Puhui will not leave indifferent: rare birds and exotic animals in Mayan mythology
Galina Ershova is a student of Yuri Knorozov, the founder of Soviet Mayanism, who deciphered the Mayan script. Her work includes a cautionary tale about the indecisive Bat, communion through cocoa, and the Feathered Serpent, who longs to belong to two worlds at once. Critic Lidia Maslova presents the book of the week especially for Izvestia.
Galina Ershova
"Mayan Myths. From sacrifices and sacred cocoa to the book "Popol Vuh" and the underground kingdom of Shibalba"
Moscow: MIF, 2025. - 368 с.
From the very beginning of her book Ershova comes to broad generalizations about the mechanisms of mythological thinking and perception of myths, which are applicable to any mythology in general. Before moving on to the Mayan myths themselves, she as if sets the reader on the right wave, discussing the psychology of myth-making, which takes place in the mind of any person, often beyond his will and consciousness: "In early childhood, from the understanding of the first words, the child is enthusiastically immersed in the space of the fairy-tale world, which becomes close, understandable, joyful and infinitely dear to him for the rest of his life. Ordinary "conversations" of an infant with parents for a very long time continue to be just the naming of objects and the expression of desires. And only the text of the fairy tale immerses the child in a marvelous holistic space, where each thing acquires its own meaning".
In this way, according to Ershova, the cultural code of a people is formed - in the process of perceiving the "profound experience" recorded by past generations of ancestors in "endless fairy tales and myths".
Galina Ershova
Maya Myths. From sacrifices and sacred cocoa to the book "Popol Vuh" and the underground kingdom of Shibalba
Mayan myths are certainly among the most colorful and exotic, teeming with fantastic creatures of the most original styles. The first of those whom Ershova introduces is the Bat, an incarnation of the 13th zodiacal constellation located on the band of the Milky Way, or "Celestial Rope."
The Bat, whose gender the Maya paid special attention to, is one of the most important characters of the local epic "Popol Vuh", in which he acts as a rather tragic figure, illustrating the perniciousness of the desire to sit on two chairs: "The Bat was simultaneously a mammal, had wings, led a nocturnal life and lived in a cave. Hence the peculiarities of the plots in the myths associated with this character. They are usually based on the confrontation between animals and birds. In such a situation, Old Bat tries to choose for whom to fight, but comes to the conclusion that he will be on the side of the winner. However, this position does not suit everyone else - neither animals nor birds. Then the Bat decides to "stay in the middle", and everyone sort of agrees. But, finding himself in the center of the battle, the Bat dies, crushed. The conclusion is especially good: "That's why he who tries to stay in the middle will always end up on the rottenest part of the rope that hangs over the jaws of death."
In general, ethnography in Ershova's interpretation appears to be a rather severe science, in which there is no room for sentimentality, since even harmless cocoa, if you think about its ritual-symbolic meaning, is the equivalent of blood: "...ancient Mayan myths tell us that the flesh of man was maize, and the blood was the drink of cocoa. And that is why 500 years after the presence of Christianity, Indians in some villages of Guatemala, coming with a procession to the church, in their own way conduct the liturgy, taking communion in complete silence cocoa with corn cakes ... And they themselves can hardly explain why they do so. But they know for sure that this is what their ancestors did.
Mayan tales and legends are often quite scary and cruel, although not as much as the modern reality of those regions where the descendants of the ancient Maya have survived. Ershova does not hide her emotional attitude to this reality, and this is a very pleasant feature of her book, where, in addition to scientific analysis (for example, the function of the dog as a liaison between worlds in the epic "Popol-Wuh"), one can find such heartfelt lines: "It is sad, but in modern Mexico the attitude to dogs at the household level is surprisingly bad. And it's not just street dogs, but domestic dogs as well. Almost all of them have bulging ribs, they roam hungry in search of some food. Actually, this is partly the misfortune of all so-called traditional societies, where animals are perceived in a purely utilitarian way: they must serve man, otherwise they are taken to the forest, thrown out, abandoned in the winter at the cottage with a clear conscience. Everything is like in the cartoon movie "Once upon a time there was a dog".
It is curious that Ershova has no such sympathy for cats when she talks about them in the chapter about the Mayan version of shamanism, which is personified by colorful individuals with psychic abilities - naguali: "The ability of cats to coexist with humans and even to subjugate them is regarded as a special, sophisticated cunning of a werewolf with bad intentions, and this quite fits the description of naguali as sorcerers from whom one can expect any mischief. That is why cats are pampered in every possible way and keep the appearance of good relations with them".
Of other representatives of mythological fauna, whose sacredness helps them to avoid utilitarian exploitation, the most memorable in the book is the incredible Feathered Serpent, who, like the Bat, tries to combine several functions and belong to two worlds at the same time (feathered and reptilian), but with much more success than the hapless Mouse: "The significance of the Feathered Serpent in the socio-historical space is based on its role in the picture of the universe. Myths about him (or simply the Serpent in later times) are spread throughout Mesoamerica, and every time he is somehow retained as the Lord of the World. <...> Probably the most famous Maya character and deity is the Feathered Serpent. In the Maya language of Yucatán he is Kukulcan, in the "Popol Vuh" Quiché call him Kukumatz. Quetzalcoatl is the Nahua version, which combines the words quetzal 'bird' and coatl 'serpent'.
Ketzal bird
The feathered Serpent is a kind of hybrid between a snake and the marvelously beautiful Guatemalan bird Quetzal, which adds symbolism to the inability to live in captivity: "Feathers from the tail of the Quetzal in all Mesoamerican cultures were valued as objects of royal luxury and wealth. Be that as it may, it is no coincidence that the Feathered Serpent has long been considered almost the personification of Mesoamerican culture. Nor is it a coincidence that there are a huge number of myths describing this fantastic creature - a serpent in luxuriant long green feathers."
But, frankly speaking, much more human sympathy is aroused not by the luxurious quetzal, but by the much more modest bird Puhui, about which Ershova tells in the chapter "The Twisted World". Here is a legend about the kind and sympathetic Puhui the goatherd, who generously gave his feathers to an ambitious turkey running for ruler: "He realized that, although he had a powerful body, his attire was too ugly, and decided to borrow the beautiful feathers from the goatherd, which, apparently, had once been incredibly good. For them the turkey promised him to share the throne after the election on equal terms. The naive goatherd-Puhui believed, gave all his bright feathers and ... remained, as usual, naked.
There is something very bribing in the intonation with which Galina Ershova retells Mayan legends - not as a cabinet scientist, but as an impressionable person, experiencing with all his soul seemingly abstract mythological constructions, as if real cases from his own life: "The Maya have many such myths about birds, animals and their characteristic features: everything about the turkey is clear to us now. But Puhui still will not leave anyone indifferent".
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
