“A Study of the Religious Worldview and Ceremonial Life of the Inhabitants of Palenque and Yaxchilan”

Abstract

This thesis examines the religious worldview and ceremonial life of the ancient inhabitants of the classic Maya sites of Palenque and Yaxchilan through a comparison of Lacandon Maya Oral history and the Hieroglyphic information available at the sites themselves .While other important Mayan oral histories have been available in written form since the Colonial Period in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel and the Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala, as well as the Annals of the Cakchiquels are for the most part considered to be written in poetic fashion and therefore can sometimes be difficult to work with in a historical framework. Lacandon Oral lineage is unique in that it is historical prose and not written in a poetic fashion. Consequently it can be used within a historically dated time frame, like the one provided by the modern deciphering of Mayan Hieroglyphs, which have successfully matched ancient Maya Calendar dates with the Julian and Gregorian calendar systems. In support of my research, I utilize data from the Lacandon Maya Oral History as told by the Elders, K’in Paniagua, Chan K’in Viejo, Mateo Viejo,and Don Antonio of Naja and Lacanja, Chiapas, Mexico. I also include information gained by the previous Lacandon Maya Oral History studies of Alfred Tozzer and Roberto Bruce. I will compare the oral history with the substantial corpus available via the major breakthroughs of the past forty years in the study of the hieroglyphic texts of Palenque and Yaxchilan.