Download or read book Popol Vuh written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mayan civilization once flourished in what is today Guatemala and the Yucatan. The Mayan sacred book the Popol Vuh tells of the creation of the universe, the world of gods and demi-gods and the creation of mankind.

Download or read book Popol Vuh P written by Adrián Recinos and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1950 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first complete version in English of the "Book of the People" of the Quiche Maya, the most powerful nation of the Guatemalan highlands in pre-Conquest times and a branch of the ancient Maya, whose remarkable civilization in pre-Columbian America is in many ways comparable to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. Generally regarded as America's oldest book, the Popol Vuh, in fact, corresponds to our Christian Bible, and it is, moreover, the most important of the five pieces of the great library treasures of the Maya that survived the Spanish Conquest. The Popol Vuh was first transcribed in the Quiche language, ·but in Latin characters, in the middle of the sixteenth century, by some unknown but highly literate Quiche Maya Indian-probably from the oral traditions of his people. This now lost manuscript was copied at the end of the seventeenth century by Father Francisco Ximénez, then parish priest of the village of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango in the highlands of Guatemala, today the most celebrated and best-known Indian town in all of Central America. The mythology, traditions, cosmogony, and history of the Quiché Maya, including the chronology of their kings down to 1550, are related in simple yet literary style by the Indian chronicler. And Adrian Recinos has made a valuable contribution to the understanding and enjoyment of the document through his thorough going introduction and his identification of places and people in the footnotes.

Download or read book The Popol Vuh written by Lewis Spence and published by New York : AMS Press. This book was released on 1908 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community written by Allen J. Christenson and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-06-28 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of a major piece of modern Mayan religious art.

Download or read book Popol Vuh written by and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1996 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most extraordinary works of the human imagination and the most important text in the native languages of the Americas, Popul Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life was first made accessible to the public 10 years ago. This new edition retains the quality of the original translation, has been enriched, and includes 20 new illustrations, maps, drawings, and photos.

