Canado 1

Carla Canado

Professor Christenson

ARTHC 382

April 21, y

To Create is to be Remembered

The creation of the earth and humans has always been a mystery. Throughout

the world various cultures and religions have tried to unravel this great mystery. For the

Maya of Central America the purpose of creation is simple; it is to be remembered. The

creation of the earth, and people is the single most important event in Maya theology.

The creation of the earth is the most powerful phenomenon that has ever taken place; it

is where the gods showed their ultimate power to create whatever they wanted. For the

Maya creation gods: Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent, their purpose to create the earth,

animals, and mankind was to have

one who will honor us, who will respect us; one who will be a provider and a

sustainer.1

The creation of the world happened so that the gods could be sustained and

provided for by the remembrance and dependency of the Maya people. In Maya creation

1 Christenson, Allen J.. Popul Vuh the Sacred Book of the Ancient Maya : The Great Classic of
Central American Spirituality. Oklahoma City: University of Oklahoma Press Norman, 2007. 78.
 Canado 2

theology, the creation gods attempted numerous times to create the perfect subjects to

remember and worship them. They created mud people, wooden people, and animals;

but each creation failed in one way or another to remember and revere the gods. It was

only until their last attempt to create man using maize dough, that Sovereign and

Quetzal Serpent were successful in creating the ideal human beings that could

remember them, provide and sustain. What made the maize people different, than the

rest of the other attempts, was that they had blood. In the process of making the maize

people, the gods added their own blood into the mixture which gave birth to the Maya.

Because of the blood the maize people possessed they could remember. Blood and

memory go hand in hand in Maya theology. Blood is memory and creation, and helps

fulfill the purpose of creation; which is to be remembered. By taking a closer look at

Maya art, identity, and power we will unravel the significance of memory.

Memory is the power or process of remembering what has been learned,

something that is remembered, or the things learned and kept in the mind. 2 This

definition associates memory as an acquisition of knowledge through experience.

Memory is personal and individual to our own understanding. No individuals memory is

2 Memory. Merriam-Webster. Accessed December 1, 2015. http://www.merriam-webster.com/

 Canado 3

shared, because of the innate nature of where our memory is located, in the mind. No

one has access to our memories but ourselves. Another form of memory is collective

memory, which will be more applicable to this paper and to the Maya. A simple definition

of collective memory is,

the shared pool of knowledge and information in the memories of two or more

members of a social group.3

In this cause referring to collective memory, we refer to memory that is formed

through communication, jokes, gossip, stories, experiences, and cultural traditions. 4 The

father of the idea of collective memory, Maurice Halbwachs, gives us a more in-depth

definition of what collective memory is:

Collective memory, Halbwachs shows, is not a given but rather a socially

constructed notion. Nor is it some mystical group mind. As Halbwachs specifies in The

Collective Memory: While the collective memory endures and draws strength from its

base in a coherent body of people, it is individuals as group members who remember.

It is, of course individuals who remember, not groups or institutions, but these

3 "Collective Memory." Wikipedia. Accessed December 2, 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_memory.

4Assmann, Jan, and John Czaplicka. 1995. Collective Memory and Cultural Identity. New
German Critique, no. 65. [New German Critique, Duke University Press]: 12533.
doi:10.2307/488538.
 Canado 4

individuals, being located in a specific group context, draw on that context to remember

or recreate the past.5

What Halbwachs argues here is that collective memory is created by that specific

society. No one collective memory is alike, it varies from group to group. And although

the memories are collective, the memories have more significance because of the

individual who remembers them. Context seems key to collective memory, because it is

the context that the group or society draws on to remember or recreate the past. This

relates well with how the Maya define memory, because their environment, or the group

context, helps them remember. This will be further explained as define what memory is

in Maya culture.

Memory defined by the Maya is entirely different than how we understand it

today. As mentioned before, when the creation gods, Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent

created man they mixed their own blood into the maize dough which became the flesh

of man. Because these creations had blood, they could remember. Memory is in the

blood. For the Maya, blood is passed on within families; children, adults carry the blood

of all their ancestors, thus children and adults carry all the memories of their ancestors.

When you learn something or have an epiphany, the Maya would say that technically

5 Halbwachs, Maurice, and Lewis A. Coser. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1992. 22.
 Canado 5

you didnt come to any new realization but instead your ancestors reminded you of

that knowledge. For example a Maya noble is looking at an intricate altar, he cant

make out what the altar is depicting, so he walks around it to get a better view. As he

walks around the altar he finally understands what it is, a serpent dragon. He would

understand this conclusion coming to him as his ancestors reminding to him, or

revealing to him the meaning of this altar. Memory isnt something obtained but given;

the memory already exists. All knowledge is already known by the ancestors and

revealed or reminded when necessary. Memory according the Maya can be associated

with as collective memory. The group is the individual and his or her ancestors, literally

a collective pool in the blood of memories, knowledge, and experiences. These

memories can only be conjured up by the context, a religious ceremony, art, etc.

