Abstract
[Autom. eng. transl.] The ritual of the Bacabes is one of the most interesting documents related to the therapeutic practices of the colonial Yucatecan Maya. Despite its oral nature, the document appears to derive from a written tradition contained in postclassic epigraphic codices. It consists of 68 spells and medical recipes that Yucatecan therapists used to cure illnesses. The symbolic character of the texts and their cryptic language have represented a stumbling block for their interpretation for decades. However, the study of their rhetorical organization and in particular the use of paronomasia can shed new light on the esoteric significance of these texts. In this article I propose an approach to the poetic style of the spells in Yucatec Mayan contained in The ritual of the Bacabes in order to understand how empirical knowledge related to medicinal plants is integrated into the rhetorical framework of the ritual text.
Translated title of the contribution | [Autom. eng. transl.] "The Ritual of the Bacabs". Paronomastic nets to hunt diseases. |
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Original language | Spanish |
Title of host publication | Medicina narrativa. Curación de enfermedades en la narrativa española e hispanoamericana |
Pages | 117-144 |
Number of pages | 28 |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Medicina narrativa
- Ritual de los Bacabes
- medicina maya
- medicina narrativa, medicina maya, Ritual de los Bacabes