Download or read book Popol Vuh A Retelling written by Ilan Stavans and published by Restless Books. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inspired and urgent prose retelling of the Maya myth of creation by acclaimed Latin American author and scholar Ilan Stavans, gorgeously illustrated by Salvadoran folk artist Gabriela Larios and introduced by renowned author, diplomat, and environmental activist Homero Aridjis. The archetypal creation story of Latin America, the Popol Vuh began as a Maya oral tradition millennia ago. In the mid-sixteenth century, as indigenous cultures across the continent were being threatened with destruction by European conquest and Christianity, it was written down in verse by members of the K’iche’ nobility in what is today Guatemala. In 1701, that text was translated into Spanish by a Dominican friar and ethnographer before vanishing mysteriously. Cosmic in scope and yet intimately human, the Popol Vuh offers invaluable insight into the Maya way of life before being decimated by colonization—their code of ethics, their views on death and the afterlife, and their devotion to passion, courage, and the natural world. It tells the story of how the world was created in a series of rehearsals that included wooden dummies, demi-gods, and eventually humans. It describes the underworld, Xibalba—a place as harrowing as Dante’s hell—and relates the legend of the ultimate king, who, in the face of tragedy, became a spirit that accompanies his people in their struggle for survival. Popol Vuh: A Retelling is a one-of-a-kind prose rendition of this sacred text that is as seminal as the Bible and the Qur’an, the Ramayana and the Odyssey. Award-winning scholar of Latin American literature Ilan Stavans brings a fresh creative energy to the Popol Vuh, giving a new generation of readers the opportunity to connect with this timeless story and with the plight of the indigenous people of the Americas. Praise for Popol Vuh: A Retelling: “Salvadoran illustrator Larios provides lush images to accompany stories of the Earth and the underworld, Xibalba, and the animals and gods that inhabit them…. A beautiful interpretation of pivotal Central American history told through contemporary illustration and language.” —Kirkus Reviews “In these pages you will find an adroit retelling of a complex and often confusing tale with a vast and bewildering cast of characters. Approaching the Popol Vuh with a fresh eye and the necessary erudition, Ilan Stavans, the distinguished scholar of Hispanic culture, nimbly conveys the content and the sense of the original, retaining its magic and fascination, while rendering it more accessible to a wider readership. Popol Vuh: A Retelling artfully presents the case for the centrality of this magisterial story to the cultural consciousness of the Americas and for the urgency of its message.” —Homero Aridjis, from the foreword "At a time when so many of us ask ourselves about the end of the world as we know it, few books could be more relevant than this sacred text of the Maya. In a mesmerizing, illuminating new translation, Ilan Stavans brings to contemporary readers this lyrical epic, with its messages from a lost civilization obsessed, as ours should be, with the inevitable cycles of catastrophe and change. The Popol Vuh encourages us to contemplate the perpetual conflict between truth and falsehood, light and darkness, so that we may find the wisdom to emerge as better people." —Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden "Popol Vuh is one of the seminal foundational 'texts' of the Americas before it became 'America'—and one so few of us really know much about. Again, Ilan Stavans is infusing the US of A with the cultures and stories that have been traditionally erased or ignored and forgotten. All I can say is, another amazing Stavans project!" —Julia Alvarez "The Popol Vuh is the great book of creation of the Maya K'iche' culture, and Ilan Stavans has embarked on an intrepid adventure of recreation; he returns to a myth of origin to endow it with vibrant topicality, proving that rewriting a legend is a way of bewitching time." —Juan Villoro, author of God Is Round “Many translators, scholars, and poets have brought us close to the radiant eminence of our Mayan origin story, the Popol Vuh. None touch its wondrous dynamism and epic elegance like Stavans and Larios. Free of the formal constraints of the K’iche’ original, Stavans’s delivers a masterful retelling that invites us into chimeric dreams: from the mischievous first peoples and the quests of those grown from seeds, to hybrid creatures and demi-god twins with battles lost and won. Larios’s dexterous admixture of cool washes and vibrant color palettes along with a K’iche’-inspired line-work aesthetic, further unzip our minds to a shared ancestral imaginary. Only my Guatemalan abuelita could cast such storytelling spells over me. Together, Stavans and Larios invite us all to dance as the children we once were and will become. A gift!” —Frederick Luis Aldama, author of Long Stories Cut Short: Fiction from the Borderlands “Ilan Stavans's retelling of this ancient and sacred story of the Mayan people is as exquisitely written as it is necessary.” —Eduardo Halfon, author of Mourning Praise for Ilan Stavans: “Ilan Stavans is an inventive interpreter of the contemporary cultures of the Americas…. Cantankerous and clever, sprightly and serious, Stavans is a voracious thinker. In his writing, life serves to illuminate literature—and vice versa: he is unafraid to court controversy, unsettle opinions, make enemies. In short, Stavans is an old-fashioned intellectual, a brilliant interpreter of his triple heritage—Jewish, Mexican, and American.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “…in the void created by the death of his compatriot Octavio Paz, Ilan Stavans has emerged as Latin America’s liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast.” —The Washington Post “Ilan Stavans has done as much as anyone alive to bridge the hemisphere’s linguistic gaps.” —The Miami Herald “A canon-maker.” —The Chronicle of Higher Education “Ilan Stavans is a maverick intellectual whose canonical work has already produced a whole array of marvels... His incisive essays are redefining Jewish literature.” —The Forward “Ilan Stavans is the rarest of North American writers—he sees the Americas whole. Not since Octavio Paz has Mexico given us an intellectual so able to violate borders, with learning and grace.” —Richard Rodriguez “In the multicultural rainbow that is contemporary America, no one may be more representative of the state of the union than Ilan Stavans.” —Newsday “Ilan Stavans may very well succeed in becoming the Octavio Paz of our age.” —The San Francisco Chronicle “A virtuoso critic with an exuberant, encyclopedic, restless mind.” —The Forward “Ilan Stavans has the sharp eye of the internal exile. Writing about the sometimes reluctant reconquista of North America by Spanish-speaking cultures or the development of his own identity, he deals with both the life of the mind and the life of the streets.” —John Sayles “Lively and intelligent, eclectic, sharp-tongued.” —Peter Matthiessen “I think Stavans has one of the best grips around on what makes Spanish America tick.” —Gregory Rabassa “Ilan Stavans is a disciple of Kafka and Borges. He accepts social identity broadly, in the most cosmopolitan terms… His impulse is to broaden, not to narrow; he finds understanding through complication of identity, not through the easy gestures of ethnic politics.” —The New York Times “Ilan Stavans has established himself as an invaluable commentator of literature.” —Phillip Lopate

Download or read book Popol Vuh written by and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Popol Vuh is the most important example of Maya literature to have survived the Spanish conquest. It is also one of the world’s great creation accounts, comparable to the beauty and power of Genesis. Most previous translations have relied on Spanish versions rather than the original K’iche’-Maya text. Based on ten years of research by a leading scholar of Maya literature, this translation with extensive notes is uniquely faithful to the original language. Retaining the poetic style of the original text, the translation is also remarkably accessible to English readers. Illustrated with more than eighty drawings, photographs, and maps, Allen J. Christenson’s authoritative version brings out the richness and elegance of this sublime work of literature, comparable to such epic masterpieces as the Ramayana and Mahabharata of India or the Iliad and Odyssey of Greece.

