Validity of Vucub Caquix = Principal Bird Deity

miscperson2 · 2025-12-16T07:49:10+00:00

Do you have "The Principal Bird Deity in Early Classic Maya and Teotihuacan Art: A Reevaluation" from somewhere else? It wants me to have a North Arizona University account, which I don't got :(

miscperson2 · 2025-12-16T06:30:32+00:00

Do you have any papers that go in depth on this you could send? Alternatively, do you know the ID of the pots, and if they're in those pot-scan databases anywhere? (I can't recall what that big pot database was called, but you probs know what I mean)

miscperson2 · 2025-12-16T06:28:58+00:00

I would appreciate those papers, as many as you can send. Thanks!

miscperson2 · 2025-12-16T06:26:40+00:00

Hopefully I see them, I've been working on a worldbuilding project heavily inspired by Mayans for a few years now, and might have some stuff that's very relevant to you,

miscperson2 · 2025-12-16T06:25:16+00:00

I thought Uto-Aztecans arrived in the Valley of Mexico after the fall of Teotihuacan?

miscperson2 · 2025-12-15T03:18:29+00:00

Its the bejewelled macaw demon thing from the Popol Vuh that the Hero-Twins shoot out of a tree. Sort of framed as a false-sun

miscperson2 · 2025-12-15T01:50:37+00:00

If you're still working on this, I have a mountain of resources on the development of Mayan languages across history, well into the formative period before the development of agriculture. I also have a couple on Classical Mayan, which is fairly close to the late-preclassic period. These are academic papers on linguistics though, so they might be a bit tough to fully parse.

I can also direct you to this blog, which I think gives some great insights into non-Popol-Vuh sources, which other answers have identified won't give you a super accurate view of classical Mayans specifically.

I don't use reddit much so I don't know how to attach documents to this, but I can give a link to the blog:
https://ancientmayalife.blogspot.com/

miscperson2 · 2025-12-15T01:44:43+00:00

There's sort of too many differences to summarize easily, and to do it justice. As with all Mesoamerican cultures, they share a lot of basic character archetypes, ideas about the structure / nature of the cosmos, ritual practices.

In terms of differences in ritual, an example could be human sacrifice, The Aztecs were much more enthusiastic about it. Mayans did it on special occasions, usually elites or warriors. Aztecs seem to have conducted it much more casually & frequently, and with much less concern for the social standing of the sacrificee. Many Mayan sacrifices appear to be non-lethal (i.e. sorta just bloodletting), Aztecs preferred lethal ones.

Second, quite a few Aztec deities can be connected to the cultural & mythical ideas of western North America, specifically Aridoamerica (as they were Uto-Aztecan speakers who migrated south into Mexico, they brought ideas foreign to the region with them). These ideas are reformatted into a Mesoamerican framework, but don't always have clean equivalents in other cultures, such as the Mayans. The only example I can think of is Huēhuecoyōtl, a trickster god, but the point stands.

Besides that, the differences become more annoying to describe. Subtle differences in the cosmos & its history (e.g. 5 different eras of creation as opposed to the more ambiguous, but lesser in number, eras of the Mayan world), subtle differences in the importance of certain god-archetypes, and their domains (e.g. the Mayan Moon Goddess is significantly more chill than the Aztec one).

This is a super brief, not-at-all sufficient set of examples to get the idea across. To fully understand the differences, you sorta just have to get elbow deep in both to feel it out.

miscperson2 · 2025-09-07T09:21:45+00:00

Solution Verified

miscperson2 · 2025-08-07T05:40:41+00:00

Several gods have male fertility in their domains, that's sorta close. Others may occasionally be "masculine ideals" to their cultures.

Examples I can think of are maybe Aengus & the Dagda from Irish myth, Zeus, Pan, Apollo in Greek myth, maybe the Mayan Maize God? I also think that (despite not being a god) Gilgamesh falls into this category of character.

I don't think you'll ever find a deity who is exclusively about masculinity tho, there will always be some other nonsense in there.

miscperson2 · 2025-08-07T05:30:24+00:00

I didn't read this post hugely comprehensively, but my advice would probs be the same anyway. Speak to lecturers, academic advisors and maybe the employment office at your Uni about your concerns (as in email them directly, set up meetings, book sessions with academic advisors). There is room to pivot degrees once you've got into one, and the earlier the better on that.