Affirming what Halbwachs stated:

these individuals, being located in a specific group context, draw on that

context to remember or recreate the past.6

Maya memory depends on the context being seen or experienced. The context

conjures up the memory or in this case the ancestors. So we can conclude that memory

as we understand it, are experiences and knowledge retained in the mind, they belong

6 Halbwachs, Maurice, and Lewis A. Coser. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1992. 22.
 Canado 6

solely to that individual. Memory according to the Maya is located in the blood and is

knowledge given to the individual.

We will now take a closer look at three different contexts within Maya culture; art,

identity, and power. Which will further our understanding of the significance of memory

in Maya culture.

Maya art is all about functionality. As a matter of fact the word for art doesnt exist

in Mayan language. Because everything is art, art is a home, a temple, grinding maize.

Everything that was created by Maya was functional in some way, serving either a

practical or a religious purpose. Art is active, and interwoven in their lives. Different to

how we perceive art, as something beautiful, only to be looked at. Most art produced by

the Maya were in temples, palaces or outside in plazas. Art depicted in these areas

were purely religious or political; interior spaces were only seen by the nobility because

they were the only ones allowed inside temples and palaces. Most art inside temples

depicted bloodletting ceremonies, scenes of rebirth and death, and shamanic flight. This

was art relevant to the kings responsibilities. Only kings could rebirth the world, and

enter into the underworld (the temples) and come back alive. Art is an important context

when it comes to memory because art it what unlocked, and even summoned the

ancestors in your blood to recall to you powerful knowledge. Because most of this art
 Canado 7

was only meant for a certain group, the nobility, within this classified group their existed

a collective memory. Nobility looking at fresco paintings, statues, ceramics, etc. were

the only ones who would understand the meanings of these works due to their unique

access to them. Although Maya iconography was understand and known by all, noble

and commoner, the hierarchy in this society spilled even into their belief of memory.

Take for instance Kaminaljuyu Atlar 10 (Figure 1). This altar or pier, was part of the kings

throne room; only accessible by the nobility. For the onlooker the pier is difficult to make

out, due to the horror vacui, no negative space. One has to walk around the pier in

attempt to understand what it is. You suddenly remember, or in other words your

ancestors have revealed to you what this pier is depicting, the Principal Bird Deity in

flight. This is done on purpose to make it difficult to understand, so that only a few can

truly understand the meaning of the work. This classifies the knowledge to only a select

few, most likely the king and several noblemen. There seem to be various collective

groups within Maya society. Like Russian nesting dolls, the groups become smaller and

smaller like in this instance, with the nobility being a collective memory group and then

downsizing to only the few who understand the image on the pier. Art was used to

create power so that those who remembered became more powerful because of the

knowledge they possessed.

 Canado 8

Artist in Maya society were only noblemen, the power to create, give life is only

given to those who posses divine blood. Art is creation for the Maya, its powerful, thus

only the nobility became scribes, poets, sculptures, and painters. Their talent would

have been considered to have been brought back to their memory, because technically

they have always possessed these talents because its in their blood; their ancestors.

The artist job as a Maya, was to preserve or capture a moment, knowledge, or memory

through the process of creation. By doing so they are in a way shaping the collective

memory amongst their people.

The late and increasing use of the term (itzaat) may suggest the dawning of a

social process of understanding. We have on the one hand persons with different skills,

including keeper or venerators, scribes or painters, and sculptors, appearing

in the inscriptions, and on the other the use of the attribute itzaat to give them an even

more prominent status, manifesting a societys growing consciousness about the

holders of collective knowledge and memory.7

Maya artists were holders of collective memory. An obvious example is that their

artistic products have survived thousands of years, and are the only remains of their

lives. The pottery, paintings, and monuments are the only memories and knowledge we

7 Megged, Amos. Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance. Norman:

University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. 18.
 Canado 9

have of their lives. Being an artist was creating memories, capturing the dance of the

king in a stela to remember when the king danced to create sacred space. For the Maya

these memories are ongoing, although to us these are images are trapped in stone, for

the Maya they are continually happening, like replaying a video recording. The memory

continues to happen as long as that monument exists. A Maya artist was a major role,

because they were able to create in materials such sacred and power powerful

ceremonies, that only the king and gods could do.

