2000 Years of Mayan Literature [Hardcover]

Dennis Tedlock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2010

Mayan literature is among the oldest in the world, spanning an astonishing two millennia from deep pre-Columbian antiquity to the present day. Here, for the first time, is a fully illustrated survey, from the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions to the works of later writers using the Roman alphabet. Dennis Tedlock--ethnographer, linguist, poet, and award-winning author--draws on decades of living and working among the Maya to assemble this groundbreaking book, which is the first to treat ancient Mayan texts as literature. Tedlock considers the texts chronologically. He establishes that women were among the ancient writers and challenges the idea that Mayan rulers claimed the status of gods. 2000 Years of Mayan Literature expands our understanding and appreciation not only of Mayan literature but of indigenous American literature in its entirety.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Imaginatively written, superbly illustrated, beautifully produced and, above all, highly authoritative. . . . For those seriously interested in Mayan writing, the book is a must-buy."--Current World Archaeology

"A revelatory book . . . beautifully illustrated and handsomely presented."--Scotsman

"If you're drawn to global cultures, languages and mythology, this is a cool book to explore."--Read the Spirit

"A hefty scholarly work that reads like serialized magazine articles . . . quite accessible to the general reader."--Albuquerque Journal

From the Inside Flap

"Never before has anyone focused so successfully on the literary genius of these ancient authors. Tedlock is so much more than a translator, placing selected Mayan works in a continuous narrative that skillfully links authors from the third century to the sixteenth century with writers of today. An extremely important, original, and innovative work."--Martha J. Macri, coauthor of The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs, Volumes 1 and 2, and Director of the Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project, University of California, Davis

"A stunning recreation of the intellectual world of the ancient Maya, the only fully literate people of pre-Columbian America. Informed by the latest research on Maya hieroglyphic writing, art, and mythology, this beautifully illustrated and wonderfully readable work by an outstanding scholar should be on the bookshelf of all those interested in this fascinating civilization."--Michael Coe, author of Breaking the Maya Code

"This book is, like the ancient Maya texts and images it explores, a work of art."--David Freidel, co-author (with Linda Schele and Joy Parker) of Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path

"Literally breathtaking. A truly unprecedented gathering and translation of written Mayan texts. Tedlock is making visible, for the first time, a Mayan literature in comprehensible, meaningful form."--Jerome Rothenberg, poet, author/editor of Technicians of the Sacred and Poems for the Millennium

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520232216
• ISBN-13: 978-0520232211
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #880,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gorgeously Designed Work, February 10, 2010

By 

Ben Bedard (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 2000 Years of Mayan Literature (Hardcover)

Bringing together years of research and reflection about the Maya, both ancient and contemporary, Dennis Tedlock, translator, anthropologist, and poet, has produced a visually stunning survey of an entire culture. Starting from some of the oldest texts in the Maya culture, Tedlock explores Maya monumental writing, writing on ceramics, writing in screen-fold books, and even Maya graffiti. He does not stop at the ancient Maya, and continues into the alphabetic tradition, moving steadily to contemporary productions of the Rabinal Achi, a drama still performed today. An award winning translator of The Popol Vuh and the Rabinal Achi, Tedlock demonstrates the contemporary's link to the past, and provides insight into a vibrant and continuous culture that reaches, as the title suggest, 2000 years into the past. It is a stalwart defense against the notion of a Maya "collapse," and a spectacular monument to the creative production of a people. That alone is worth buying this book.

Beyond that, Dr. Tedlock has produced a visual masterpiece. Not only does he translate the glyphs, he demonstrates how glyphs are read by breaking the glyphs down into their syllables. Instead of merely talking about the creative capabilities of the Maya glyphs as a written language, he shows it by displaying the creativity in translations of work we would recognize as concrete poetry. In this way, the reader begins to understand the real creativity inherent in the writing system, something that is not translatable except by allowing the reader's eyes to roam across the Maya glyphs themselves, to see how the reading activity of the Mayans would have been. Dr. Tedlock allows us to imagine the Mayan reader, and that is remarkable. Besides the glyphs, the amount of design work in this book is extraordinary: from astronomical charts to reproductions of manuscripts, from ceramics to stele, the visual component of this book is both striking and powerful, bringing into discussion both word and image, and illuminating Maya culture in the process. At times, the book resembles art history, at times, literary history; the end result is that the two are intermingled and necessary to one another. The book is more than a history, either literary or artistic; it is an experience. And one that anyone interested in the Maya and their fascinating history should have on their shelves.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Immersion in the Creativity of Mayan Culture, March 16, 2010

By 

David Crumm "Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine" (Canton, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 2000 Years of Mayan Literature (Hardcover)

If all you know about the Mayans are a couple of crazy references in the disaster movie, "2012," then you've got a vast and wondrous civilization to discover! The prediction of a global ending date in 2012 is, quite simply, a crazy claim attributed by the scriptwriters of "2012" to an amazing civilization in the Americas thousands of years before Columbus showed up.

In fact, translator and anthropologist Dr. Dennis Tedlock, points out that Mayans were writing down continuous historical records as early as 397 BCE. They were particularly adept at language, math, spirituality and, yes, they did work out calendars that played a key role in that culture. (But, come to think of it--don't our calendars play crucial roles today, as well?)

The Mayans also spun their lore around intriguing figures, who you'll meet in this book, with names like "Sun-Eyed Snake Jaguar." That figure still is visible on inscriptions today. Of course, there was that cataclysmic confrontation with European culture that nearly destroyed Mayan literary forms--but did not, in the end, thanks to courageous and secretive Mayans who preserved remnants of their literary arts.

Tedlock's book is not a page-turning adventure story. It's a university-press book that took years to produce. It's a detailed, illustrated guidebook introducing Mayan forms of illustrative writing to modern readers. Tedlock translates ancient inscriptions and a few important texts from more recent centuries as well. If you're drawn to global cultures, languages and mythology, this is a cool book to explore.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking, October 29, 2010

By 

Brian D'Amato "-- author of "In the Court... (Midwest) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: 2000 Years of Mayan Literature (Hardcover)

This is not only absolutely essential for anyone interested in the Maya but extremely artistically done. I wish I'd had it years ago when I started writing about the Maya, but now that it's out I'm going back and rethinking things I've done on the basis of translations and interpretations in this book. Bravo.