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The dog is sometimes depicted carrying a torch in the surviving Maya codices, which may be a reference to the Maya tradition that the dog brought fire to mankind. [ 11 ] In the Postclassic Popul Vuh of the Kʼicheʼ Maya of highland Guatemala, dogs and turkeys killed the people of the second age in retaliation for the people beating them.
In retaliation, the dogs became angry and destroyed them. The moral of the story is “civilized” Maya make certain that dogs are fed on a decent human diet such as maize. When dogs were used in ritual sacrifices, the act contained a dual meaning: a person gave respect to the dog by feeding it maize, which represent humans.
The life-cycle of the maize, for instance, lies at the heart of Maya belief, but the role of the principal Maya maize god transcends the sphere of agriculture to embrace basic aspects of civilized life in general (such as writing). Deities have all sorts of social functions, related to such human activities as agriculture, midwifery, trade, and ...
In Mesoamerican folk religion, a nagual (pronounced [na'wal]) or nahual (both from the Nahuatl word nāhualli [naˈwaːlːi]) is a human being who has the power to shapeshift into their tonal animal counterpart. Nagualism is tied to the belief one can access power and spiritual insight by connecting with the tonal animal within. [5]
The dog plays an important role in Maya manuscripts. He is the lightning beast, who darts from heaven with a torch in his hand. [ 20 ] Xolotl is represented directly as a dog, and is distinguished as the deity of air and of the four directions of the wind by Quetzalcoatl's breast ornament.
This is a list of deities playing a role in the Classic (200–1000 CE), Post-Classic (1000–1539 CE) and Contact Period (1511–1697) of Maya religion.The names are mainly taken from the books of Chilam Balam, Lacandon ethnography, the Madrid Codex, the work of Diego de Landa, and the Popol Vuh.
The Mayan calendar’s 819-day cycle has confounded scholars for decades, but new research shows how it matches up to planetary cycles over a 45-year span.
It has gained new momentum in the context of the 2012 phenomenon, especially as presented in the work of New Age author John Major Jenkins, who asserts that Mayanism is "the essential core ideas or teachings of Maya religion and philosophy" in his 2009 book The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History.