The Chilam Balam books are handwritten, mainly in the Mayan miscellanies of the 17th and 18th centuries, which bear the names of the small Yucatecan villages where they were originally kept, and preserve important traditional knowledge in which Mayan indigenous traditions and early Spanish traditions have merged.
Written in the Yucatec Mayan language using the Latin alphabet, the manuscripts are attributed to a legendary author named Chilam Balam, a chilam who is a priest who gives prophecies and balam a common surname meaning “Jaguar.”
Currently, nine Chilam Balam manuscripts have been presented, the most relevant of which are Mani, Tizimin, and Chumayel, but more copies have been found. Both the language and content show that parts of the books date from the time of the Spanish conquest of the Yucatec kingdoms (1527-1546). In some cases, when the language is particularly concise, the books appear to represent hieroglyphic writing and thus evoke the period before the conquest.
1. Content
Taken together, the Chilam Balam Books offer a comprehensive view of 18th-century Yucatec-Mayan spiritual life. While the medical texts and chronicles are quite realistic, the riddles and predictions make abundant use of traditional Mayan metaphors. This is even more true of the mythological and ritual texts, which, written in an abstruse language, clearly belong to the esoteric tradition.
The historical texts derive part of their importance from the fact that they have been cast in the framework of the native Mayan calendar, adapted in part to the European calendar system. Reconstructing postclassical Yucatecan history from these data has proven to be an arduous task. The following is an overview of the types of texts, partly Mesoamerican and partly derived from Spanish, found in the Chilam Balam books.
2. History
Stories, modeled on the indigenous calendar: legends of migration; accounts of certain lords of the indigenous kingdoms; and chronicles up to and including the Spanish conquest. Prophecy, issued in the context of the succession of haabs (years), tuns (periods of 360 days), and kʼatuns (periods of 20X360 days). Prophecy, attributed to famous oracle priests of the early 16th century.
3. Myth and Mysticism
Myth, particularly the destruction and re-creation of the world connected with the beginning of kʼatun 11 Ahau. Ritualistic mysticism, particularly in relation to the creation of the twenty named days (uinal); the ritual of the “Four Burners” (ahtoc); and the birth of corn, or “divine grace” (the so-called “Ritual of the Angels”).
4. Calendars and practical classifications
Classifications according to the twenty named days (correlation of tide birds, plants and trees, human characters, and professional activities). Treatises on astrology, meteorology, and the Catholic liturgical calendar (the so-called “reportorios de los tiempos”). Astrology is Ptolemaic and includes the European zodiac and agricultural almanacs.
5. Medical recipes
Herbal medicine: The Chilam Balam books contain the type of medical prescriptions that derive from Greek and Arab traditions, rather than the Mayan “enchantment approach” represented by the Ritual of the Bacabs.
6. Spanish traditions
Since many texts are repeated in several Chilam Balam books, establishing concordance and studying substitution patterns is essential for scholarship. The result of the translation process is sometimes heavily influenced by external assumptions about the purpose of the texts. As a result of these factors, the quality of existing translations varies greatly.
The synoptic translation into Spanish by Barrera Vásquez and Rendón (1948) remains useful. To date (2012), complete translations into English are available for the following Chilam Balam Books:
- Chumayel (authorized edition: Roys 1933[1967]; compare with Edmonson 1986)
- Mani (embedded in the Pérez Codex: Craine and Reindorp 1979, an adaptation of the Mexican translation by SolÃs Alcalá from 1949)
- Tizimin (Edmonson 1982)
- Na (Gubler and Bolles 2000)
- Kaua (Bricker and Miram 2002)
In the introduction to Bricker and Miram’s edition of the Book of Chilam Balam de Kaua, there is an excellent overview and discussion of the syncretism involved, with a detailed analysis and interpretation of the main mythological and ritual texts with a view to their syncretic origins, by Knowlton (2010).
