Concluding Remarks: Punishment, Justice, and the Cosmovisión

Through each one of these wars, the twin brothers exemplify a world in which, as the Spanish saying goes, todo cae por su propio peso: he whose vanity stems from his beauty and riches is turned ugly and poor; he whose arrogance rests on his power to create mountains is transformed into stone; he who prides himself on his ability to make collapse mountains is buried under them; those whose artistic ability inflates their ego are turned into monkeys; and finally, those who mock and ridicule others are mocked and ridiculed.  The cycles of transgression and punishment help craft the cosmovisión of the Popol Vuh as one ruled by a deep sense of equilibrium, for what is done in offense is always met with the same severity, and the means by which transgressions are committed are the same by which they are punished.  Transgressions, however, are fundamental to the text.  In the words of Miguel Rivera Dorado: "Todo acto creador debe partir de dos condiciones preliminares: El imperio general del caos, o inexistencia del orden que manifiestan a nuestros ojos las cosas y los nombres de las cosas, y la unión de los contrarios, que en los mitos de origen suele traducirse en la agregación del cielo a la tierra" (175). Chaos is needed insofar as it shows what justice should look like, what the order of the world should be.  In this sense, all chaos is to be a temporary stage—one that cannot be permitted to last since to do so would contravene the equilibrium of the world.  As Mary Preuss states “no fue aceptado mentir, vanagloriarse, desobedecer a los dioses, u ofenderlos sin recibir castigo.” (“Un bosquejo” 73).

In the end, to deliver a well-deserved punishment is to institute a system of justice that elevates culture.  Each one of the three magic wars, as cycles of transgression and punishment, helps project the image of the brothers as heroes of civilization.  Their apotheosis as the sun and the moon symbolizes the elevation of culture, the attainment of civilization.  In this respect, Rivera Dorado argues that the central theme of the Popol Vuh, and by extension of the three magic wars, is “la catábasis, el descenso al infierno, el paso del sol por el inframundo, y su ascensión final, la anábasis, triunfante sobre las fuerzas de la muerte, a la inmensidad del cielo” (103).   Furthermore, in a world were time is cyclical, the three magic wars along with the descent and ascent of the twins found a cyclical sense of justice, where each and every act of transgression is met its proper retribution, and where justice is also a mode of resurrection.

Furthermore, the delivery of punishment symbolizes a progression from primitivism into civilization, and each one of the three magic wars constitutes a landmark in that progression.  To pass from a state of primitivism into one of civilization implicates not only a change in the way a collectivity evolves into a society, it also involves an evolution in the way punishment is delivered and in the ethical conceptions that stem from it.  Whereas the more primitive forms of life and transgression are met with more immediate modes of justice, the more developed transgressions are met with more elaborate retributions.  In contrast to Vucub-Caquix, Zipacna, and Cabracán, for example, who suffer physical punishments, the Lords of Xibalbá are killed, but only after the twins have overcome each and every obstacle of theirs with ingenuity, beating them at their own game.

On a primary level, the progression into civilization that is fulfilled by the three magic wars is linked to the correct modes of life, of farming vs. gathering.  In relation to this first magic war, for example, Rafael Girard notes the following: "Encontramos en el Popol-Vuh, un cuadro patético de esa época dominada por el espectro del hambre, cuando el hombre sólo se preocupaba por la obtención del diario sustento, vagando por los montes o las orillas de los ríos, carecía de ideas animistas y no tenia tiempo para cultivar su espíritu.  No existían médicos por entonces, ni hechiceros, profesiones inseparables del shamanismo, el régimen social era individualista, la familia reducida—dos hijos que viven con sus padres, pero trabajan por cuenta propia son dados como arquetipos de la familia primitiva—.  El Popol-Vuh informa sobre la manera de preparar los alimentos, y el modo de transportar piezas de cacería, hace hincapié en el materialismo y la vida precaria de la época y especifica que el tipo de alimentación consistía en carnes y frutos silvestres.  No se conocía tampoco en aquel tiempo el arco y la flecha ni la cerbatana” (89). Preuss coincides with this observation.  According to her: “La religión clásica maya estaba basada sobre una estructura muy ordenada del universo, que penetró no solo las creencias sino también la planificación de las ciudades, el diseño de los templos, las casas y la milpas; las ceremonias, los ritos y la literatura, tal como se advierte si consideramos el Popol Vuh y los libros de Chilam Balam.” (“Un análisis” 12).  

On a second level, the three magic wars conduct a progression toward civilization that is determined by the mind vs. the body.  Even though the twin brothers make use of magic and violence to deliver punishment, their strategies are always guided by their intelligence, and it is through the power of the word, of deception, that they bring about justice.  In spite of the physical forms of punishment that are delivered to Vucub-Caquix and his sons, Zipacna and Cabracán, and later to the Lords of Xibalbá, the weapons that the twin heroes use are, above all, intellectual weapons.  Hunanpú and Ixbalanqué are astute, nimble-minded.  They demonstrate, especially in their descent to the underworld, that justice is a matter of intelligence not simply of violence or physical force.  It must be said that Hunanpú and Ixbalanqué are viewed as benevolent deities.  In spite of the combative nature of the three magic wars, the twin heroes demonstrate that violence is not gratuitous; it is used with a specific purpose and only when absolutely necessary.  In fact, the use of violence subsides with each successive war.  Violence is progressively replaced, abandoned, more or less, as a lower order of life, as the cosmos is turned into a civilized society.  In fact, the three magic wars show one of the many ways in which trickery can be integrated into what Douglas Cameron calls a “discourse of resistance” (26), where the twin heroes utilize their intelligence to break through the patterns of deception used by their enemies to punish their individualism.  With Vucub-Caquix, the twins had acted as mere envoys of justice.  In Xibalbá they learn to overcome challenges.  This is all to say that punishment is not merely something that is to be delivered and that will it is to be successful simply because it constitutes an act of justice.  It implies that even for a just punishment to succeed, it must be delivered with utmost intelligence, witht the power of the word.

                                      Fuentes Bibliográficas

Cameron, Douglas M.  “Monsters, Messengers, and Mediators in the Popol Vuh: Tricking and the Maya Discourse of Resistance.”  MACLAS Latin American Essays, vo. 4, 1990,    pp.23-34.

Christenson, Allen J.  Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya.  University of Oklahoma Press, 2007

Megged, Nahum.  El universo del Popol Vuh: Análisis histórico, psicológico y filosófico del mito quiché.  Editorial Diana: 1991.

--.  Los héroes gemelos del Popol Vuh: Anatomía de un mito indígena.  Jose de Pineda Ibarra, 1979.

Girard, Rafael.  El Popol-Vuh, fuente histórica: El Popol-Vuh como fundamento de la historia maya-quiché.  Ministerio de Educación Pública, 1952.

Preuss, Mary H. “Un bosquejo de la violencia en la literatura Maya-Yucateca.” Scripta Ethnologica, vol. 26, 2004, pp. 66-76.

---.  “Un análisis de cuentos orales maya-yucatecos: Un poco del pasado, el presente y un bosquejo del futuro.” Mitológicas, vol. 29, 2011, pp. 9-17.

Recinos, Adrián, translator.  Popol Vuh: Las antiguas historias del Quiché.  Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2000.

Rivera Dorado, Miguel.  La risa de Ixmukané: Una incursión en la mitología maya.  Miraguano, 2014.

Rodriguez, Alfonso.  “El Engaño: Motivo estructurador en el Popol Vuh.”  Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, vol. 226, no. 5, 1979

Tedlock, Dennis.  Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings.  Simon & Schuster, 1996.