Friar Francisco Ximénez and thePopol Vuh

From Religious Treatise to a Digital Sacred Book

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2739878
AutoresNéstor I Quiroa (Wheaton College - Illinois, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen64
Número2
Páginas241-270
Fecha de publicación2017-04-01
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
EditorialDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-3789145
OpenAlexW2605102750
IdiomaES
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas15

The Popol Vuh represents the most studied indigenous text of Mesoamerica, with its breadth of detail concerning Maya worldview, religion, cosmology, and society. Regarded as an ethnohistorical treasure, this narrative has been read exclusively as a freestanding, self-contained text to inquire into a history far removed from when it was actually created. Consequently, the colonial context of the text itself has been omitted, including the central role of Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez as transcriber and translator of the only available copy. This article reframes the Popol Vuh within its historical and physical ecclesiastic context, recovering Friar Ximénez's voice within his manuscript. It is argued that his work was first and foremost intended to be a religious treatise to carry out the conversion of the K'iche' to Christianity. This study offers an alternative, holistic understanding of Friar Ximénez's manuscript by tracing two historical moments that contributed to the transformation of the Popol Vuh narrative from a religious treatise into what it is now in the prevailing view, an ancient text or "sacred book

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Christianity · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Indigenous · Literature · Mesoamerica · Narrative · Treasure · Classics · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · Historical Studies in Latin America · History · Latin American history and culture

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