Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya

by Miguel León-Portilla

English, Spanish (translation)

Genres: Anthropology, History, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Miguel León-Portilla was a Mexican anthropologist and historian. He was one of the most reputable and commonly cited authorities on Aztec culture and literature in the pre-Columbian and colonial eras among Mexican academia. Many of his works have been translated to English and are widely read.

Reviews

[Francisco Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es un clásico sobre las culturas prehispánicas de Mexico
Ampliamente recomendado

[Luka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great high-level overview of Mayan symbolism & theology. Brilliantly rich and equally novel, Mayans can be effectively described as ‘time worshippers’, no universal phenomena played a bigger role in their pantheon. Time itself was partitioned and personified as countless deities and sub-deities, each casting moral consequence as their throne rotated. A religious system truly unlike any other.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, dense essay that I would've appreciated more with the benefit of more intimate knowledge of Mayan religion and symbolism. The title is apt - NOT a description a phenomenological explication of how the Maya experienced time and space (although some can be gleaned if you look out for it), but a more conceptual or philosophical account of how they understood these. Thus the reader is left to imagine, or look elsewhere, for a sense of how the Maya experienced a time with they could astronomically calculate thousands of years "backwards or forwards", time which was conceived as predictable co-mingling of lesser or greater interlocking cycles, and time and space "carried" as "burdens" by the action of various deities.

[Hilary Jacks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of how Mayan's probably perceived the world in terms of their sense of a spatial/deified time. Informative, though the author likes to talk in circles quite a bit.