Rossbreeding Images. Christianity and Indian Thought in the “Chilam Balam of Chumayel

Abstract

Images of pages 19v and 20r of The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, testify how the Mayas reinterpreted 16th and 17th centuries Catholic imagery into a new visual culture. The same initiatory political ceremony, which included bloody auto-sacrifice, appears with different visual models: Halach Winik (a legitimate man), who led the ritual, was substituted with new referents, Ecce Homo and Saint Peter, from the 16th century onwards. These images help us to understand the shift in indigenous representations as new religious beliefs took place.

Keywords

• Maies colonials, Cultura visual maia, Religió maia, Chilam Balam de Chumayel.