The purpose of this writing is to open the vast field of meaning that the word ’Maya’ can refer to geographically, temporally, regionally, linguistically, and culturally.
When we encounter the word ’Maya’ we can ask for clarification: which specific time in the continuum of thousands of years of Maya civilization, which geographical location in the larger Maya region, which Mayan language in the larger family tree of Mayan languages, and which calendar in the multi-calendric timekeeping system of the Maya.
This is just a concise overview of a demanding and multifaceted topic, which I will be exploring more in-depth in my forthcoming book, in the framework of the latest Maya research. With this overall presentation I hope to give some broader understanding of the Maya, and especially, give historical roots and cultural context to the Maya Time Wisdom, in which my path is interwoven as Nordic daykeeper.
The temporal continuum of the Maya culture
Entertaining and commercial presentations of Maya culture keeps the fascination focused on the mystery of Maya pyramid cities, emphasizing the collapse of the Mayan civilization from glory to oblivion. This approach, however, supports the colonial oppression, silencing and erasing the historical continuum and resilience of the Maya people as well as the current vitality of their cultural traditions. The popular photographs of the ruined Maya monuments as tourist attractions are promoting an image of an ancient and long-dead civilization. However, this ignores the era of post-conquest: an entire period of 500-years of Maya survival, resistance and suffering caused by the genocide and colonisation of indigenous people.
The Maya area
The map below shows the geographic placement of the Maya culture between two large continents, in the middle of three maritime influences. This area is roughly divided into three zones: in the west, the cool highlands of the Pacific Ocean, tropical rainforests in the middle, and the lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula in the east. Into this geological variability and rich biodiversity the continuation of the Maya culture was born thousands of years before we in the western world began our count of centuries, evolving through many historical periods to this day. According to the current state borders, the Maya region includes the entire states of Guatemala and Belize, the Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, and also northern parts of Honduras and El Salvador.
The late classic Maya period is considered to come to so called final collapse, when the Spanish soldiers conquered Nojpetén, the capital of the last independent Maya state in 1697. This is how the chronology of the Maya civilization is often described: it ends with the decline of the glory of the pyramid states and the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.
However, Maya people still live where their ancestors did: in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. About thirty Mayan languages are still spoken and they have over five million speakers. The Maya did not disappear or collapse – on the contrary: their living heritage proves that with the rise of the young generation of Maya researchers, artists and cultural activists, the resilience has been strengthened. It is very important to emphasize this living and renewing continuum of Maya culture. Keeping silent about it is part of conscious and deliberate colonization, making the existence of the current Mayas invisible.
The Mayan language family tree
Proto-Mayan is the hypothetical common ancestor of the 30 living Mayan languages. While there has been some controversy with Mayan subgrouping, there has been a general agreement that the following are the main five subgroups of the family: Huastecan, Yucatecan, Ch’olan-Tzeltalan, Q’anjobalan-Chujean, and Quichean-Mamean.
From the attached diagram of Mayan languages from Wikipedia, you can see how the branching from Proto-Mayan has taken place over the course since 2000 eea. It is impotant to note, that each branch of the currently spoken language represents specific people and their unique living cultural tradition. Speakers of different Mayan languages prefer to use their own native names, e.g. k’iche’ or kaqchikel, instead of the generalizing term ‘Maya’.
The map below, created by Jordan Engel from The Decolonial Atlas website, shows the cultural area respecting the Mayan nomenclature, oriented east instead of north according to the Maya Cosmovision.
The Cultural differences and commonalities of the Maya region
In December 2023, the 28th WAYEB conference was organized in Bonn by WAYEB European Association of Mayanists. Its theme was Regionalism and Unity: Exploring Intracultural Variation and Commonality in the Maya Region.
Below is a quote, introducing the themes of the conference program:
We are used to talking about “the Maya” in both popular and academic discourse. But did or does such a single homogeneous Maya culture actually exist? In fact, the idea of a large Maya culture, stretching from the highlands of Guatemala to Yucatan, only emerged in the 19th century in connection with the European desire to divide the world into cultural areas. In this regard, the term “Maya” which originally designated the language and inhabitants of Northern Yucatan, was used for an entire language family and the various peoples speaking these languages and inhabiting the territory that comprises the Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, and the countries of Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador.
Subsequently, the term “Maya” was transferred to the archaeological culture in the region inhabited by the mentioned peoples. Overlooking the differences, it was focused on shared prominent cultural traits – particularly the writing system and certain aspects of the art and architecture. However, this homogenizing perspective ignores the fact that in the entire area which we commonly refer to as that of “the Maya”, there were a multitude of different trajectories and local cultures as diverse as the geographic and climatic environments in which they existed. Be it in the Yucatan peninsula, the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala, the lowlands of the Peten, or the eastern and western “peripheral” regions, clear differences can be perceived in the material culture, art and architecture, languages, and ideology of those who lived in the numerous competing and sometimes cooperating kingdoms. However, describing regionalisms is not sufficient; rather, we rather encounter evidence for complex intracultural variation and rich regional and temporal diversity. We want to ask how this great diversity of different developments and their perceptions can be interpreted. Were there particularly densely interconnected spaces of interaction? Were Maya states “ethnic kingdoms”?
