The archaeological evidence for pre-Columbian roadways in the northern Mayan area is well documented. These range from broad intracity causeways and long, raised intercity roadways to small local pathways. In the colonial Mayan–Spanish and Spanish–Mayan dictionaries written by Franciscan friars in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries there are various references to roadways. These references were located through a computer-aided search through the dictionaries. Supplementing these references is the information given in various documents written by Franciscan historians, as well as the variety of documents written by the Maya. This information was also located through searches in computerized versions of these documents. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate these references to determine how the information in them can be used to broaden our understanding of Mayan roadways, culture, and society.
Rabies is considered one of the oldest infectious diseases known to humans. However, the first written reports on rabies cases in the Americas did not appear until the first decade of the 18th century from Mexico. In an attempt to clarify if the disease was already present in pre-Columbian times, we searched for evidence in the Maya and Aztec cultures. Other sources of information were early manuscripts written by the conquistadors and early explorers. We did not identify any unequivocal direct evidence that the disease rabies was known in pre-Columbian Central America but sufficient circumstantial evidence is available suggesting that (bat) rabies was already present in these early times.
This paper examines ethnohistoric accounts and oral histories accumulated during the last 50 years concerning the movements of the mythical personage of Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan (Kukul Can) and the role of these narratives in political ideologies between the Epiclassic and Postclassic periods. These narratives outline the movements of Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan by way of terrestrial, celestial, and subterranean routes that connected pilgrimage centers across the Maya lowlands in the peninsula of Yucatan. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric data presented in this paper describe linkages between important political, economic, and ritual centers that had roots in pan-Mesoamerican social dynamics originating as early as the Terminal Classic or Epiclassic period. Links between cities included not just the physical intersite connections evidenced by causeways that are so prominent in the archaeological record but also intangible, mythical, and symbolic connections embodied in mythical histories of subterranean passageways and celestial umbilical cords. These accounts and oral histories highlight the importance of migration and founding events in the establishment of new cities during the major political, economic, and social reorganizations that took place after the end of the Late Classic period. As a whole, these linkages comprised a political infrastructure connecting a network of cities within the highly integrated and international Postclassic Mesoamerican world. The indigenous histories outlined in this paper complement archaeological data, reflecting an increase in internationalism, economic integration, and the spread of new religious movements beginning in the Terminal or Epiclassic periods across Mesoamerica.
Este artículo analiza diferentes vocabularios, maya-español y español-maya que los franciscanos de Yucatán escribieron hacia finales del siglo XVI y a lo largo del XVII. Junto con la descripción general de cada uno de esos escritos léxicos, se puso particular atención en fecharlos y, apoyándose en la información existente en las crónicas de Lizana y de López de Cogolludo, se les asignó el autor potencial respectivo. Cuando se descubrieron lazos de parentesco entre esos vocabularios, se examinó también el grado y naturaleza de dicha relación.
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