[Aztlan] God L's owl

[Karen Bassie]

<>I have been working on a Maya bird study for a number of years so this 
subject is dear to my heart. Once the Chiapas book is finished, I will 
be working on it full time with Bob and Nick. Did you know Bob was going 
to be an ornithologist before he became an anthropologist? I am sure he 
would have made a fabulous bird man, but aren't we lucky he switched.
Birds are most often named after their calls. For example, a 
proto-Ch'olan word for hawk is lik lik because that is one of the common 
calls that hawks make. While muwaan is found as a word for hawk in 
Mopan, Ch'olti', and Ch'orti', it is specifically used to describe the 
collared forest falcon in Yucatec Mayan and Itza' Mayan. It is not a 
word for owl. Furthermore, the glyph for muwaan is a bird swallowing 
another bird. The principal diet of the collared forest falcon is other 
birds. In the same regard, the Itzamnaaj bird which I have equated with 
Wak (the laughing falcon of the Popol Vuh who shot the hero twins with 
his blowgun) is often illustrated with a serpent in its mouth and the 
principal deity of laughing falcons is snakes. The interpretation put 
forth by a number of epigraphers that the Itzamnaaj bird is based on a 
harpy eagle makes no sense given that harpy eagles primarily eat monkeys 
and big lizards. In fact, one of the terms for harpy eagle is monkey-eater.
On the Tablet of the Cross, the type of Principal Bird Deity who is 
associated with GI is illustrated in a profile view. The same bird is 
illustrated on the back of Copan Stela H but in a full frontal view. 
That doesn't make him an owl.