Yucatan Before and After the Conquest

by Diego de Landa

Book Overview

These people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books about the antiquities and their sciences. We found a great number of books in these letters and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the devil we burned them all, which they took most grievously, and which gave them great pain.
So writes Friar Diego de Landa in his Relaci n De las cosas de Yucatan of 1566, the basic...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486236226
• ISBN13: 9780486236223
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

A must for anyone who is planning on visiting the Yucatan. I cant get enough information about the Mayan. This is a must read, great book. Best book about how the Maya people lived. This one is the first book anyone should read about the Yucatan.

unanswered question

Hi, I read this book although not this particular edition and I found that it needs a detailed commentary by a scholar and a detailed map. For instance, in the chapter where Landa describes plants and animals of the Yucatan, I was left to wonder about what these are - is this soft thing with a hard skin that he talks about an avocado? or is it some Native American fruit that has since gone extinct? same with plants and trees. Also, i was wondering if maize was known in Europe before the encounter with the Europeans? Very interested in the food these people used to eat and drink at different parts of the day and wonder what happened to these ancient recipes. The chapter on the Mayan calendar and their writing system completely confused me. That chapter definitely need an editor's explanation. Finally, I would have wanted to know how much of what we know and believe about the Mayas comes directly out of Landa's book - and no other source. Somebody should do a Ph.D. thesis to answer the many questions raised in this brief book. Finally, despite what has been said about Landa's intolerance and narrow-mindedness, having read this 16th century account I found him to be a very intelligent man, someone who possessed a great deal of knowledge about nature and human customs, and not a bad writer for his time period.

Mayan Culture Preserved by One Who Sought Its Destruction

While driving on the lonely highway toward the city of Valladolid, in the center of Mexico's Yucutan peninsula, on the horizon loomed a surreal shadow. I tried to imagine what this platial structure could be. Upon arriving at the charming colonial city, I came upon a magnificent Spanish colonial monestary. What was amazing was that it was built upon the base of a pyramid razed by the Spanish conquistadores, who reused the stones for their building. Next to this remarkable ediface, one will find a statue erected in his memory, its plaque stating that it is a monument to the dangers of religious fervor and extremism. One cannot think of a more apt metaphor of the Spanish attempt to wipe out the indigenous Maya culture than this building. This remakable book chronicles the travels of Friar Diego de Landa and fellow conquistadores in their attempts to convert the Maya of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula to Catholicism. It reads like many of the Medieval first-hand accounts by the crusaders (e.g., Jean de Joinville) in that horrible details of destruction can be justified in the name of spreading the Gospel. The accounts of Bernal Diaz at Tenochtitlan are another parallel. So why should I feel that such a book merits five stars? This book is a very important first-hand (though painful) accounts of colonial Mexican history and a witness to the destruction of an indigenous culture. It is ironic that this book is also a very important source of Maya customs, daily activity, and history. It's a veritable treasure trove of information (with very interesting illustrations) of the culture the Spanish conquistadores sought to erradicate.

Landa

During the sixteenth century, the Franciscan friar Diego de Landa put into writing the Relacion de Las Cosas de Yucatan. This work is a translation of the manuscript from 1566 by the renowned scholar William Gates. The Dover edition was originally published as Publication Number 20 by the Maya Society, Baltimore, 1937. This was reportedly the first English translation of that text. Landa's relacion pieced together the culture and society of the Yucatec Maya as he saw the people, their practices and their region during his time. Although his work may be labeled as "Euro centric" by our standards, his writings are an early example of ethnographical accounts by a foreign observer. Diego de Landa has left scholars a view into the perceptions of a sixteenth century European clergyman as he encountered a foreign culture.

The lush bizarre world of the Mayans comes alive

. . . in this 16th Century account by a dogmatic, strident Franciscan Friar who devoted much of his life to cementing the Spanish conquest by forcible proselytizing, and destroying Mayan religious texts and iconography. Outside of the handful of original Mayan codices that have survived, this work constitutes the single most important resource on ancient Mayan culture, which is ironic because Landa single-handedly eradicated much of the material which would have provided modern scholars important insight into the unique civilization. Landa's brief account presents an overview of Mayan social and religious customs, mythology, astrology, as well as his keen observations regarding the climate, flora and fauna of the Yucatan region. Readers more interested in the conquest itself rather than the Mayans will want to look elsewhere, but will find some useful information regarding Cortes and the responses of the indigenous tribes to contact with the conquistadores.