2000 Years of Mayan Literature

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.

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.

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