Download or read book Popol Vuh written by Allen J. Christenson and published by Mantra Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Popol Vuh is one of the world's greatest creation stories, comparable to the power and beauty of Genesis. The fruit of ten years of research, this great classic of central American spirituality is now available in an authoritative, scholarly and accessible translation.

Download or read book Reading Popol Wuj written by Nathan C. Henne and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popol Wujis considered one of the oldest books in the Americas. Various elements of Popol Wuj have appeared in different written forms over the last two millennia and several parts of Popol Wuj likely coalesced in hieroglyphic book form a few centuries before contact with Europeans. Popol Wuj offers a unique interpretation of the Maya world and ways of being from a Maya perspective. However, that perspective is often occluded since the extant Popol Wuj is likely a copy of a copy of a precontact Indigenous text that has been translated many times since the fifteenth century. Reading Popol Wujoffers readers a path to look beyond Western constructions of literature to engage with this text through the philosophical foundation of Maya thought and culture. This guide deconstructs various translations to ask readers to break out of the colonial mold in approaching this seminal Maya text. Popol Wuj, or Popol Vuh, in its modern form, can be divided thematically into three parts: cosmogony (the formation of the world), tales of the beings who inhabited the Earth before the coming of people, and chronicles of different ethnic Maya groups in the Guatemala area. Examining thirteen translations of the K’iche’ text, Henne offers a decolonial framework to read between what translations offer via specific practice exercises for reading, studying, and teaching. Each chapter provides a close reading and analysis of a different critical scene based on a comparison of several translations (English and Spanish) of a key K’iche’ word or phrase in order to uncover important philosophical elements of Maya worldviews that resist precise expression in Indo-European languages. Charts and passages are frontloaded in each chapter so the reader engages in the comparative process before reading any leading arguments. This approach challenges traditional Western reading practices and enables scholars and students to read Popol Wuj—and other Indigenous texts—from within the worldview that created them.

Download or read book The Popol Vuh written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of the Popol Vuh *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Many ancient civilizations have influenced and inspired people in the 21st century. The Greeks and Romans continue to fascinate the West today. But of all the world's civilizations, none have intrigued people more than the Mayans, whose culture, astronomy, language, and mysterious disappearance all continue to captivate people. In 2012 especially, there was a renewed focus on the Mayans, whose advanced calendar led many to speculate the world would end on the same date the Mayan calendar ends. The focus on the "doomsday" scenario, however, overshadowed the Mayans' true contribution to astronomy, language, sports, and art. Unlike most of the world's sacred books - the Quran, the Bible or the I-Ching for example - nobody knows the universal name, if there ever was one, for the Maya's collection of myths. Instead, the title that has been passed down, the "Popol Vuh," appears to be the specific title given to a particular copy of these tales. Its meaning, roughly translated as the Council Book, refers to the special role of this text: it was the shared property of the council of lords that ruled the Quich� kingdom and was apparently regularly consulted by that body for advice to guide their rule. However, in the opening sections, the scribes who penned the text also give it several other names, including "the Light That Came from Beside the Sea," "Our Place in the Shadows" and "The Dawn of Life" (pg 63). All of these names were originally in K'ichean Maya, the language spoken by the Maya of the Quich� Kingdom and its neighboring regions. The first of these names refers to a pilgrimage by the second generation of Quich� lords in Part V to the Yucatan coast to acquire a copy of at least a portion of the original text. The second refers to Part IV, the period before the first Dawn (the "Shadows") when the ancestral Quich� earned their particular right to rule. The final name refers to Part I, when the first gods created all of the various parts of life. This multiplicity of names and titles for sacred works is not uncommon, and perhaps comparable to the Bible being referred to as "the Good Book" or (in reference to the New Testament) "the Good News" or the "Gospel." The name Popol Vuh is itself controversial as the original text actually spells the name three different ways: "Popol Vuh", of course, but also "Pop Wuj" and "Popol Wuj." In general, the most correct form in contemporary Quiche spelling is probably "Popol Wuj", but as the text is best known in English with the word "Vuh", this convention will be maintained here (Eenriik 2014). There are a number of translations and editions of the Popol Vuh, which vary considerably in quality. Many early editions were not informed by the latest scholarship in Maya linguistics and sometimes the ways they translate names in particular can vary. This text will use the Second Edition (1996), translated by Dennis Tedlock and published by Simon and Schuster, for all of its quotations and page citations. The Popol Vuh: The History and Legacy of the Maya's Creation Myth and Epic Legends examines what's contained within and how the Popol Vuh survived to the present day. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Popol Vuh like never before.