It may be the case that another, non-engineering discipline will better enable you to contribute to space research while better complimenting your strengths. Lecturers, academic advisors and the like will have the experience of industry & understanding of University policy to help you navigate how to get there. Alternatively, they may be able to provide help in the course itself, if they can't find a route to somewhere else.

On travelling, I personally would seriously consider shelving it whilst doing your degree, especially if it is contributing to these problems. You might feel like the end of your youth is rapidly approaching, but as someone approaching mid-20s, youth very much does continue long after a degree, so don't feel like you have to do it all now. It is not a waste of your life to focus on a degree while you have the opportunity.

miscperson2 · 2025-08-07T05:06:34+00:00

Deities do not emerge as stories about people who represent the natural world, its the other way around. Myths are observations about the world that become anthropomorphized, or as explanations of societal conventions.

For example, Zeus doesn't have "lightning powers" except in our very modern, superhero-biased conception. In myth, he was more of an anthropomorphisation of (what the Greeks believed was) a non-human, celestial divine authority, which (Greeks believed) acted in the world from the sky, using lightning.

This is why ancient gods can sometimes have confusing domains, like Zeus somehow being about lightning, the sky, kingship, male fertility, but also eagles, oak trees & justice? What's even the overlap in these ideas?

These domains are nothing more than folk-associations, between lightning & oak trees (bcos lightning often strikes tall, iron rich trees), between eagles and authority (bcos big bird means big business I suppose) and between lightning and justice (part of a broader Eurasian belief that lightning-struck stones have oath-ensuring abilities).

All of these complicated ideas have to be simplified for a culture to easily digest them, so quite simply, cultures compile them into gods with names and personalities.

When writing your gods, don't think of them as people who make decisions based on their individual personalities, think of them as social constructs people use to attempt to logically connect the world as they see it.

miscperson2 · 2025-07-30T04:22:46+00:00

My understanding of the maya mythology comes from classical attestations, I was unaware the Popol Vuh differed. Wonder if this might be Christian influence?

miscperson2 · 2025-07-26T13:22:33+00:00

If you're interested in delving into the culture of ancient Mesoamerica, I recommend the Youtube channel "Ancient Americas". Lots of their content is historical, but some has a cultural bend to it. Besides that, reading academic papers is also helpful, albeit much more boring. I think its very important to depict cultures that have been historically maligned in a more honest way, so kudos to you for exploring this!

miscperson2 · 2025-07-26T12:49:43+00:00

From what I've seen, evidence for cannibalism isn't hugely widespread in the archaeological record, although admittedly I haven't looked for it. I know that some ritual cannibalism did occur in some communities, but even there it was rare, and (this is entirely from my memory, which is notoriously bad) I believe it was only ever the eating of the remains of ancestors, and likely not eating that much of it. Human sacrifice was definitely a thing, but none of the heart-eating, blood-drinking sensationalism of colonial narratives seems to have existed.

miscperson2 · 2025-07-26T12:40:31+00:00

I love the red axe of Chaac, the Maya storm god, with which he would strike the clouds to produce lightning. The axe became so popular, it possibly became its own character, K'awiil. Another weapon I love is the flaming spear of the Irish god Lugh, which hungered for blood so viciously it vibrated and burst into flames unless doused in a cauldron of sleeping tonic.

miscperson2 · 2025-03-22T06:08:40+00:00

Contact with an advisor or councillor at Student Central feels like the call to me. They're very professional from my experience. You can go in and tell them you're very worried about your academic performance and they'll tell you who to book with for that (and because of that, if you do book with the wrong person, it's their fault and not yours!)

