[Aztlan] Popul Vuh

[E.P. Grondine]

Buenos dias, listeros - 

I hope you will bear with me, as this is very difficult for me now. There used to be a fellow who could discourse on these matters with some skill, but he had a stroke, and then left me here with a wooden head to point to his work and sell his book.

The late E.P. Grondine's comments on the Popul Vuh may be read here: 
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/ce010702.html

The problems of the identities of Feathered Serpent and Itzam Ye were pretty well answered there, and why they featured in creation and the creations: they were comets.

Note especially the migrations set out in the Popul Vuh and cited in that essay. Given those migrations, the codices that may have been used for the translation of the Popul Vuh probably used pictographic systems rather than the Maya's fully hieroglyph system.  

In other words, the Popul Vuh traditions may reflect the common shared formative people's traditions rather than specifically Mayan ones, and in the form in which they were preserved, traditions which had been assimilated at that. 

As for the multiple creations and the migrations from the east, these are common throughout meso-america, including in trade zones well to the north. The migrations from the east possibly reflect the formative peoples' migrations out of the Gulf coastal regions, and not much more, even though it is possible that they could have reflected far far earlier ocean crossings. (Pedra Furada - Savanah River.)

As for Mayan glyph writing during Spanish contact, I seem to remember the word "huul" from the books of the Chilam Balam's, a term which referred to glyphs proper.

In closing, the special offer on E.P. Grondine's book "Man and Impact in the Americas" for Aztlan participants is still in effect, and contact me off list for it. For that matter, I would like to sell E.P. Grondine's book whole to a publisher who would take the burden off of my shoulders. That includes Spanish language rights.

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas