The Maya Religion (Review)

Abstract

The Maya religion is a comprehensive and high-quality introductory monograph to the religious life of Ancient Mayas. It can be used as an extremely useful guide, not only by the academic community, to which it has been dedicated in the first place, but thanks to its readable and fluent style, it will be beneficial even for laymen or enthusiasts. At the same time, this book is useful not only for those interested in the area of Mesoamerica, but for a variety of experts on ancient cultures and on a wider scale, with regard to its remarkable meta-methodological scope, for religious studies scholars in general as well. Even only a brief look on the table of contents indicates that the author focuses on Maya religious life in accordance with detailed and conscientiously written introductory handbooks: from history and geography, to the categorization of available archaeological and literary sources, the social organization and city architecture, and finally to the role of the king, nobility, and other religious specialists. A great part of this book is naturally dedicated to deities, myths and rites, and inseparably related topics such as the importance of astronomy and astrology for calendar feasts, the Maya concept of the soul, and Maya cosmology. We could probably end the book review at this point and evaluate the book based on its relationship to the current scientific knowledge, stylistic skills, etc. However, this book is not as linear or shallow. Besides its unquestionably erudite range, the reader, no later than after the second chapter, enters the jungle of interpretations and pre-understandings of how the study of the Maya has been approached. Step by step, the reader is slowly immersed in the universe of motivations and ulterior motives, with which these interpretations were created. After all, the nature of the sources and history of Maya studies calls for this approach. The author systematically guides the reader through all the topics, introducing relevant approaches to these issues. And simultaneously, in the background of the discussed aspects of Maya religion, the reader will begin to follow the methodological questions that go beyond the given area of study and which sometimes overtake and form the chapter. This leads to continuous reasoning about the availability and credibility of sources, to which the author shows great respect. Thus, the reader learns to ask, over every aspect of Maya religion: does the primary material possess this quality or is it our secondary interpretation? (p. 170) And this skill is both helpful and much needed in the lack or absence of empirical evidence.