And, finally, can commonalities be discerned that make it seem reasonable to group this diversity under the umbrella of “the Maya”? Do we have evidence for a common notion of something like a shared culture, territory, and identity among the ancient Maya? Is “the Maya” an analytical construct that reflects the sum of regional and temporally limited structures and processes of very different cultural characteristics in scientific discourse?
The Mesoamerican multi-calendar system
It is difficult for modern people to imagine the brightness of the sky, which made possible the accurate astronomical observations and birth of one of the most sophisticated timekeeping system in the world, thousands of years ago. The first inhabitants who came to the area, like many other prehistoric people, surely carried with them astronomical knowledge about the movements of the sun, planets, moon and stars. However, a particular region, on both sides of the narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec and on the Yucatan Peninsula, provided those favorable conditions, that are now considered the birthplace of the Mesoamerican multi-calendric system.
So when we hear the words – Maya calendar – we can ask: which one of the many? There has been possibly up to twenty calendars in use, each calculating a different cycle of time. They have all been connected and synchronized into one sophisticated and cyclical vigesimal timekeeping system, which has its own complex evolution embedded in the larger context of Mesoamerican cultural history. The word ’calendar’ is also quite misleading in connection with the cyclical and polychronic time science of the Maya, as it quickly leads into association with the currently used mechanical Gregorian grid of a linear and monochronic time management.
The thousand-year tradition of the Chol Q’ij ritual calendar
Through all the cultural changes, unbroken lineages of the Maya timekeeping wisdom has been surviving, transmitted orally from one generation to the next, secretly and with great sacrifice. Despite the threat of torture, punishment and death especially one of the many calendars has held its central place: the sacred ritual calendar called Chol Q’ij in K’iche’ and Tzolk’in in Yucatec. This 260-day count has continued to keep the thread of an unbroken lineage for thousands of years. It was, and still is, a way of ceremonial timekeeping and spiritual guidance, which has been respected and practiced in the wider area of whole Mesoamerica.
The tradition of daykeepers as specialists of time is as old as the calendar system itself – this interconnected path has continued for thousands of years. In classical times this highly educated profession was often combining with the skills of astronomer, scribe and mathematician. Today these specialists are called daykeepers in English, which is a rough translation of the K’iche’ language term Aj Q’ij. Aj refers to the one who holds authority and Q’ij means day, but also sun and light.
In today’s Maya communities, Aj Q’ij is not only the keeper of calendar knowledge, but a spiritual guide and leader of the community, working in various ways to harmonize, heal and secure a balanced connection between humans and the forces of nature, according to the Maya Cosmovision. Again, ‘daykeeper’ is a very generic term, as each Aj Q’ij will specialize according to their unique gifts, training and talents. During the last thousands of years a great historical change has taken place in the lineages of traditional daykeepers, changing the forms, roles and ritual practices, including the fusion with new scientific knowledge and adaptation into new cultural environment.
The Path of Nordic daykeeper
In the larger field of Maya culture, my special area of study is Maya Timewisdom, especially the sacred Chol Q’ij calendar. I have been following its cycles as my daily path of practice for almost 15 years.
My introduction to the history and spiritual heritage of the Maya culture began during my university years in 1980’s as literary research journeys. When I moved to North America – more respectfully, called Turtle Island – to study the wisdom of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in the early 1990’s, I had my first contact with the living Maya culture. When the media uproar started about the false End of the World in the early 2010’s, it called me as a cultural researcher to orientate more towards the authentic calendar knowledge carried by the Maya people themselves, as living tradition. Eventually, my quest for the original Maya wisdom led me to study the K’iche’ Maya daykeeping lineages, preserved and practiced in the western highlands of Guatemala. On April 16, 2017 I received my Aj Q’ij initiation by Tat Rigoberto Itzep Chanchavac, into his respected family lineage from Momostenango.
It is essential to emphasise: I am not an astrologer. As cultural researcher it is my experience, that using the word ’astrology’ about Maya timekeeping creates distorting contextual confusion, which does not do justice to the uniqueness of the original and millennial Maya time science. The world wide trend of ‘Mayan astrology’ started to spread only some decades ago and it is often combined with irresponsible cultural appropriation of the cultural and spiritual heritage of the Maya.
As a Nordic daykeeper, living in Finland and rooted in my ancestral home, I have received a permission to ’grow my own branch in the tree of tradition’. Cultivating this new branch has required a lot of work and practice, resulting over the years in creation my own mythopoetic synthesis.
As a non-native keeper of Maya Wisdom, my responsibility is particularly great. I am in continuous conversation with my Maya elders and teachers, asking them for guidance in deepening my understanding: aligning my path again and again with the living continuum of Maya culture and the currents of its renewal.
I have received a sacred bundle of seeds, an invaluable gift of Maya Wisdom carried through generations with great sacrifices. Now, these seeds are brought to a new Nordic soil. How to tend them? I am faced with this question every single day, asking: how can I be worthy to care and share this ancestral legacy, with respect and cultural humility?
