Circles of Creation: The Invention of Maya Cartography in Early Colonial Yucatán

Abstract

With the colonization of the American continents in the early sixteenth century, cartography emerged as a visual medium through which diverse colonial actors asserted corporate identities. Given the novelty of this pictorial genre, the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula effectively invented a cartographic tradition, using a seemingly benign compositional form, the circle. This was no arbitrary choice; native artist-scribes derived this composition from literary tropes found in pre-Columbian cosmogonic narratives. As such, colonial Maya maps inhabited the conflictual domain of colonial interaction, overtly satisfying Spanish dictates while allowing Maya communities to maintain their identity amid the violence of colonization.

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Notes on contributors

Amara L. Solari

Amara L. Solari specializes in the art and cultural production of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and early colonial Mexico. She is currently working on a book-length project, investigating the ways in which Maya conceptions of space and their associated visual culture affected cultural identities and religious practices in early colonial Yucatán [Department of Art History, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. 16802, [email protected]].