Wuch'

Sobre el rol textual y la función lingüística del animal wuch', quien conversa con el abuelo Xipiyakok en Xib'alb'a, el destacado lingüista Sam Colop (2008: 111n169) observa que "Wuch' quiere decir 'tacuacín' y así también se nombra 'el momento que precede al amanecer' (Recinos 1953: 82). En las primeras líneas del Popol Wuj, se identifica a Junajpu Wuch' como 'deidad del amanecer' y de ahí en este pasaje se le pide 'tiznar' de nuevo el Cielo. En ese sentido, disento de Recinos (ibid: 160) que siguiendo a Ximénez, traduce y argumenta que en estas líneas wuch' debe traducirse como 'zopilote'." Aquí representamos wuch' como un animal, ya que la mayor parte de los traductores e investigadores apoyan esta interpretación, pero queremos señalar la importante perspectiva de Colop, quien arguye que wuch' se debe entender como "la deidad del amanecer" en vez de un buitre e incluso una zaragüella. En todo caso, se observa un fuerte vínculo entre el animal y la deidad Xpiyakok.

Anthropologist Allen J. Christenson (2007: n397) interprets wuch' as "possum," partly following colonial-era sources like Coto's dictionary. He writes: "Father Coto lists under the Spanish word Escuridad, that vuch (possum) is the darkness of night just prior to the dawn (Coto 1983, 207-8). This is perhaps a manifestation of the creator deity Xpiyacoc, one of whose principal titles is Hunahpu Possum (Karen Bassie-Sweet, personal communication; see pp. 60, 79-80; lines 20, 500, 555). In the Tzotzil area, a grandfather possum, called “Old Man Possum,” is associated with the dawn at the beginning of the planting season, and that the red light of the east is said to be one of his manifestations: “'Uch [Possum] is greatly respected, because it has fire, because at dawn it lights up the hills. It is not the sunlight, for the sun rises later.... 'Uch is as God because it has light, a red light, that later disappears to give place to the God, the sun. Neither ‘Okinahual nor 'Uch are evil, but they must be respected as a God. God must be respected, but he is not bad. Perhaps he punishes when he is overlooked” (Guiteras-Holmes 1961, 195-197; cf. 33, 206, 292). Akkeren compares this passage with the New Years pages of the Dresden Codex in which a possum deity presides over the five days of the Wayeb at the close of the annual cycle. In the Popol Vuh account, however, the possum is associated not with the annual change of the solar year, but “the moment of the new Sun-era” (Akkeren 2000, 290)."

Image credit: Justin Kerr, Maya Vase Database, #8066 (http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=8066)