Bloodletting rituals in Maya culture
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Bloodletting, also referred to as autosacrifice, was the ritualized self-cutting or piercing of an individual’s body that served a number of ideological and cultural functions within ancient Maya society. When performed by ruling elites, the act of autosacrifice was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. Bound within the Maya belief system, bloodletting was used as a tool to legitimate the ruling lineage’s sociopolitical position and, when enacted, was important to the perceived well-being of a given society or settlement.
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[edit] Ideological undertones
- See also: Maya mythology & Maya religion
Among all the Mesoamerican cultures, sacrifice, in whatever form, was a deeply symbolic and highly ritualized activity with strong religious and political significance. Various kinds of sacrifice were performed within a range of sociocultural contexts and in association with a variety of activities, from mundane everyday activities to those performed by the elites and ruling lineages with the aim of maintaining social structure.
At its core, sacrifice symbolized the renewal of divine energy and, in doing so, the continuation of life. Its ability of bloodletting to do this is based on two intertwined concepts that are prevalent in the Maya belief system. The first is the notion that the gods had given life to humankind by sacrificing parts of their own bodies. The second is the central focus of their mythology on human blood, which signified life among the Maya. Within their belief system, human blood was partially made up of the blood of the gods, who sacrificed their own divine blood in creating life in humans. Thus, in order to continually maintain the order of their universe, the Maya believed that blood had to be given back to the gods.
[edit] Description
Autosacrifice was typically performed with obsidian prismatic blades or stingray spines. Blood was drawn from piercing or cutting the tongue, earlobes, and/or the genitals, among other locations. Another technique was to draw a rope with attached thorns through the tongue or earlobes. The blood produced was then collected on paper held in a bowl and often burned. The act of burning the sacrificed blood symbolized the transferal of the offering to the gods via its transformation into smoke that would rise.
Generally, the location of the bloodletting on the body correlated with an intended result or a corresponding symbolic representation. For example, drawing blood from the genitals, especially the male sex organs, would be done with the intent of increasing or representing human fertility.
[edit] Ritual performance
Ritualized bloodletting was typically performed by elites, settlement leaders, and/or religious figures (e.g., shamans) within contexts visible to the public. The rituals were enacted on the summits of pyramids or on elevated platforms that were usually associated with broad and open plazas or courtyards (where the masses could congregate and view the bloodletting). This was done so as to demonstrate the connection the person performing the autosacrifice had with the sacred sphere and, as such, a method used to maintain political power by legitimizing their prominent social, political, and/or ideological position.
While performed by male figures, prominent females also performed bloodletting. Evidence of this is demonstrated at the El Perú site, where a recently discovered tomb of a female (called the "Queen's Tomb") contained among its many grave goods a ceremonial stingray spine associated with her genital region. Further evidence of female involvement can be found on Lintel 24, a sculpture at Yaxchilan (Structure 23) that dates to roughly 725 but depicts an event that occurred on October 28, 709. The carved image depicts Queen "Lady Xoc" drawing a barbed rope through her tongue wihle in front of her, King "Shield Jaguar" is shown holding a torch.
[edit] Bloodletting in art
Bloodletting was one of the most common subjects of Maya art. Many examples show rulers of the Maya people sacrificing their bodies and blood as offering to the gods. The Maya art shows a more idealistic depiction of bloodletting, and the idea of bloodletting in Maya Mythology is evident in many forms of art.
An example of a graphic depiction of bloodletting in Maya art is at Yaxchilan, a city which was inhabited during the ancient Mesoamerican period. On two different parts of a building in Yaxchilan, there are some graphic scenes of bloodletting. There are two scenes, and these scenes show the literal sense and an example of what bloodletting is, and they also illustrate the idea that the Maya conducted bloodletting as a way of communicating with the gods that they worshiped in their everyday lives.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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- [2]
- [3]
- Ancient Mexico & Central America by Susan Toby Evans
- Mesoamerican Archaeology by Julia A. Herndon and Rosemary A. Joyce
- Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City by Carolyn E Tate - History - 1992 - 320 pages.
- Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization by Arthur Demarest - Social Science - 2004 - 390 pages.
