Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:49:39.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

TWO - Ancestor Veneration and Lineage Organization in the Maya Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

Patricia A. McAnany
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Get access

Summary

Ancestors and lineage are ubiquitous themes that pervade the ethnographic and ethnohistoric literature of Yucatán. The extent to which rhesc themes exerted a powerful influence on everything from dynastic succession to the placement of fields and orchards will be demonstrated in this chapter and those to follow. Here, principles, practices, and places of ancestor veneration and lineage organization throughout the Maya region are discussed in order to establish the presence and importance of these institutions.

ANATOMY OF A LINEAGE

By A.D. 1547, Spaniards had succeeded in gaining a foothold in northern Yucatán. One of their first actions was to divide the land into encomiendas that were bestowed as spoils of conquest on the Spanish adventurers (Farriss 1984). Shortly thereafter, the Spanish Crown asked for detailed descriptions of the occupied lands: geography, hydrology, crop production, crop potential, and presence of metals and precious stones, as well as descriptions of the population and political history of the current occupants. Having very limited knowledge of the partially subjugated Maya population, many of the encomenderos relied on the literate Maya Caspar Antonio Chi to “ghostwrite” the historical portion of their reports or relaciones geográficas.

Type
Chapter
Information
Living with the Ancestors
Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society
, pp. 22 - 63
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×