Survey of Talking Cross Shrines in Yucatán and Quintana Roo

The Project

The following preliminary report is a semiotic analysis of communicating crosses and related shrines in the Mexican States of Yucatán and Quintana Roo. ¹   My survey was designed to gather ethnographic data with which to better comprehend the function of so-called Mayan talking crosses in the Yucatán peninsula. Support for this research project, conducted during a three-month period, from May 31 to August 31, 2000, was received from the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI), project number 99034. I would like to extend the most sincere gratitude to FAMSI, for my research would not have been possible without this support.

In the following text I will explain the project, the methods used, and my preliminary results. I will conclude with my hypothesis regarding the function and meaning of contemporary and ancient communicating objects, also known as oracles, and why they appear to be so prominent in Maya culture. The goal of this research, to be incorporated into my doctoral thesis, is the collection of data with which better to understand Maya religious change and continuity. Of main focus in these processes is the function of core symbols, such as oracular objects, that apparently retain ancient beliefs even during times of great change.

Endnote

1. Louanna Furbee (1996) has opted to use the generic term "communicating" in referring to Maya sacred objects which serve as oracular devices. Literature relevant to the Yucatán region refers to Mayan communicating crosses as "talking"; however, not one of my consultants state nor appear to believe that crosses physically talk.

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