evil, you don't put yourself into accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people . . ." This is not the nature of the Maya. Their culture, like many Native American civilizations, is steeped in the belief that nature is something which is revered as sacred. To the ancient authors of the Popol Vuh humans were not separate from the earth, but instead were a very important part of it. To many Native American cultures the place in which they currently lived was their homeland, their place of origin. Andrew O. Wiget, in his essay on Native American Oral Literatures, expresses the common Native American belief that "(T)he proper relation between people and the earth should be one of familial and personal respect, a relation honorable because of kinship derived from a common beginning."
But what similarities did these texts share? To illustrate one connection we will move on to the story of the third attempt made by the Mayan gods to create good beings to live on earth. After a short lived experiment to make men out of mud, that fails miserably, the gods fashion manikins out of wood which resemble men. So the world is filled with walking manikins, who command the power of speech. The gods are hopeful, but they soon realize that they have failed again. For while the manikins have the abilities that true humans lay claim to, they have no hearts, and they are disrespectful of the things that they possess. They abuse their animals and household tools, and give no thanks to the gods. They did not do what the gods had intended for them, to praise them and remember their names. So these creations also are destroyed like the men of mud before them. Oddly, there are certain striking resemblances between the flood of Genesis and the destruction which eliminates the Mayan Gods' third attempt at creating humans, the wooden manikins: "The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins" Compare with Genesis 7:11-21: "...(T)he fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened... And all flesh died that moved on the earth." In both cases the creations of the gods are being punished for acting contrary to the design of their creators. One might even say that the "evil" which the first humans of the bible take part in (which is loosely defined by Genesis) is very similar to the heartless and thankless behavior of the manikins. The wrath that falls upon both of these failed experiments is merely to clear them away so that, one day, the true humans will live without the impediment of their predecessors' mistakes.
But, if there is nothing else that the respective gods of Genesis can agree on, it is that any challenge to their authority is a serious crime. In the example of Adam and Eve, after having been reprimanded sharply for having eaten of the forbidden tree, the mother and father of humanity are further punished by their creator. God says: "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever." The duo are then exiled from Eden forever. This seems to suggest that God is somewhat concerned that his creations have reached his level, at least in the fact that they are no longer ignorant of the capabilities which they possess. He fears that they now will additionally become immortal as he is, and possibly rival him in some sense. In the Popol Vuh, when the first true humans have their vision limited to their immediate surroundings, the gods' motives are the same as those of the lord of Genesis. They both limit their creations so they do not challenge their creators. From the tale of the Tower of Babel on, even in later chapter in which men again are foiled in their attempts to reach god's level, the old testament is abound with the message that any who even claim to be on god's level will be harshly dealt with. The Popol Vuh also has a somewhat similar tale. We are told of a semi-divine being named Seven Macaw who proclaims himself both the sun and moon, for his bright plumage and the jewels on his body illuminate the world in which the manikins live. This is somewhat fitting, for just as the manikins were not truly people Seven Macaw is not truly a god. Never the less, the actual creators of the world and humanity are angered by the false god's impudence. To suggest that one was as high as the gods is what the Popol Vuh calls "self magnification." So Seven Macaw, as well as his two sons who are also guilty of this crime, are foiled and consequently killed by two servants of the Mayan gods: The hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Nowhere in Genesis is there anything even close to the exploits of the cunning Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who effectively spend their time outsmarting numerous powerful beings; from their own scornful brothers to the dark lords of the Mayan underworld. The further tales of these two hero twins fill at least half of the text of the Popol Vuh. The reason that so much time is spent examining the feats of these twins is simple to explain. These culture heroes of the Mayan people effectively clear the world of its dangerous beings in anticipation of the creation of humanity. It becomes apparent in the text that, until the pseudo divine creatures like Seven Macaw are removed from power, the goal that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky have quested after cannot be accomplished. The two twins, discussing their plan to kill Seven Macaw, make a direct connection between the false god's existence and the fact that "(I)t's no good without life, without people here on the face of the earth." Things must be set right before that day will come, and these two twins adventures are the story of how the Maya were finally created. With the passing of the false gods and the false humans, the manikins, we come to the dawn of the true men. They are at last fashioned; made out of corn and water which had been gathered by representatives from the animals, who can be seen as brothers to the humans, ground by the gods' own hands. They are perfect, flawed only by their subsequent lack of vision. This ends the efforts of the gods, their work is finally done. Once again the severe discrepancy between the two holy texts comes out very strongly. Genesis is a story full of division, and the Popol Vuh is one of unification. The bible begins with all of creation being one cosmic force but breaks that unity apart. Genesis makes dualities out of everything; light and dark, man and woman, nature and man, and so on until even individual humans are seen as all separate from each other (let alone their god). The Popol Vuh does just the opposite. It begins with a separation between the heavens and the sea, the respective lords of which come together to create the world. In each of their experiments with humanity their creations become more and more godlike, until they are finally so close to their creators that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky are afraid of them. So while the Judeo Christians see their god as a very distant figure the Maya believe that all it takes to become as great as the original humans once were is to consult the Popol Vuh. For to recapture that perfect sight that they had possessed so long ago, if only for a short time, is to understand the story of their ancestors and of how the Maya first came to this world.
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