Theology and Economy in Thepopol Wujandtheologia Indorum
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6033764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timothy W Knowlton (0000-0003-1463-6977, Berry College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 476-488 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ancient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0956536121000511 |
| OpenAlex | W4200138157 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 44 |
Drawing on modern ethnography, scholars often characterize ancient Maya religion as “covenants” involving human beings generating merit through ritual activity in order to repay a primordial debt to the gods. However, models based on modern ethnography alone would not allow us to recognize the impact on Maya religions of those Christian discourses of debt and merit that accompanied sixteenth-century colonization. This article attempts to historicize our understanding of indigenous Mesoamerican theologies by examining how early Colonial indigenous language texts describe moral and ritual obligations to the gods in terms of their societies’ economies. The specific case study here compares two contemporaneous sixteenth-century K'iche' Maya texts: thePopol Wujby traditionalist K'iche' elites and theTheologia Indorumby the Dominican friar Domingo de Vico. Comparison of these texts’ use of exchange-related lexicon illustrates that the traditionalist theological discourse of thePopol Wuj, which emphasizes reciprocal obligations between different beings within an ontological hierarchy, came to exist alongside Christian K'iche' discourses with a more mercantile religious language of spiritual debt payment. It is argued that these results have potential implications for our assessment of ethnohistorical sources on indigenous theology from elsewhere throughout Mesoamerica as well
Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnography · Indigenous · Maya · Mesoamerica · Sociology · Anthropology · History · Latin American history and culture · Politics and Society in Latin America · Psychedelics and Drug Studies
Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe
The Chorti Indians of Guatemala
Spanish Central America
Ancestral Maya Economies in Archaeological Perspective
Maya history and religion
The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Forgotten Books)
Summa Theologiae by St. Thomas Aquinas
Contracting Colonialism
The Expression of Christian Concepts in Colonial K’iche’ Missionary Texts
Language and Ethnicity among the K'ichee' Maya
The Burden of the Ancients
Rewriting Maya Religion
Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico
The Gift
Quiche-English Dictionary
Archaeology of Culture Contact and Colonialism in Spanish and Portuguese America
Converting WordsMaya in the Age of the Cross
Kaqchikel Chronicles
The Popol Vuh and the Dominican Religious Extirpation in Highland Guatemala
Nahua in Ancient Mesoamerica
Quichean Civilization
Rabinal Achi
Imagining a Complex Maya Political Economy
Authors of the Popol Wuj
The Evolution of Ancient Maya Exchange Systems
From Madrid to Purgatory
Lords of the Underworld
A Tumpline Economy
Catholic Colonialism
The Book of Counsel
Idols and Idolatry in Highland Guatemala
Language, Catechisms, and Mesoamerican Lords in Highland Guatemala
Symbol and Meaning beyond the Closed Community
Three Families
Intertexts
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |