[Aztlan] water birds

[Justin Kerr]

See 2004, Diehl, Richard, The Olmecs. Page38 Illustration 17.
The concept of the water bird as a transformation character probably
precedes the Maya.

1993, Miller, Mary and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico
and Maya, p.184 (The entry for water lily).

The FAMSI online bibliography lists 68 entries for bird, some of them
relating to this topic.
Happy Hunting
Justin

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Wendy Bacon
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:40 AM
To: Aztlan news Aztlan news group
Subject: [Aztlan] water birds

At some point, I read somewhere that, for the ancient Maya, the water 
bird motif symbolizes the connection between the present reality, the 
"other," and the Underworld, because it can fly in the sky and roost in 
trees, can walk around on this terrestrial plane, and can dive below 
the dark, foreboding water (and even come up with a fish).  I would 
like to cite the source of this notion, but can't remember where I read 
it.  Can anybody help me track down the source?  I have a vague idea it 
was somewhere in the many works of Linda Schele, but I can't find it.  
Contest winners get thanked in my dissertation ...

Gratefully,

Wendy J. Bacon
Department of Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania

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