Story Cycles in Chol (Mayan) Mythology: Contextualizing Classic Iconography
with Nicholas A. Hopkins, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, Ashley Kistler, and Kayla Price

Commentary

From a review of the materials we have collected, we can tentatively suggest some relationships to the corpus of Classic art and iconography. Of the characters who figure in modern Chol folklore, certainly the underworld demons (Xibaj) and Lightning (Chajk) appear on Classic ceramics. The demons include a range of skeletal beings, including large bald men wearing cloaks; compare the dancing skeletons of Flesh Dropper stories, Tzima Jol (Gourd Head) and Yum Xibaj (the Lord of the Underworld). Chajk (the "rain god"), ubiquitous in Codices and a frequent figure on ceramics, is currently manifested as a set of characters that includes Lightning, Lak Mam and Don Juan. While not covered in this report, the Hero Twins depicted on ceramics are the same personages as the children of the Moon in the modern Chol stories we have reported elsewhere (the Older Brother and Younger Brother, Askuñäl and Ijtz’iñäl, in Hopkins and Josserand 1994; see also Whittaker and Warkentin 1965).

The ceramic corpus also depicts fierce black men (the antecedents of the Ijk’al?) and supernaturals who wear extraordinary hats (the model for Sombrerón?). Personified jaguars, deer, dogs, and eagles are depicted, as well as other animals; all of these are prominent in Chol folktales. Spirit companions (wäy), frequently shown on ceramic vessels, are the topic of a number of tales. From the folktales, we learn about the typical activities of these near-humans, animals, and spirits, information that may be of assistance in interpreting Classic scenes. The importance of the potential identification of these Classic Period personages with the characters of modern folktales is that we learn much more about them in folktales than we can learn from their Classic appearances alone.

We are not ready to argue that specific modern folktales relate stories that are the subjects of specific examples of the art on Classic ceramic vessels; our expertise lies in the modern language rather than in Classic ceramics. Prior to our fieldwork, Justin Kerr supplied us with a large corpus of rollout photographs of Classic ceramics, to elicit commentary from Chol storytellers. There was no immediate recognition of the scenes being shown, although informants had no difficulty identifying many of the animals depicted and could describe in general terms what was happening in the scenes. In brief, we cannot argue that Classic art directly illustrates the stories attested in modern folktales. On the other hand, we have had no difficulty finding seemingly appropriate scenes from Classic art to illustrate modern folktales.

We believe that a more detailed examination of the folkloric material (as well as the ceramics) will yield more results. We need to accomplish not only a catalog of protagonists and major story lines, but to identify sets of co-participants (characters frequently found together), characterize settings (the locations of scenes), and inventory paraphernalia (the clothing and other objects in the scene). For instance, in Chol folklore, witches (Xibaj) are almost inevitably preceded by owls and accompanied by foxes. Few folktales take place in towns and villages; most are placed in the deep woods, or in caves. Clothing (or its lack) is frequently described, and there are numerous stories that relate snakes being used as rope, including a land whose women tie their hair with snakes. Careful attention to such details may suggest concrete relationships between the elements of Classic art and modern folklore.

The language of the folktales and other materials we have examined also contributes to the study of Classic Period culture and language, including the interpretation of hieroglyphic inscriptions. Three of the elements of royal titles, ma, ch’uj, and chak, still occur in ritual vocabulary and in a few fossilized expressions. The principal cargo-holder in Tila is the mayordomo of ma kyumlal, Great Our-Father. Service to the community is ch’ujulbä ’e’tel, ’holy work’, using the adjective ch’uj ("holy") that was used in Classic times in the royal titles called Emblem Glyphs (Josserand and Hopkins 1996). The term for a powerful storm is chak ’ik’ ’great wind’.

Most recently, in the folktales described above, we have discovered a probable Chol term for the ’ballgame’; Yucatec Maya sources (Barrerra Vásquez 1980) report the term as pok’ol pok’ and related phrases; this is surely related to the Chol name Puk’puk’ Jol ’Bouncing Head’, a character reported in the folktales (Cristobalito 1988).

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