[Aztlan] Maya and Hopi

[donald raab]

Has any work been done trying to determine the relationships between these groups.  Much of what I remember was that the study of the various indian groups was compartmentalized.  Implied was that there was no outer connections or contact.  I remeber Linda Schele writing at one time about a colleague of hers who found strong connections to the Maya in Columbia.  And of course M. Coe who found cultural connections to Mesoamerican indians in Indonesia (dance).  If this modern day Hopi is strongly affected by Mayan symbolism it might be interesting to see what she says.
 
Myself; I was taken aback a few years ago; when I viewed a reconstruction of Cahokia via computer.  The mounds and topping looked like a perfect rendition of mayan temple sites with the exception that the mounnds were earth rather than stone.

--- On Sun, 3/29/09, sharon orlet <ojuliana at sbcglobal.net> wrote:


From: sharon orlet <ojuliana at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Aztlan] Maya and Hopi
To: "aztlan" <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>, aztlan-request at lists.famsi.org
Date: Sunday, March 29, 2009, 9:19 AM


Maya folk,
I took some of the Maya symbols found in Palenque to one of the Hopi potters, Rachel Samie, who is the granddaughter of  the famous Nampeyo potter who started the whole movement of taking designs found in the ancient pot shards found in the ruins and putting them on the "modern" undecorated pots.
   She was taken aback by the symbols-- they seemed to stir something deep inside.  Her favorite was the "cross" of four directions-- which i do not have to show you. She has been making her pot designs more angular, and these seemed to be proof of her new way.


The hopi have in the thier kivas  four posts, to represent the four worlds that have come, and a lattice criss-cross of cedar to remind them of the time "when they lived on the water."   This look like the cross-hatching on many Maya designs.

I wished i had the swastika-- -- anyone have a photo of that? that i might send to her. 

thanks
sharon mcmullen orlet
st louis
ojuliana at sbcglobal.net
when we dream alone it is only a dream;
when we dream together it is the beginning of reality
                      brazilian proverb

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