238 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
However, since the texts were transcribed during the Colonial period, we can never
rule out the possibility that the performers have adapted them in light of their cur-
rent experiences. Nor should we assume that there was one original or correct pre-
Columbian version, for all of these texts may have developed and changed over time
and existed in multiple versions.
From this rich trove of literary treasures—oratory, poetry, song, myth—we have
selected three works representing different regions, different literary genres, and
different production contexts. We will describe these texts and give some brief ex-
cerpts in English translation.
In some cases, alphabetic transcriptions of traditional literature were executed
by native people for their own use and kept within the native community. This is the
case with our first example, the Popol Wuj,“Book of the Mat” or “Book of Counsel,”
of the K’iche’ Mayan people of highland Guatemala. The single most important
mythological text from Mesoamerica, this sacred book was written down by K’iche’
noblemen between 1554 and 1558, on the basis of a native text and oral tradition.
Statements made within the text imply that these men wished to preserve the story
while the original version and the ability to read it still existed, but they also needed
to keep the work hidden from Spanish eyes, since they lived “in Christendom now”Figure 6.15 A page from the
Codex Badianus.A species of
cactus is employed in a cure for
toothache. Reprinted with
permission from Emily Walcott
Emmart, ed. and trans., Badianus
Manuscript (Codex Berberini, Latin
241), Vatican Library: An Aztec
Herbal of 1552.Baltimore, MD:folio 17v.Wellcome Library, London, 1940,