First Old WomanMan and the Mesoamerican Diphrastic Kenning of Engendering

Abstract

The royalty of the Classic Maya of Mesoamerica, and later sages of the Maya, used a powerful diphrastic kenning chab akab’, glossed as “generation-darkness” to convey a range of objectives, conjuring foremost among them. Known principally from hieroglyphic written expressions, but also depicted in the form of sacrificial instruments and offerings, Eleanor Harrison-Buck, following Timothy Knowlton, proposed that the kenning references sexual intercourse. This essay proposes that a black steatite carved figure stylistically dating to the Middle Preclassic period (900–350 CE) depicts this incantation as an old woman giving birth to her maleness in the form of a circumcised penis. A second Middle Preclassic figure of a dancing child, found as an heirloom in a Classic tomb, is compared to show the link between Preclassic and Classic meaning.

Keywords

• Mesoamerican religion
• theosynthesis
• creator deities
• Maya religion