Oracular science: Uncertainty in the history of Maya astronomy, 500--1600 (Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras)

This dissertation is fundamentally different from either the pre-decipherment attempts at revealing a Maya astronomy or those that have been developed more recently. The difference lies almost entirely in methodology. In the past, scholars have attempted to study Maya astronomy as a cultural artifact virtually exempt from historical context. Here, the main goal is an historical contextualization of a series of astronomical practices beginning in the early Classic period and ending during the early colonial period. Such is the case in the first four chapters, wherein I demonstrate how the kings of Tikal (Guatemala), Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico), and Copán (Honduras) used astronomy for political and religious purposes. Along the way I consider the mestizaje between Teotihuacano and Maya cultures transpiring at Tikal, reconsider the evidence for the Maya “star war”, demonstrate an astronumerology developed under the direction of Palenque royalty, and the contrast between public and private science in Late Classic Copán.; In Chapter Five, I change the focus from the kings to the historical interactions of the gods themselves. Specifically, through a reading of the astronomy in the Postclassic Dresden Codex, I show that in Yucatán (Mexico) the famed Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, confronted and ousted the Classic Maya deity who, until that time, occupied the ruling seat of the planet Venus. This in turn sheds light on the spiritual contract that existed between the rulers of Mayapán (Postclassic Yucatán and the god Quetzalcoatl. The final chapter draws a comparison between the European astronomy appropriated into The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel by Gaspar Antonio Xiu and the evidence for European astronomy in the Paris Codex. In each case, I argue that—perhaps counter-intuitively—the types of knowledge assimilation occurring between Maya and Spanish priests were no different from those exemplified during the previous one thousand years. This new approach reveals the long-term development of astronomy as an oracular science—an enterprise far different from the mechanistic geometric astronomy developed east of the Atlantic during this period.