There are those who guide us who instruct us how our gods must be

worshipped, who make offerings, who burn incense, those who receive the title of

QuetzalcoatlThey busy themselves day and night with the placing of the incense, with

their offerings, with the thorns to draw bloodThose who read their books, who recite

what they read, who noisily turn the pages of the books of paintings, they who are in

possession of the black and the red inksof wisdomand that which depicted. They

lead us, they guide us, they tell the wayto them falls to speak of the gods.8

Artist were in a way a sort of mediator between the people and the gods and

ancestors. Artist provided knowledge through various mediums how people should

worship, revere the king, understand life and death. Artist produced all this knowledge

8 Megged, Amos. Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance. Norman:

University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. 24.
 Canado 10

through their art which then became part of peoples own blood and memories. By

creating art, Maya artists helped create the collective memory of their society. Which is

shows how influential and powerful their position was in influencing the minds and

memories of their people.

It is commonly accepted that identity or a sense of self is constructed by and

through narrative - the stories we tell ourselves and each other about our lives.9

Our memories are in a large part of our make up, our identity. Parents and

grandparents tell us stories about our childhood, about who and how we are or were.

The Maya see themselves as the compilation of their ancestors. Grandparents are

resumed that they will live on if they have grandchildren. It is even common to call

children grandpa or grandma because they are seen as the continuation of that

grandparent. Memories are in close association with identity because they are by what

we measure and construct our self with. A shaman king knows who he is, and what his

responsibilities are based on memories. Surely seeing his own father do it, seeing

ceremonies, images, artwork, hearing songs, etc., and knowing that all his ancestors

who preceded him did the same thing add to how he constructs his identity.

9 King, Nicola. Memory, Narrative, Identity Remembering the Self. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2000. 1.
 Canado 11

In the flow of everyday communications such festivals, rites, epics, poems,

images, etc., form islands of time, islands of a completely different temporality

suspended from time. In cultural memory, such islands of time expand into memory

spaces of retrospective contemplativenessThis expression stems from Aby

Warburg. He ascribed a type of mnemonic energy to the objectivation of culture,

pointing not only to works of high art, but also to posters, postage stamps, costumes,

customs, etc. In cultural formation, a collective experience crystallizes, whose meaning,

when touched upon, may suddenly become accessible across millennia.10

The imagery of the arts, memories, and stories are islands of time that breach

across time and are accessible across millennia describe perfectly well how Maya

identity is created. Blood is what carries the memory of the ancestors, blood is what

breaches time and is accessible across millennia. Thus roles in society such as the

shaman king, artist, servant, farmer are identities that are passed down from one

generation to the next. Ceremonies, rituals, traditions these are the memories that

helped the Maya know their identity. For example, the simple fact that all commoners

know not to enter into temples. This ideology or memory is a part of their identity, such

that they will never enter into a temple for fear that they will die; because only those who

10 Assmann, Jan, and John Czaplicka. Collective Memory and Cultural Identity. New German
Critique Duke University Press, 1995. 129.
 Canado 12

posses the power of shamanic flight can enter and live. This context of traditions,

customs, ceremonies, and rituals allowed the Maya to see what they are and what

they arent. The memories given to certain classes, the nobility and the commoners,

created different collective groups within the society. You have those, the nobles who by

rituals, and tradition know that their blood is divine and are the only ones who can

rebirth the world. Whereas the commoners based on this collective memory or

knowledge of the noble class, know that they cannot rebirth the world, and other things

because of this memory that has been ingrained into them. This collective memory is

helpful for the noble class because they can always manipulate the power and authority

due to collective memory. Nobility can forever keep the power within their class or group

because of the memories or blood which is uniquely theres.

In the past two contexts of art and identity, the underlying tone is the importance

of memory. Memory and blood give you power. With memory certain knowledge is

attained, depending on the importance of this knowledge it could give you power.

Knowledge of how to win a war, or end a draught. These may have been answers Maya

kings would have looked for from the gods or from their ancestors. These questions

could have been asked by anyone, but only a few could receive answers. For instance

after the death of King Kinich Janab Pakal people still sought advice and counsel from
 Canado 13

him, people, members of the noble class, were able to communicate to his tomb via a

psychoduct. Only the shaman king or his noblemen could receive such revelation

because their ancestors are the gods.

Cultural memory has its fixed point: its horizon does not change with the

passing of time. These fixed points are fateful events of the past, whose memory is

maintained through cultural formation (texts, rites, monuments) and institutional

communication (recitation, practice, observance).11

Over the course of Maya history we dont see much change is the religion or

rituals. The traditions, customs stay the same for a majority of Maya history. I believe

this to be because of the memory, or the traditions that were maintained by cultural

formation and institutional communication as mentioned above. The power given to the

shaman kings and their class of nobility was sustained by the monuments, temples, art,

ceremonies, rituals, ball games, etc. Their memory allowed them to monopolize the

power, to keep the system the same. This collective memory

11 Assmann, Jan, and John Czaplicka. Collective Memory and Cultural Identity. New German
Critique Duke University Press, 1995. 129.