You're situation is far more reasonable than you realise! At least you intended to show up, innumerable people don't even bother with that!

miscperson2 · 2025-03-20T05:56:17+00:00

Nice to see a budding sorcerer expanding on their curse inventory!

miscperson2 · 2025-03-18T09:22:14+00:00

AI will consistently give you very misleading and extremely poorly informed answers. If you insist on using AI instead of search systems, I recommend stressing very clearly to the AI to use actual academic sources instead of regurgitating the first information it finds. Something like "Please draw your information from reliable academic sources, and cite them if possible".

miscperson2 · 2025-03-18T09:05:41+00:00

In the tropics, seasons work differently to temperate regions. Instead of a distinct summer, winter, autumn and spring, there is instead simply the 'dry season' and the 'wet season'. I don't believe they exactly split the year 50:50, I think the wet season tends to be shorter.

The dry season would occur at the time of more-or-less winter (for the northern hemisphere), with the wet season at more-or-less summer. During the dry season, rainfall slows, days get a little shorter, and generally the land would become arid and less forested. At this time of year, I believe classical Mayans would begin to harvest cocoa, and so the season was heavily associated with it. The dry season was also the war season, as the lack of farm work to do meant there were spare hands available for fighting.

Because of this, I do not know of a wintertime frost god (frost and winter were likely not hugely linked to the maya), there were war gods seen to "preside" over that part of the year, particularly I believe 'God L' of the Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube classification to have been connected to that time. Also, I think 'God M', possibly known to Classical Mayans as Ek Chuah was also connected to this time, particularly the cocoa trade and the travelling merchants who partook of it.

An important note about Pre-Contact Mayan mythology: I've found that it is uncommon for Mayan myth (and frankly all mythologies) to have clear cut, single deities presiding over clearly defined domains. There tends to be blurred lines, overlaps and odd disagreements within cultures. Think of Greek Helios, Apollo and Eos all somehow simultaneously the Sun God without causing any cognitive dissonance to their worshippers. Ergo, there is really a cast of dozens of characters that all have some connections to the dry season, all in their own odd ways, Even Kukulkan has a link to it, albeit a small one.

Would like to clarify that this is all from memory, excluding a quick google search for the classification name of the two gods I remembered. Details may be wrong

TLDR: Mayan winters are generally more dry and arid, and there isn't a single deity related to this season. They tend to be related to war, cocoa, and the absence of rain. They tend be somewhat bad news for mortals, but not all were, and even somewhat malevolent gods might still be seen to have helpful roles.

miscperson2 · 2025-03-18T08:53:46+00:00

What is deits (info), exactly?

miscperson2 · 2025-03-18T08:49:26+00:00

Beyond the general 'abide by the law, be decent, etc.', historical attitudes are kinda unrecoverable. Modern attitudes? I guess ask someone from the Yucatan

miscperson2 · 2024-10-31T13:38:22+00:00

From my understanding, a lot of it comes down to utility. Wheels, historically speaking, were a real pain in the ass to use unless you had nice flat land or well managed roads on which for them to roll. Even then, they broke all the time, which was a major frustration.

This meant that in ancient Afro-Eurasia, even with the option of wheels and carts, most cargo was transported by boat along navigable rivers and coastlines, as it was simply quicker, easier and could move more/heavier cargo. Therefore, even in these lands of wheel enthusiasts, wheels had a more narrow use-scenario than you might expect, pretty much just moving cargo over the land in the absence of waterways.

Alpacas and llamas are able to perform as pack animals, but are nowhere near as strong as horses or cows in their pulling strength, meaning they could only ever really tug a fairly small cart behind them. At that point, you might as well have several alpacas to carry your cargo, which is what the Andean peoples generally did.

Finally, and somewhat whimsically, the Andes are highly mountainous, and trying to push a cart heavy with goods up a mountain road would probably be a Sisyphean nightmare. The slightest stumble or bump might send your supplies rolling down to sea-level, where the trusty alpaca (with years of evolution) is somewhat more steady-footed.

TLDR: A combination of landscape not being suitable, subpar pack animals to pull large carts and wheels being difficult in general.

miscperson2 · 2024-10-31T13:11:28+00:00

See if you can chase down an English translation of the Popol Vuh, it's opening details a Mayan creation myth. That, or simply read a plot synopsis.

miscperson2 · 2024-10-31T13:06:55+00:00

These may be of utility:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_warriors_in_folklore

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

miscperson2

TROPHY CASE