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Research Year: 2000
Culture: Maya
Chronology: Epi-Classic
Location: Chiapas, México
Site: Chamula
FOUR CREATIONS: An Epic Story of the Chiapas Mayas
Edited and Translated by Gary H. Gossen
Map: Chamula in Chiapas and México, by Gary H. Gossen
Illustrations by Marián López Calixto
Foreword by Miguel León-Portilla
Afterword by Jan Rus
With Contributions by Manuel López Calixto, Marián López Calixto, Xalik López Castellanos, Xalik López Setjol, Mateo Méndez Tzotzek, and Xun Méndez Tzotzek
Excerpt from Foreword:
"Gary Gossen has brought us the words of the Tzotzil sages–a treasure trove of stories both sacred and mundane. It is a literature that has many links with the glorious past of the Mayas and also illuminates a variety of occurrences in the everyday lives of the people today. In the texts one can hear both the voice of an ancient oral tradition and, at other times, a storyteller’s spontaneous recollections of a gamut of happenings."
–Miguel León-Portilla
Contents
PART 1.
THE FIRST CREATION
Text 1. Of Our Father Sun in Heaven
Text 2. Let Us Make Pathways for the Rivers
Text 3. Of How the World Began Long Ago
Text 4. About Corn
Text 5. About Why We Did Not Receive Our Lord Sun/Christ’s Magical Hoe
Text 6. Of What Happened to Rabbit Long Ago
Text 7. About Hummingbirds
Text 8. Of Our Father Who Died on the Cross
Text 9. Of Our Holy Mother in Heaven
Text 10. Why the Moon Has Only One Eye
Text 11. Of the First People, Who Were Like Gods
Text 12. Of When the Earth Darkened for Five Days
Text 13. Of Long Ago When the First People Appeared
Text 14. About Why Our Lord Sun/Christ Destroyed the First People with a Rain of Boiling Water
Text 15. About How the Ancient Ones Ate Their Own Children
Text 16. About the Time When We Were Created Long Ago
Text 17. About How and Why the First People Perished in a Boiling Rain
Text 18. Monkeys Were Still People Long Ago
Text 19. His Wife Turned into a Monkey; the Man Became a Squirrel
Text 20. About the Boiling Rain
PART 2.
THE SECOND CREATION
Text 21. Of Our Mother Moon and Her Two Sons
Text 22. Of Our Father Sun and His Older Brother
Text 23. About How the Second People Became Monkeys
Text 24. About a Time When Raccoons Were Still People
Text 25. Of Olden Days When Weeds Could Speak
Text 26. About How Our Lord San Juan Made His Home in Chamula, I
Text 27. About How Our Lord San Juan Made His Home in Chamula, II
Text 28. The Earth Lord’s Daughter
Text 29. Of a Poor, Wretched Woman Who Had No Husband for Herself
Text 30. Of a Man Who Went to the Underworld
Text 31. Why the Damned Buzzard Has a Red Neck
Text 32. Of How the Buzzard Got to Be Like He Is
Text 33. Of War and Peace with the Chief of Guatemala
Text 34. On the Origin and Nature of Ladinos
PART 3.
THE THIRD CREATION
Text 35. Of the Third People
Text 36. About How Rabbit and Deer Got Their Short Tails and Long Ears
Text 37. Adventures of Coyote and Rabbit, I: Of the Beeswax Doll and the Corn Thief
Text 38. Adventures of Coyote and Rabbit, II: Of Music, Dance, and Fiesta Time
Text 39. Kidnapped by a Demon
Text 40. Of a Man Who Was Swallowed by a Water Monster
Text 41. On the Adventures of Xun beyond the Sea
Text 42. Of the Stinking Ladino Woman and Her Dog
Text 43. Of the Great Stone Stairway to Heaven
PART 4.
THE FOURTH CREATION
SECTION 1.
EARTH LORDS, DEMONS, AND HEROES
Text 44. Of the Earth Lord’s Daughter
Text 45. Of a Man Who Sought Riches from the Earth Lords
Text 46. Of the Heroes of Bell Cave Who Slew the Demon Pukuj
Text 47. Of an Encounter with the Soldier on the Mountain
Text 48. About a Man Who Made a Pact with the Demon Pukuj
Text 49. Of an Encounter with the Old Red Man, Who Was Actually the Demon Pukuj
Text 50. On How the Rabbit Lost His Hat and Got His Long Ears
SECTION 2.
SPOOKS, WITCHES, SOULS, AND BAD NEIGHBORS
Text 51. Bitten to Death by the Backwards Wailing Man
Text 52. On the Lacandon People of Chiapas, Who Are Like Beasts of the Jungle
Text 53. About Tenejapanecos, Who Engage in Witchcraft
Text 54. Of an Encounter with a Potzlom, the Soul of a Witch
Text 55. The Perils of an Animal Soul as Revealed in a Dream
Text 56. She Killed Her Animal-Soul Companion and Thus Killed Herself
SECTION 3.
EROS IN THE FOURTH CREATION
Text 57. Of an Encounter with the Snake-Woman
Text 58. Of the Troubles of Men Who Have Turned into Women
Text 59. Of an Unfaithful Wife Who Goes to the Grave with Her Lover
Text 60. Abducted by a Demon Lover
SECTION 4.
LIFE AND CHANGE IN THE FOURTH CREATION
Text 61. Of Drought and Flood
Text 62. About the Great Famine
Text 63. On How the Old-Timers Became Impoverished, Just Like Their Land
Text 64. About How Coyotes Came to Chamula
Text 65. Memories of Times Past: Everything We Bought Was a Lot Less Expensive
and Coffee Plantation Wages Were Better Back Then . . .
Text 66. Accounts from Old Men about Olden Times
SECTION 5.
A BRIEF CHRONICLE OF THE FOURTH CREATION
Text 67. On Cuscat’s War with the Frock-Coat Soldiers of San Cristóbal
Text 68. About the Prayer Makers of Long Ago
Text 69. An Account of Those Who Followed Pajarito
Text 70. About How the Carranza Soldiers Came to Live with Us Forever as Rats
Text 71. About How the Old Child and the Mother of Sickness Brought the Fever Epidemic to Chamula
Text 72. Of the Time of the Burning of the Saints
Text 73. An Account of the Construction of the Highway to Tuxtla Gutiérrez
Text 74. An Account of the Protestant Prayer Makers Who Perished by Fire
Afterword, by Jan Rus
Notes
Bibliography
Index
MAPS
1. Central Chiapas, México
2. Chamula in Chiapas and México
3. A Chamula chart of the universe
4. A Chamula chart of the world
Click to download the report in PDF format:
Four Creations of True People:
Tzotzil Maya Account of the Human Experience (100 KB)
The PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
To download the latest version, click the Get Acrobat Reader button below.
Publication available from University of Oklahoma Press, Norman
ISBN 0-8061-3331-7 (1,134 pages)
Submitted 12/06/2000 by:
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