1

Rebecca Maisto
November 28, 2015
Engagement #3
RELS 6101
Dr. Brintnall
An Account of the Things of Yucatan by Diego De Landa:
The Rendering of Worlds
Western culture and scholars alike have interpreted the religions and societies of the
New World since its discovery by Hernan Cortez in 1518. For centuries now, PreColumbian societies have been distorted by western interpretation. An Account of the
Things of Yucatan by Diego de Landa will be discussed along side a chapter from
Robert Orsis text, Between Heaven and Earth. In this study Orsis concept of rendering
characters and worlds through differences will be explained alongside of An Account of
the Things of Yucatan.
In short, An Account of the Things of Yucatan is described as a record of Maya
culture seen through a hazy lense. Scholars in colonial and Pre-Columbian history
treasure the text because it contains the Mayan alphabet and indicates how to sound
out words phonetically (Figure 1). Written between the years of 1563 and 1572 not too
long after the conquest, the text functions as a major source of information in the
studying of Pre-Columbian cultures. Now a controversial figure in history, Landa was a
Franciscan friar who arrived after the conquest and was appointed the responsibility by
Spain to bring Catholicism to the civilizations living on the Yucatan peninsula. He
violently imposed his beliefs onto the indigenous people, and publicly destroyed
manuscripts and physical manifestations of Pre-Columbian religions by burning them.

2
In 1562 he held a notorious auto-da-fe Man where in addition to 5000 Maya
tools and artworks he burned twenty-seven Maya texts (Vargas). This single action
divested future generations of a vast amount of Maya prose and artifacts. He
impoverished the following generations of the Maya, and left only four codices for
scholars to examine. News of Landas cruel conversion methods spread, leading to his
return to Spain where he was tried in court to defend himself against the Council of the
Indies for unwarranted violence and going beyond his given authority. The council
condemned him from his work in the New World and carried out an investigation by the
Spanish crown. Eventually they acquitted Landa, and he was appointed bishop of
Yucatn in 1572. Landa wrote An Account of the Things of Yucatan in order to defend
his actions towards the inhabitants of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Landa begins his account with a description of the physical region of the
Yucatan, including geographic information and a map. He continues with pre-conquest
Maya residential living, clothing, food, agriculture, trade, currency, genealogy,
mathematics, marriage, inheritance, childcare, priests duties, sacrifices, skull
modification, self-mutilation, sciences, festivals, and feasts. War, military practices and
leaders, punishments for criminals, education, womens chastity, funerals, and the
afterlife are also recorded. Further, he depicts the Maya calendars and the deity
associations with certain dates while also descring the sacrifices corresponding to each
year in the calendar in illustrious detail. The flora, fauna, water sources, animals and
soils of the region are also described. The following two passages by Landa describe
auto-sacrifice in Maya religion:

3
At other times they practice a filthy and grievous sacrifice, whereby
they gathered in the temple, in a line, and each made a pierced hole
through the member, across from side to side, and then passed through
as great a quantity of cord as they could stand; and thus all together
fastened and strung together, they anointed the statue of the demon with
the collected blood. The one able to endure the most was considered
valiant, and their songs of tender age began to accustom themselves to
this suffering; it is frightful to see how much they were dedicated to this
practice. (Landa 47-48)
Then the flacon executioner came, with a flint knife in his hand, and
with great skill made an incision between the ribs on the left side, below
the nipple; then he plunged in his hand and like a ravenous tiger tore out
the living heart, which he laid on a plate and gave to the priest; he then
quickly went and anointed the faces of the idols with that fresh blood.
(Landa 49)
While these passages are evocative, Landas rhetoric is affecting their interpretations
inexorably. Landa describes, or rather constructs, the rituals through a sixteenth century
European Catholic lense by exaggerating the bloodshed and worship of demons,
instead of attempting to understand the religious devotion the Maya honored. In fact,
the Maya had no concept of demons. Landa names the Maya priests executioners and
describes their actions in relation to ravenous tigers. His experience of auto-sacrifice is
alleged evidence in defense of his violent actions towards his treatment of the Maya, as
he explains his fear and unjustness through their customary ritual. For Landa the Maya

4
had no religion. In An Account of Things of Yucatan Landa refers to Maya religion as
superstitions (Landa 46).
Orsis concern of othering cultures and religions is exemplified in Landas selfproclaimed account. Returning back to Landas passage on auto-sacrifice, questions of
actuality arise due to Landas theological nature. Is Landas record really credible?
Further, Orsi speaks of a compulsive attraction of otherness (Orsi 182). What comes
to mind when one mentions the Aztec or Maya in the contemporary world? Bloody
sacrifice, naked tribes, the television show Ancient Aliens and thriller films like
Apocalypto. Chances are most people that consider themselves culturally aware
cannot distinguish between the two civilizations, or even indicate which centuries they
lived in. They know the Maya and Aztec civilizations for their otherness, for their
mystery.
As a scholar of Pre-Columbian religion, it is difficult to break through the
boundaries of hidden moral structures (Orsi 179) that Orsi describes. One cannot
simply decide to be objective. After years of visiting Pre-Columbian sites, reading
accounts, and studying the material culture it is still a conscious effort to be objective
when writing. First, the available primary sources are mostly written by Europeans.
Second, the sources written by indigenous people are extremely rare. Third, no other
known civilizations sacrificed between twenty thousand and two hundred fifty thousand
humans annually (Harner).
The goal of the Pre-Columbian scholar is to be versed on texts like An Account
of the Things Yucatan, but to analyze it in a way that does not other anyone. Orsi
describes this method between confessional or theological scholarship, on the one

5
hand, and radically secular scholarship on the other (Orsi 198). He aims to encourage
scholars of religion to defer their beliefs when thinking about religion. He wants
scholars of religion to keep going when they encounter the other, and not let their
thoughts be stifled by moral diversity.
Orsis text describes notions of good or true religion versus bad religion (Orsi
188), and in the terrain of university and institutional topicalities Pre-Columbian religions
are not interpreted and discussed in the same discourses as religions like Christianity.
Pre-Columbian religions and cultures are often grouped with Africa and Oceania. The
Metropolitan Museum of Arts permanent collection, Arts Of Africa, Oceania and The
Americas, testifies to this grouping by society and scholars (Metropolitan). What do
these areas of the world have in common? Nothing, except they are not occupied with
Western cultures.
Aztec religion must be perceived as religion before scholars can understand it.
When researching Maya culture An Account of the Things of Yucatan is helpful in
understanding societal simplicities like food and geography. But, scholars need to be
diligent when reading the scenes of religion Landa provides as his bias is deeply
inherent.

Figures

Figure 1: Image of the page from Relacin de las Cosas de Yucatn. Landa draws and
interprets the Maya alphabet. It is helpful in the understandings of Maya hieroglyphics.

Bibliography
Harner, Michael J. The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1977.
Landa, Diego de. An Account of the Things of Yucatn: Written by the Bishop of
Yucatn, Based on the Oral Traditions of the Ancient Mayas. Mexico: Monclem
Ediciones, 2000. Print. Originally written 1563-1572.
"The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.
Orsi, Robert A. "Snakes Alive!" Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds
People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP,
2005. Print.