Chilam Balam - Contents

Contents

Taken together, the Books of Chilam Balam give the fullness of 18th-century Yucatec-Maya spiritual life. Whereas the medical texts and chronicles are quite matter-of-fact, the riddles and prognostications make abundant use of traditional Mayan metaphors. This holds even more true of the mythological and ritualistic texts, which, cast in abstruse language, plainly belong to esoteric lore. The historical texts derive part of their importance from the fact that they have been cast in the framework of the native Maya calendar, partly adapted to the European calendrical system. Reconstructing Postclassic Yucatec history from these data has proven to be an arduous task. The following is an overview of the sorts of texts - partly of Mesoamerican, and partly of Spanish derivation - found in the Chilam Balam books.

1. History

• Histories, cast in the mold of the indigenous calendar: migration legends; narratives concerning certain lords of the indigenous kingdoms; and chronicles up to and including the Spanish conquest.
• Prognostication, cast in the framework of the succession of haabs (years), tuns (360-day periods) and katuns (20X360-day periods).
• Prophecy, ascribed to famous early 16th-century oracular priests.

2. Formularies with Metaphors

• Collections of riddles, used for the confirmation of local lords into their offices (the so-called ‘language of Zuyua’).

3. Myth and Mysticism

• Myth, particularly the destruction and re-creation of the world as connected to the start of katun 11 Ahau.
• Ritualistic mysticism, particularly concerning the creation of the twenty named days (uinal); the ritual of the ‘Four Burners’ (ahtoc); and the birth of the maize, or ‘divine grace’ (the so-called 'Ritual of the Angels').

4. Practical Calendars and Classifications

• Classifications according to the twenty named days (correlating birds of tiding, plants and trees, human characters, and professional activities).
• Treatises on astrology, meteorology, and the Catholic liturgical calendar (the so-called reportorios de los tiempos). The astrology is Ptolemaic and includes the European zodiac.
• Agricultural almanacs.

5. Medical Recipes

• Herbal medicine: The Chilam Balam books contain the sort of medical prescriptions that derive from Greek and Arab traditions, rather than the Mayan ‘incantation approach’, as represented by the Ritual of the Bacabs.

6. Spanish Traditions

• Roman Catholic instruction: feast days of the saints, tracts, and prayers.
• Spanish romance, such as the tale of the ‘Maiden Theodora’.