[Aztlan] Zamna and The Tzolk'in

[David Hixson]

Estimados Listeros,

While I have posted this excerpt to the list at least
once before, I felt it was appropriate to mention it
again...

Here is a footnote from one of my favorite
ethnographic studies entitled "Birth in Four Cultures:
A Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in
Yucatan, Holland, Sweden and the United States" by
Brigitte Jordan (1993).

-------------------------------------------
Quote (page 44, footnote 21:

That the final postpartum visit [by the Maya midwife]
occurs on the twentieth day after the birth is
interesting because 20-day periods are recognized
subdivisions in the ancient Maya calendar, the
tzolkin, which consisted of 260 days in thirteen
20-day months.  The 260-day year has been a puzzle in
that it has not been possible to identify a natural
phenomenon, astronomical or agricultural, that
corresponds to this period.  However, Griswold has
proposed that the human gestational period might be
the long-sought-for natural phenomenon.  He cites the
German linguist and ethnographer Leonhard Schultze
Jena (1933) who reports that his Maya informants
thought of the traditional year as corresponding to
the time of pregnancy.  We find a possible further
recognition of the period of intrauterine life in a
ceremony performed for children at the age of nine
months.  This date would correspond to the first
anniversary of their birth according to the Maya
calendar (Griswold 1975).  Although Western
Obstetricians use 280 days as the duration of
pregnancy, it must be kept in mind that they count,
for reasons of convenience, from the first day of a
woman's last menstrual period, thus adding two weeks
to the length of gestation as computed from mid-cycle,
the most likely time of conception.
--end quote--

Citations:

Griswold, Frank.  1975. "An Hypothesis for the Origin
of the Mesoamerican 260 Day Calendar."  Manuscript. 
Department of Anthropology, California State
University at Sacramento.

Jordan, Brigitte.  1993. Birth in Four Cultures: A
Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan,
Holland, Sweden and the United States.  Fourth
Edition.  Waveland Press. Prospect Heights, Illinois.

Saludos,

-Dave

__________________________________________________
David R. Hixson
Aztlan Moderator &
Doctoral Candidate
Tulane University
Dept. of Anthropology
__________________________________________________
"Nothing more useless than a bored archaeologist."
-Douglas Adams