Download or read book The Popol Vuh written by Lewis Spence and published by Book Tree. This book was released on 2003-04 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes three bonus chapters on Mythology and Religion of Ancient Mexico. When the Spanish took over Central America in the 16th and 17th centuries they destroyed the writings and holy books of the native Mayans in an effort to convert them to Christianity. Few texts survived, yet one did. It is called The Popol Vuh, the creation story of the Mayan culture. This was the first English rendering of that text. Tells the story of a great flood, gods who created mankind, and a number of other interesting parallels to mythologies from around the world. All of the gods and deities are fully explained and at times compared to those from Greece, Rome and Egypt. A fascinating collection of mythology from Central America and Mexico.

Download or read book The Codex Borgia written by Gisele Díaz and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First republication of remarkable repainting of great Mexican codex, dated to ca. AD 1400. 76 large full-color plates show gods, kings, warriors, mythical creatures, and abstract designs. Introduction.

Download or read book The Norse Myths written by Heilan Yvette Grimes and published by Heilan Yvette Grimes. This book was released on 2010-02-24 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To be captured by the Northern Thing means to be taken with the Norse stories of the Gods. If that describes you, then The Norse Myths should help. It contains the most complete versions of the Norse myths available in the English language. The Norse Myths is presented as a narrative from the beginning of creation to the final great battle of Ragnarok, followed by the Rebirth. The Norse Myths is split into several parts: Part One: In the Beginning. Eight chapters that set up the Universe. Part Two: The Adventures. Twelve chapters about the adventures of Gods, Elves, Jotuns, Humans. Part Three: The Ending of All Things. Overarching in all the stories is Ragnarokr, the Doom of the Gods. Even in the humorous stories there's a sense of fatality. Part Three is eight chapters leading to the final battle (Ragnarokr) and the subsequent Rebirth into a more Utopian world. Finally, there is a complete Glossary of all the characters, places, and objects in the book. The spelling used in the book is presented with definitions of the word and alternate spellings, followed by a complete description. And there's a Genealogy chart showing the familial relationships of many of the characters. Norse mythology comes from the Nordic countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. These countries were heavily influenced by Teutonic (German) mythology. This book contains all of the legends which pertain to the Gods. Future volumes will be about family sagas like The Niebelungenlied (The Ring Saga). There is a deep foreboding, a sense of doom, that pervades Norse mythology. The Gods are not immortal. They can be injured and need to be healed. They can find themselves bent with old age. Against the right enemy they can be killed. From the beginning the Gods know they are in a violent battle of good versus evil. The Gods, mankind of Midgardr, and light elves, are doing what they can to stave off the last battle, Ragnarokr, the Doom of the Gods. They fight against evil giants, ferocious wolves, giant sea serpents, and the cunning Loki. The Nordic countries have harsh winters resulting in a mythology that is darker than most. The Norse hero wants to die a hero's death, in battle, fighting for right. The worst death is the straw death, in bed, old, infirm, and away from the fight. The hero who dies in battle goes to Valhalla or one of the other fighting halls to practice and prepare for the last great battle. Those who die straw deaths go to the torturous halls in Niflheimr. Glory does not await them. Pain, venous snakes, and starvation awaits them. Yet, there is hope . . . always hope. There is the vision of a better life filled with peace and tranquility, the Rebirth. Norse mythology has influenced many fantasy novels including The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, who taught Norse mythology at Oxford. The Norse Myths will take you to a world of legend with Thor, Odin, Loki, Gods, Goddesses, monsters, giants, and dwarves doing what they can to help or hurt each other.

Download or read book A Forest of Kings written by Linda Schele and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1990 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs has given us the first written history of the New World as it existed before the European invasion. Now, two central figures in the massive effort to decode the glyphs, Linda Schele and David Freidel, make this history available for the first time in all its detail. A Forest of Kings is the story of Maya kingship, from the beginning of its institution and the first great pyramid builders two thousand years ago to the decline of Maya civilization and its destruction by the Spanish. Here the great historic rulers of Precolumbian civilization come to life again with the decipherment of the writing. At its height, Maya civilization flourished under great kings like Shield-Jaguar, who ruled for over sixty years, expanding his kingdom and building some of the most impressive works of architecture in the ancient world. Long placed on a mist-shrouded pedestal as austere, peaceful stargazers, the Maya elites are now known to have been the rulers or populous, aggressive city-states. Hailed as "a Rosetta Stone of Maya civilization" (Brian M. Fagan, author of People of the Earth), A Forest of Kings is "a must for interested readers," says Evon Vogt, professor of anthropology at Harvard University.

