The received Popol Vuh is a Postcontact text written in the K’iche’ Maya language in Latin script. Both astronomy and calendrics were tied to religious ritual and the ajawob (plural of ajaw) for the Precolumbian Maya.Įnglish translations: Dennis Tedlock (1996) Allen Christenson (2007) It is plausible that books containing more explicitly religious and philosophical content would have been objectionable to Spanish authorities during the Postcontact period and destroyed. The four extant Maya codices contain mainly astronomical and calendric information. The four codices-Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Grolier Key topics in Precolumbian Maya philosophy include time, personal identity, essence, stability and change, and the nature of being (though the way the Maya approach these issues is often very different than the way they are approached in other traditions). A number of other texts likely succumbed to decay in the tropical rainforest covering most of the Maya region, failing to be carefully kept after Spanish control. Most infamously, Spanish friar Diego de Landa burned a number of texts at the town of Maní in 1562. There are only four extant codices from the Precolumbian period-likely many more existed, but of these a number were destroyed in numerous incidents during the Spanish contact period.
The texts available to us today are of two primary kinds: books (or codices), and carved and painted glyphic texts on architecture, stelae, and pottery. Precolumbian Maya texts were written in Classic Mayan rendered in glyphic script, a combination of logographic and phonetic elements. Despite this, there are some ethical issues also addressed in the tradition, specifically in the Postcontact Maya texts. This is likely due in part to the dominance of the ajaw (lords, rulers) and the ritual significance of the metaphysical systems in surviving Maya texts. While the Precolumbian Maya likely had a range of philosophical concerns, the central concerns we find in the extant texts are metaphysical. The Maya region is a swath of Central America extending from the Yucatan Peninsula southward to the Pacific shore, including current day southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador. For someone new to Maya philosophy, one suggestion for the best “way in” to this material is to begin with the Popol Vuh and Rabinal Achi (both K’iche’ Maya texts written in the Postcontact period but much of the content of which traces back to Precolumbian periods), move to material like the secondary literature discussed below, then perhaps to the Yucatec Chilam Balam texts, and then on to investigations of the glyphs and glyphic texts. Because of the relative dearth of specifically philosophical Precolumbian glyphic texts, such Postcontact texts fill in important details, and can often be the best introductions to Precolumbian Maya thought. In addition to the glyphic texts of the codices and numerous stelae, carvings, and painted texts throughout the Maya region, Postcontact texts such as the Popol Vuh are important sources for Precolumbian Maya philosophy.
With advances in the last 50 years in decipherment of the Classic Maya glyphs, it has become possible to reconstruct early Maya history, literature, and philosophy. The philosophical thought of the Maya people of Central America in the period before Spanish contact in the 16th century is extremely rich.
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