Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:40:01.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Left/Right Symbolism and the Body in Ancient Maya Iconography and Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joel W. Palka
Joel W. Palka*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Latin American and Latino Studies Program, University of Illinois, 1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Throughout Maya history the left and right sides of the human body, left/right spatial orientation, and handedness have had important cultural and symbolic meanings. This essay examines left/right symbolism in relation to the body, which is generally overlooked in studies of archaeological societies and material culture, and discusses how it relates to ancient Maya ideology and behavior. New information from Classic Maya iconography, plus corroborative information from Maya ethnography and cross-cultural investigations, support the proposition that left/right symbolic differences and hierarchies were present in ancient Maya society. For the Classic Maya, as with contemporary Maya peoples, the right hand or side of the body often signified “pure, powerful, or superordinate,” and the left frequently symbolized “weaker, lame, or subordinate” in particular cultural contexts. Hence, in Classic Maya imagery, kings face to their right and use their right hands, while subordinates are oriented to their left and frequently use their left hands. Following comparative anthropological analyses, consideration of handedness and human body symmetry help explain the left/right dichotomy and the apparent primacy of the right in Classic Maya spatial reference, social order, and worldview. The findings of this study have important implications for the examination of left/right symbolism in material culture, images of the body, and ideology in other societies.

En este ensayo se propone que la división simétrica de izquierda y derecha del cuerpo humano, el diferente uso de cada mano, y los sentidos direccionales de izquierda y derecha tienen significados importantes en la larga historia de la sociedad maya. Aquí se analiza el simbolismo de izquierda y derecha, que es generalmente pasado por alto en estudios de las culturas pasadas y sus culturas materiales, y se discute como se relacionaba a la ideología maya. El argumento está basado en nuevos datos e interpretaciones de la iconografía maya clásica junto con información etnográfica maya y de estudios de otras sociedades. En la cultura maya antigua se encuentran diferencias simbólicas y jerárquicas de izquierda y derecha: la mano y el lado derecho del cuerpo significan “poderoso, puro y superior” mientras que la mano y el lado izquierdo simbolizan “debil, impuro y inferior” en ciertos contextos culturales. Por ejemplo, en muchas imágenes del periódo maya clásico, los gobernantes y protagonistas de las ceremonias son mostrados mirando a su lado derecho en donde se encuentran los subordinados, quienes están orientados hacía su lado izquierdo. Estas imágenes también muestran a los gobernantes usando sus manos derechas y a los subordinados frequentemente usando sus manos izquierdas. Por ejemplo, en los murales mayas de Bonampak, México, los guerreros locales están mostrados usando sus manos derechas mientras que sus enemigos son surdos. De acuerdo al estudio antropológico comparativo, la diferencia entre las dos manos y la simetría del cuerpo humano ayudan a explicar el simbolismo de izquierda y derecha y la preferencia por el lado derecho en la jerarquía social, la referencia espacial, y la cosmología de los mayas. Este simbolismo de izquierda y derecha junto con la importancia de la derecha han sido importante en la organización y estructuración de la iconografía, la arquitectura, y el orden social de los mayas, al igual que en otras culturas y merecen más atención.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 2002 , pp. 419 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2002

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.)

References

References Cited

Adorno, Rolena 1982 The Language of History in Guaman Poma’s Nueva Cronica y Buen Gobierno. In From Oral to Written Expression: Native Andean Chronicles of the Early Colonial Period, edited by Rolena Adorno, pp. 109–174. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.Google Scholar
Adorno, Rolena 2000 Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru. 2nd ed. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Ancona-Ha, Patricia, de Lara, Jorge Perez, and Van Stone, Mark 2000 Some Observations on Hand Gestures in Maya Art. In The Maya Vase Book: Volume 6, edited by Justin Kerr, pp. 1072–1089. Kerr Associates, New York.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy 1989 Construction and Cosmology: Politics and Ideology in Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns. In Word and Image in Maya Culture, edited by William F. Hanks and Don S. Rice, pp. 272–286. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Baird, Ellen T. 1989 Stars and War at Cacaxtla. In Mesoamerica after the Decline of Teotihuacan A.D. 700–900, edited by Richard A. Diehl and Janet C. Berlo, pp. 105–122. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Barkan, Leonard 1975 Nature’s Work of Art: The Human Body as Image of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Barrera Vasquez, Alfredo (editor) 1991 Diccionario Maya. Editorial Porrua, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Barsley, Michael 1966 The heft-Handed Book: An Investigation into the Sinister History of Left-Handedness. Souvenir Press, London.Google Scholar
Baudez, Claude F. 1994 Maya Sculpture of Copan: the Iconography. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Baudez, Claude F. 2000 The Maya King’s Body, Mirror of the Universe. Res 38:134–143.Google Scholar
Beck, Brenda E. F. 1973 The Right-Left Division of South Indian Society. In Right and Left: Essays in Dual Symbolic Classification, edited by Rodney Needham, pp. 391–426. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Beetz, Carl P., and Satterthwaite, Linton 1981 The Monuments and Inscriptions of Caracol, Belize. Monograph 45, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F., and Anawalt, Patricia R. 1997 The Essential Codex Mendoza. University of California Press. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Berlo, Janet Catherine 1992 Icons and Ideologies at Teotihuacan: The Great Goddess Reconsidered. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Janet Catherine Berlo, pp. 129–168. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Bliss, James, and Morella, Joseph 1980 The Left-Handers’ Handbook. A & W Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Boas, Franz 1955 Primitive Art. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre 1977 An Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruce, Robert D. 1979 Lacandon Dream Symbolism. Ediciones Euroamericanas. Mexico City.Google Scholar
Campbell, Joseph 1974 The Mythic Image. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Chavero, Alfredo (editor) 1979 El Lienzo de Tlaxcala. Editorial Cosmos, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Classen, Constance 1993 Inca Cosmology and the Human Body. University of Utah. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1973 The Maya cribe and His World. Grolier Club New York Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1975 Classic Maya Pottery at Dumbarton Oaks. Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1978 Lords of the Underworld: Masterpieces of Classic Maya Ceramics. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1999 The Maya, sixth edition. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D., and Kerr, Justin 1998 The Art of the Maya Scribe. Harry N. Abrams Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D., and Van Stone, Mark 2001 Reading the Maya Glyphs. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Coggins, Clemency Chase, and Shane, Orrin C. III (editors) 1984 Cenote of Sacrifice: Maya Treasures from the Sacred Well at Chichen Itza. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Corballis, Michael C. and Beale, Ivan L. 1976 The Psychology of Left and Right. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hillsdale, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Diaz, Gisele, and Rodgers, Alan 1993 The Codex Borgia. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary 1982 Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. Pantheon Books, New York.Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis 1982 On Value. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. LXVI, 1980. pp. 207–242.Google Scholar
Earle, Duncan M. 1986 The Metaphor of the Day in Quiche: Notes on the Nature of Everyday Life. In Symbol and Meaning Beyond the Closed Community: Essays in Mesoamerican Ideas, edited by Gary H. Gossen, pp. 155–172. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York at Albany.Google Scholar
Ellen, Roy F. 1977 Anatomical Classification and the Semiotics of the Body. In The Anthropology of the Body, edited by John Blacking, pp. 343–374. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Emeneau, Murray B. 1987 The Right Hand is the ‘Eating Hand’: An Indian Areal Linguistic Inquiry. In Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in Honor of David G. Mandelbaum, edited by Paul Hockings, pp. 263–271. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fritsch, Vilma 1968 Left and Right in Science and Life. Barrie and Rockliff, London.Google Scholar
Fundaburk, Emma Lila, and Foreman, Mary Douglass (editors) 2001 Sun Circles and Human Hands: The Southeastern Indians, Arts and Industries. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Geschwind, Norman 1984 The Riddle of the Left Hand. Medical and Health Annual. Encyclopedia Britannica, Chicago.Google Scholar
Gillespie, Susan 1991 Ballgames and Boundaries. In The Mesoamerican Ball-game, edited by Vernon Scarborough and David R. Wilcox, pp. 317–346. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gossen, Gary 1974 Chamulas in the World of the Sun: Time and Space in a Maya Oral Tradition. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Illinois.Google Scholar
