Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [215]
In the Pacific Northwest, highly skilled artisans carved the family and clan emblems on the elaborate cedar totem poles that eventually came to be viewed as “status symbols.” Captain Cook, the English explorer, saw these totems during his travels in the Pacific Northwest and noted them in his journals in the 1700s. The famed photographer of the Native Americans Edward S. Curtis first took pictures of them in the late nineteenth century as part of an expedition to Alaska led by railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, who stripped entire villages of their totems and other sacred objects. But the early history of totem poles is otherwise obscure, except for legends hinting that they go very far back in time.
In a flagrant example of attempted “culturecide,” in 1884, the Canadian government outlawed the large ceremonial gatherings called the “potlatch,” at which totem poles were raised. Many native children were then sent to government schools, and totem pole carving nearly died as an art form. There has been a revival in recent decades among a younger generation of artists who want to preserve the old ways. By the way, the “low man on the totem pole” usually wasn’t. In fact, the bottom figure was often created by the best carver, who wanted his work to be most visible.
THE MYTHS OF THE MAYAS
The Mayas once occupied an area that today consists of the Mexican states of Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; part of the states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and most of Guatemala, Belize, and parts of El Salvador and Honduras. Recent discoveries show that the Mayan civilization began to reach its peak as early as 150 BCE and grew vibrantly until 900 CE. By then, most of the Mayas had moved to areas to the north and south, including Yucatán in Mexico and the highlands of southern Guatemala, where they continued to prosper until Spain conquered most of their territory in the mid-1500s. Descendants of the Maya still live in Mexico and Guatemala—where they are among the world’s poorest people. They speak Mayan languages and retain many of the religious customs of their ancestors.
MYTHIC VOICES
There is not yet one person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, forest. Only the sky alone is there; the face of the earth is not clear. Only the sea alone is pooled under all the sky; there is nothing whatever gathered together. It is at rest; not a single thing stirs. It is held back, kept at rest under the sky.
Whatever there is that might be is simply not there: only the pooled water, only the calm sea, only it alone is pooled, Whatever there might be is simply not there: only murmurs, ripples, in the dark, in the night. Only the Maker, Modeler alone, Sovereign Plumed Serpent, the Bearers, Begetters are in the water, a glittering light. They are there, they are enclosed in quetzal feather, in blue-green.
—from Popol Vuh, translated by Dennis Tedlock
What is the Popol Vuh?
The Holy Bible of Judaism and Christianity is a book of Creation, a list of divinely ordained rules and rituals and a foundation history of the Hebrew people, which includes a list of ancient Israel’s many legendary and real kings. Perhaps most important, the Bible is believed to be the word of God.
The Mayan Popol Vuh is a book of Creation, a list of divinely ordered rules and rituals and a foundation history of the Mayan people, which gives the Mayan kings a heavenly mandate and links them to a list of legendary rulers. Perhaps most important, the Popol Vuh was believed to be the word of the gods.
So, the Bible and the Popol Vuh have some things in common. Both books were the sacred texts at the core of their culture’s religious traditions. Both were written down by scribes only after centuries of oral transmission. Both contain poetic accounts of Creation and grim stories of death and destruction. Yet, most people have never heard of the