Download or read book 2000 Years of Mayan Literature written by Dennis Tedlock and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-11-04 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chronological survey of Mayan literature, covering two thousand years, from the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions to later works using the Roman alphabet.

Download or read book The Latin American Ecocultural Reader written by Jennifer French and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Latin American Ecocultural Reader is a comprehensive anthology of literary and cultural texts about the natural world. The selections, drawn from throughout the Spanish-speaking countries and Brazil, span from the early colonial period to the present. Editors Jennifer French and Gisela Heffes present work by canonical figures, including José Martí, Bartolomé de las Casas, Rubén Darío, and Alfonsina Storni, in the context of our current state of environmental crisis, prompting new interpretations of their celebrated writings. They also present contemporary work that illuminates the marginalized environmental cultures of women, indigenous, and Afro-Latin American populations. Each selection is introduced with a short essay on the author and the salience of their work; the selections are arranged into eight parts, each of which begins with an introductory essay that speaks to the political, economic, and environmental history of the time and provides interpretative cues for the selections that follow. The editors also include a general introduction with a concise overview of the field of ecocriticism as it has developed since the 1990s. They argue that various strands of environmental thought—recognizable today as extractivism, eco-feminism, Amerindian ontologies, and so forth—can be traced back through the centuries to the earliest colonial period, when Europeans first described the Americas as an edenic “New World” and appropriated the bodies of enslaved Indians and Africans to exploit its natural bounty.

Download or read book The Sealed Portion The Final Testament of Jesus Christ written by Christopher Na and published by Worldwide United Publishing. This book was released on 2005-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sealed Portion-Another Testament of Jesus Christ is the second part of the Book of Mormon, which millions of people throughout the world accept as the word of God along with the Bible. Joseph Smith, Jr. (1830), the founder of the Mormon faith, claimed to have received gold plates from an angel of God named Moroni. When he received the plates, Smith relates that 2/3 of them were sealed. The angel Moroni commanded him not to break the seals, but to translate only the portion of the plates that was unsealed. It was prophesied that the sealed portion of the plates would one day be given to the people of the world. Using two stones called the Urim and Thummim, Joseph Smith translated the unsealed portion. Before returning the plates to the angel Moroni, Joseph showed them to several others. These men gave their personal testimony as witnesses to the existence of the plates and to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Claiming to have received the same instructions to translate the sealed portion of the gold plates, an obscure man, once an active member of the LDS faith, who goes only by the name of Christopher, has published the remaining sealed portion. Though others have made similar claims before him, none has ever testified that he received the Urim and Thummim that was prepared by God to translate the plates, and none has made claim that he has received the exact same gold plates that were in Joseph Smith's possession-except for Christopher. This book is a result of that translation. The Sealed Portion-The Final Testament of Jesus Christ, written by Moroni, relates the vision seen by the Brother of Jared. Within the pages, the entire history of mankind is covered. It begins with the kingdom where the spirits of the children of men were first created, and continues through until the end of the millennium, when the earth will be restored to a state similar to the garden of Eden, and the planets will be prepared as the degrees of glory in the kingdom of God. The most accurate and precise account ever given of the life of Christ is contained within the pages, including his early years with his family, his youth, baptism, marriages, mission, and death. Moroni explains the atonement, the LDS temple endowment, and some of the hidden symbolism of the book of Revelation. He recounts the prophets Ubaid, Zarathustra, Antioch, Socrates, Sythipian, Mohammad, and Joseph Smith, Jr., among others. The histories of the Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, Romans, and Americans are also covered. Also given is the in-depth and beautiful description of Jesus' intercessory prayer among the Nephites and the Lamanites on the American continent. Along with the translation of the sealed portion, the first part of the gold plates that was translated by Joseph Smith, Jr. and subsequently lost by his scribe, Martin Harris, is also included in this extraordinary work. This part is known as the Book of Lehi (the lost 116-page manuscript). The full text of Joseph Smith's reported First Vision, in which he claims to have been visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ, is also included in the book. The reader is lead from blindness into the light as he or she discovers the truths written within these pages.