Gossen, Gary 1979 Temporal and Spatial Equivalents in Chamula Ritual Symbolism. In Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (fourth edition), edited by William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt, pp. 116–128. Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian (editor) 1975–2000 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, 8 vols. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Granet, Marcel 1973 Right and Left in China. In Right and Left: Essays on Dual Symbolic Classification, edited by Rodney Needham, pp. 43–58. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Greene Robertson, Merle 1983 The Sculpture of Palenque, 4 vols. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Hall, Robert L. 1997 An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Yannis, Pluciennik, Mark, and Tarlow, Sarah (editors) 2002 Thinking Through the Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality. Plenum Publishers, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, Norman, Howarth, Sheena, and Wilk, Richard R. 1999 The Discovery, Exploration, and Monuments of Nim Li Punit, Belize. Research Reports on Maya Writing, Monograph 40, Center for Maya Research, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Hanks, William E 1990 Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space among the Maya. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Harris, John E, and Stearns, Stephen K. 1997 Understanding Maya Inscriptions: A Hieroglyphic Handbook. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hendrickson, Carol 1995 Weaving Identities: Construction of Dress and Self in a Highland Guatemala Town. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Hertz, Robert 1973 The Pre-eminence of the Right Hand: A Study in Religious Polarity. In Right and Left: Essays on Dual Symbolic Classification, edited by Rodney Needham, pp. 3–31. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 1993 Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 1998 Classic Maya Depictions of the Built Environment. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 333–372. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Cummins, Tom 1998 Body, Presence, and Space in Andean and Mesoamerican Rulership. Paper presented at the conference titled Palaces of the Ancient New World, organized by Susan T. Evans and Joanne Pillsbury, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Stuart, David 1998 The Ancient Maya Self: Personhood and Portraiture in the Classic Period. Res 33:73–101.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Taube, Karl 2000 An Archaeology of the Senses: Perception and Cultural Expression in Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10 (2):261–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Eva 1977 The Transformation, of the Hummingbird: Cultural Roots of a Zinacantan Mythical Poem. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 1995 Archaeological Investigations at the Fortified Center of Aguateca, El Peten, Guatemala: Implications for the Study of the Classic Maya Collapse. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Isbell, Billie Jean 1976 La otra mitad esencial: un estudio de complementariedad sexual en los Andes. Estudios Andinos 5(1):37—56.Google Scholar
Jones, Christopher, and Satterthwaite, Linton 1982 The Monuments and Inscriptions of Tikal: The Carved Monuments. Tikal Report No. 33A. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 1996 The Construction of Gender in Classic Maya Monuments.” In Gender and Archaeology, edited by Rita P. Wright, pp. 167–195. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 1998 Performing the Body in Pre-Hispanic Central America. Res 33:147–165.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 2000 Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kerr, Justin (editor) 1989–2000 The Maya Vase Book, 6 vols. Kerr Associates, New York.Google Scholar
La Flesche, Francis 1916 Right and Left in Osage Ceremonies. In Holmes Anniversary Volume: Anthropological Essays Presented to William Henry Holmes, edited by Frederick W. Hodge, pp. 278–287. J.W. Bryan Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Laqueur, Thomas 1990 Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, Claude 1963 Structural Anthropology. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
López Austin, Alfredo 1988 The Human Body and Ideology: Concepts of the Ancient Nahuas. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
López Austin, Alfredo 1996 The Rabbit on the Face of the Moon: Mythology in the Mesoamerican Tradition. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lopez-Baralt, Mercedes 1979 La persistencia de las estructuras simbolicas andinas en los dibujos de Guaman Poma de Ayala. Journal of Latin American Lore 5(1):83–116.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1992 Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Maudslay, Alfred P. 1889–1902 (1974) Biologia Centrali-Amerkana: Archaeology, 5 vols. Milpatron Publishing Corp., New York.Google Scholar
Maybury-Lewis, David, and Almagor, Uri (editors) 1989 The Attraction of Opposites: Thought and Society in the Dualistic Mode. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Karl Herbert 1995 Maya Monuments: Sculptures of Unknown Provenance: Supplement. Verlog von Flemming, Berlin.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A., and Plank, Shannon 2001 Perspectives on Actors, Gender Roles, and Architecture at Classic Maya Courts and Households. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya: Volume 1, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen Houston, pp. 84–129. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
McDermott, Bridget 2001 Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Chronicle Books, San Francisco.Google Scholar
