The Title of Totonicapn [Paperback]

This work is the first English translation of the complete text of theTitle of Totonicapán, one of the most important documents composed by the K’iche’ Maya in the highlands of Guatemala, second only to thePopol Vuh. The original document was completed in 1554, only a few decades after the Spanish Conquest of the K’iche’ people in 1524. This volume contains a wholly new translation from the original K’iche’ Maya text, based on the oldest known manuscript copy, rediscovered by Robert Carmack in 1973.
 
TheTitle of Totonicapánis a land title written by surviving members of the K’iche’ Maya nobility, a branch of the Maya that dominated the highlands of western Guatemala prior to the Spanish invasion in 1524, and it was duly signed by the ruling lords of all three major K’iche’ lineages—the Kaweqib’, the Nijayib’, and the Ajaw K’iche’s. Titles of this kind were relatively common for Maya communities in the Guatemalan highlands in the first century after the Spanish Conquest as a means of asserting land rights and privileges for its leaders. Like thePopol Vuh, theTitle of Totonicapánis written in the elevated court language of the early Colonial period and eloquently describes the mythic origins and history of the K’iche’ people. For the most part, theTitle of Totonicapánagrees with thePopol Vuh’s version of K’iche’ history and cosmology, providing a complementary account that attests traditions that must have been widely known and understood. But in many instances the Totonicapán document is richer in detail and departs from thePopol Vuh’s more cursory description of history, genealogy, and political organization. In other instances, it contradicts assertions made by the authors of thePopol Vuh, perhaps a reflection of internal dissentló2