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Course: Big History Project > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Origin Stories | 1.2- WATCH: Big Questions – H2
- ACTIVITY: Intro to Origin Stories
- READ: Introduction to Origin Stories
- READ: Origin Story — Modern Scientific
- READ: Origin Story — Chinese
- READ: Origin Story — Judeo-Christian
- READ: Origin Story — Iroquois
- READ: Origin Story — Mayan
- READ: Origin Story — Greek
- READ: Origin Story — Zulu
- READ: Origin Story —Efik
- READ: Cosmology and Faith
- Quiz: Origin Stories
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READ: Origin Story — Mayan
Mayan Origin Story: The Popul Vuh
Compiled by Cynthia Stokes Brown
This is the beginning of a long, complex story called the Popol Vuh which means “council book.” It was told by the Mayans who long ago lived in theYucatán Peninsula of Mexico.
This origin story was told by the Mayas, who lived in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico from around 250 CE to 900 CE. It’s the beginning of a long, complex story called the Popol Vuh (literally the “council book”), first translated into alphabetic text from Mayan hieroglyphics in the 16th century.
Now it still ripples, now it still murmurs, still sighs, and is empty under the sky. There is not yet one person, not one animal, bird, fish or tree. There is only the sky alone; the face of earth is not clear, only the sea alone is pooled under all the sky. Whatever might be is simply not there.
There were makers in the sea, together called the Plumed Serpent. There were makers in the sky, together called the Heart of Sky. Together these makers planned the dawn of life.
The earth arose because of them. It was simply their word that brought it forth. It arose suddenly, like a cloud unfolding. Then the mountains were separated from the water. All at once great mountains came forth. The sky was set apart, and the earth was set apart in the midst of the waters.
Then the makers in the sky planned the animals of the mountains — the deer, pumas, jaguars, rattlesnakes, and guardians of the bushes. Then they established the nests of the birds, great and small. “You precious birds; your nests are in the trees and bushes.” Then the deer and birds were told to talk to praise their makers, to pray to them. But the birds and animals did not talk; they just squawked and howled. So they had to accept that their flesh would be eaten by others.
The makers tried again to form a giver of respect, a creature who would nurture and provide. They made a body from mud, but it didn’t look good. It talked at first but then crumbled and disintegrated into the water.
Then the Heart of Sky called on the wise ones, the diviners, the Grandfather Xpiyacoc and the Grandmother Xmucane, to help decide how to form a person. The Grandparents said it is well to make wooden carvings, human in looks and speech. So wooden humans came into being; they talked and multiplied, but there was nothing in their minds and hearts, no memory of their builder, no memory of Heart of Sky.
Then there came a great destruction. The wooden carvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. It rained all day and all night. The animals came into the homes of the wooden carvings and ate them. The people were overthrown. The monkeys in the forest are a sign of this. They look like the previous people — mere wooden carvings.
The story continues with the final people being made from corn, an important crop that enabled the Maya to move from being a hunting-and-gathering society to a more complex civilization.
For Further Discussion
Are you having any trouble filling out your chart? Ask for help—or offer it—in the Questions Area below.
Sources
Edited from Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life Rev. ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 64 – 73.
Image Credits
Creation by Diego Rivera© Christie’s Images/CORBIS
Want to join the conversation?
Are these the super short abridged versions? Thanks T.S.(11 votes)
This is super interesting to me. The flood aspect of this story is very similar to the flood story of the Bible. I'm wondering if this flood story was also derived from the Epic of Gilgamesh, as the Christian one was. Does anyone know?(11 votes)
There was no contact between Mayan and "Old world" civilization at the time this origin story developed.
All agrarian societies have flood myths, since they are bound to bodies of flowing water and are therefor subject to flooding. Flooding = happens suddenly and kills and destroys is an equation all of these societies learned by experience.
What is the worst thing they could imagine happening to them? A Flood that lasts really long and rises really high.(3 votes)
Interesting that in the penultimate paragraph monkeys are noted to be like the "previous people," followed later by the people of the corn, who were less wooden. I wonder if this is a blending of two story lines; the first has a hint of evolution (from the modern perspective), while the second perhaps has more to do with a cultural shift toward agricultural society. What does anyone else think?(7 votes)
Heh, on the origin of species in Maya origon stories.(4 votes)
I can't really figure out the origin of the world in the Iroquois.....can someone help me on that one?(3 votes)
The Earth is formed as the animals swim to find the magic dirt. As they pile the dirt onto the back of the tortoise, it begins to grow and form the 'Earth island' that we have today.(6 votes)
- Whats the source of the world in the Mayan culture is it the plumed serpents and heart of sky?(2 votes)
Consider this paragraph:"The earth arose because of them. It was simply their word that brought it forth. It arose suddenly, like a cloud unfolding. Then the mountains were separated from the water. All at once great mountains came forth. The sky was set apart, and the earth was set apart in the midst of the waters."
I would say it is the word of the plumed serpent (no 's'!) and the heart of sky.(1 vote)
The first heading says: Mayan Origin Story: The Popul Vuh
Is the term Popul Vuh same as Popol Vuh?(1 vote)
Yes, they are just alternate spellings resulting from transliteration.(3 votes)
- Hey so I checked in the answer key and it says that the originator of the world for Mayan is the Plumed Serpent. But wouldn't it have been the Plumed Serpent AND Heart of the Sky?(0 votes)
- There is no space between "the" and "Yucatán".(0 votes)
- did men get created from dirt?(0 votes)
- did everyone do this in the 8th grade(0 votes)