McVicker, Donald 1985 The “Mayanized” Mexicans. American Antiquity 501:82–101.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 1999 Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur G. 1975 The Codex Nuttall: A Picture Manuscript from Ancient Mexico. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary E. 1986 The Murals of Bonampak. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary E. 1999 Maya art and Architecture. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Monaghan, John 1994 The Text in the Body, the Body in the Text: the Embodied Sign in Mixtec Writing. In Writing Without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by Elizabeth Boone and Walter Mignolo, pp. 87–101. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Moore, Jerry D. 1995 The Archaeology of Dual Organization in Andean Societies: A Theoretical Review and Case Study. Latin American Antiquity 6: 165–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Walter F. 1987 Living Maya. H.N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Myerhoff, Barbara 1974 Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney 1973 The Left Hand of the Mugwe: An Analytical Note on the Structure of Meru Symbolism. In Right and Left: Essays in Dual Symbolic Classification, edited by Rodney Needham, pp. 109–127. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney (editor) 1973 Right and Left: Essays on Dual Symbolic Classification. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Palka, Joel W. 1999 Classic Maya Parentage and Social Structure with Insights on Ancient Gender Ideology. In From the Ground Up: Beyond Gender Theory in Archaeology, edited by Nancy L. Wicker and Bettina Arnold, pp. 41–48. Archaeopress, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Palka, Joel W. 2000 Left/Right in Maya Culture: An Analysis of Past and Present Dual Symbolic Classification. Manuscript on tile, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Chicago.Google Scholar
Pérez Martinez, Vitalino, Garcia, Federico, Martinez, Felipe, and López, Jeremias. 1996 Diccionario Ch’orti’. Proyecto Linguístico Francisco Marroquín, Antigua, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Pohl, Mary 1985 The Privileges of Maya Elites: Prehistoric Vertebrate Fauna from Seibal. In Prehistoric Lowland Maya Environment and Subsistence Economy, edited by Mary Pohl, pp. 133–145. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1950 Classic Maya Sculpture. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Redfield, Robert 1964 Chan Kom, A Maya Village. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Reid, Lori 1999 The Art of Hand Reading. D.K. Publishing, New York.Google Scholar
Reents-Budet, Dorie 1994 Pointing the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Robin, Cynthia 2000 Kin and Gender in Classic Maya Society: A Case Study from Yaxchilan, Mexico. In New Directions in Anthropological Kinship, edited by Lina Stone, pp. 204–228. Rowman and Littlefield, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Robins, Gay 1994 Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Roe, Peter G. 1982 The Cosmic Zygote: Cosmology in the Amazon Basin. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Rosaldo, Renato I. Jr. 1968 Metaphors of Hierarchy in a Mayan Ritual. American Anthropologist 70:524–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheie, Linda, and Freidel, David 1990 A Forest of Kings: the Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Scheie, Linda, and Miller, Mary E. 1986 The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. George Braziller. New York, and Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 1994 The Ancient Maya. 5th ed. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2002 Glyphs for “Right” and “Left?” Mesoweb, David Stuart’s Internet Notes, June 2002:1–5. Electronic document, http://www.mesoweb.com/stuart/notes/rightleft.html.Google Scholar
Tate, Carolyn E. 1999 Patrons of Shamanic Power: La Venta’s Supernatural Entities in Light of Mixe Beliefs. Ancient Mesoamerica 10:169–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1992 The Iconography of Mirrors at Teotihuacan. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan., edited by Janet Catherine Berlo, pp. 169–204. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Tedlock, Barbara 1992 Time and the Highland Maya. Second Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis 1985 Popol Vuh. Simon and Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric. S. 1962 A Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman.Google Scholar
Thurén, Britt-Marie 1988 Left Hand Left Behind: The Changing Gender System of a Barrio in Valencia, Spain. University of Stockholm, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Tomkins, William 1969 Indian Sign Language. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Turner, Terence 1984 Dual Opposition, Hierarchy, and Value: Moiety Structure and Symbolic Polarity in Central Brazil and Elsewhere. In Differences valeurs hierarchie: textes offerts a Louis Dumont, edited by Jean-Claude Galey, pp. 335–370. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.Google Scholar
Uhrbrock, Richard S. 1973 Laterality in Art. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 32(1):21–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ulrich, E. Matthew, and de Ulrich, Rosemary Dixon 1976 Diccionario Maya Mopan/Español, Español/Maya Mopan. Instituto Linguístico de Verano, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Uspensky, Boris 1975 ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ in Icon Painting. Semiotica 13(1):33–39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Zantwijk, Rudolf, de Ridder, Rob, and Braakhuis, Edwin (editors) 1990 Mesoamerican Dualism, Dualismo Mesoamericano. R.U.U.-I.S.O.R, Utrecht, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1992 Tortillas for the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Winfield Capitaine, Fernando 1988 La Estela I de La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing, 16. Center for Maya Research, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Wisdom, Charles 1940 The Chorti Indians of Guatemala. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Zimmer, Heinrich 1946 Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. Harper and Brothers, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziudema, R. Thomas 1964 The Ceque System of Cuzco: The Social Organization of the Capital of the Incas. Brill, Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar